Behind enemy lines: Mavericks resting Doncic, Porzingis, Finney-Smith, which is good for Jazz
SALT LAKE CITY — The Dallas Mavericks will be without Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis, and Dorian Finney-Smith, against the Utah Jazz on Monday, the first game of a Mavericks back-to-back set.
If you look at this from the perspective of the Jazz needing to play against the best to gain more knowledge ahead of the playoffs, this development is not so great. If you look at it from the perspective of the Jazz needing to get another win under their belt and possibly continue experimenting with the rotation, this is great news for the Jazz, especially with Doncic out.
How good is Luka Doncic?
For the answer, look no further than what his coach, teammates, opposing coaches and the reigning league MVP are saying about the 21-year-old, 6-foot-7 Slovenian guard.
“He’s a great basketball player, makes his teammates better, talented, really talented.” Giannis Antetokounmpo said after the Dallas Mavericks beat the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime on Saturday. “One of the most talented guys I’ve ever played against.”
Doncic closed out Saturday with a game-high 36 points, a career-high 19 assists, 14 rebounds and just two turnovers. In just his second year in the league, he’s proven to be one of its most lethal players, especially with the ball in his hands.
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, despite being around Doncic every day, is consistently in awe of the young player and noted how he seems to get better “by the hour, by the day.”
On Saturday night, with just over a minute to play, in a two-point game, guarded by the reigning MVP and front runner for this year’s Defensive Player of the year award, Doncic made a left-handed pass through his legs to a rolling Maxi Kleber.
This pass by Luka pic.twitter.com/B24eQya14S
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 9, 2020
When asked about the move after the game, Doncic said that he didn’t even think about it when he did it, it just happened in the moment. It takes an incredible amount of court awareness and guts to be able to pull something like that off.
Carlisle when talking about Doncic’s ability to see the court compared him to Larry Bird, who Carlisle played with, and Jason Kidd, who he coached.
“Luka is not only a great basketball player, he’s a great performer,” Carlisle said. “I’d pay money to watch him play. I don’t say that about a lot of players, but he’s really special.”
The Doncic-led Mavericks offense is not only the best in the league this season, but one of the best offenses in NBA history. It requires a near perfect defensive effort from every opponent, but without three of the team’s most potent offensive threats, especially in the case of the team’s leading scorers, Doncic and Porzingis, the Jazz will have a little bit of an easier time.
The Jazz have two wins this season against the Mavericks prior to the March 11 league shutdown, but both games were decided by five points or less, Bojan Bogdanovic scored 23 points in both of the contests.
In the most recent matchup between the Jazz and Mavericks, on Feb. 10, Doncic did not play, which should give the Jazz a better idea of what they’ll be up against, but again, that game was close and the Jazz had Bogdanovic. The Mavericks are a very well-coached team and they’ll still be tough to beat, even with their stars resting.
The Mavericks are coming off a strong performance and loss against the Western Conference 2nd-seeded Los Angeles Clipper and a gripping win over the league-leading Bucks, so they have momentum, though a lot of that momentum has been thanks to triple-double of 33.4 points, 11.6 assists, and 11.6 rebounds per game that Doncic is averaging in the bubble.
Monday’s game had the potential to be the biggest challenge the Jazz have faced in the NBA’s restarted season, and while it’ll still be a good test, the Jazz should use this as an opportunity to give guys like Miye Oni and Jarrell Brantley some more run since there’s very little time between now and the playoffs.