Mavs look upinspired, lose to the Jazz
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by user UNT66
Friday Night at the American Airlines Center, the Utah Jazz defeated the Dallas Mavericks 104-89. With the win, the Jazz moved within a game of the Houston Rockets for homecourt in their 1st round playoff matchup.
Once the Mavericks clinched homecourt throughout the playoffs, the seeds of this loss were evident. Dirk Nowitzki scored 23 points to heads the home team, but the rest of the team clearly didn't meet his level of production. Plus, with Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier sitting out the game, the contest turned out to be a showcase of the Mavs bench. Yet, unlike on Wednesday when the Mavs bench beat a pathetic Timberwolves squad, they faced a motivated Jazz squad clearly looking to improve their win total.
Carlos Boozer scored 32 points to lead the Jazz, who have already clinched the Pacific Division, but need to overtake the Rockets in the win column in order to start their playoff run in Salt Lake.
On Sunday, the Mavs will take on the Spurs for their final home game of the regular season. Hopefully, they show a little more against their interstate rivals then they did on Friday night. If the Mavs play in the same fashion on Sunday that they did on Friday, they will get blown out....
Notes:
JJ Barea has career night
-With Head Coach Avery Johnson putting more of his bench on the floor in the final regular season games, the opportunity for those players to prove that they have any game is there.
JJ Barea did that, scoring 16 points and setting a career high for points in a game. Yet, his 16 points were nearly half of the 34 points from the bench. If the Mavericks wanted to beat the Jazz, they needed more production from their bench....
Kevin Willis makes a point
Thanks to DJ Mbenga suffering an ACL injury earlier this year and Erick Dampier suffering a shoulder injury, another big man became a necessity.
Insert Kevin Willis, a 44 year old, 8 team NBA veteran who scored his first points of the season on Friday, scoring 6 points and playing meaningful minutes to allow Sagana Diop to rest to key times of the game.
Yet, if the Mavericks are going to make a long run in the playoffs, Dampier must come back healthy and ready to contribute.
If the Mavericks must rely on Diop and Willis to man the paint for the Mavs, Dallas will not win an NBA title.
JG
