'Breathing Down Their Necks': Mavs Battle Jazz; Home-Court Within Reach

With the NBA playoffs on the horizon, the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz meet once more in what could be a first-round preview.

Dalton Trigg | Mar 6, 2022

When the Dallas Mavericks fell to 15-17 after a 120-116 loss to the Utah Jazz on Christmas Day, nobody would've ever thought that Dallas would eventually be breathing down Utah's neck in the Western Conference standings with just 18 games remaining… and yet, here we are.

Luka Doncic vs. Jazz — Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Luka Doncic shoots a floater over Rudy Gobert.

USATSI_17767652 — Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Doncic attempts a layup vs. Hassan Whiteside.

USATSI_17767578 — Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Dwight Powell does his best to guard Rudy Gobert.

"Around Christmas time," said former Mavs big man Kristaps Porzingis confidently in early-December. "After Christmas is really when we're going to take off."

To Porzingis' credit, he was right on the money, although ultimately got traded to the Washington Wizards for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans in the process.

The Mavs (39-25) are playing their best basketball of the season at the perfect time with the NBA playoffs on the horizon. Dallas has won nine of its last 11 games dating back to Feb. 4. What’s probably even more impressive is the Mavs having a 23-7 record since New Year’s Eve.

With another head-to-head matchup against Utah at American Airlines Center on Monday night, Dallas is just one game behind the fourth-seeded Jazz in the West playoff standings. Currently, Utah holds a 2-0 regular season advantage over Dallas with two more meetings to go.

01BBA2B2-9F09-4D70-91C2-B3D837BF09B3 — Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Gobert blocks Doncic’s layup into the stands.

USATSI_17767654 — Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Doncic fights through a tough Jazz defense.

USATSI_17767653 — Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Donovan Mitchell elevates over the Mavs defense for a 3-point shot.

Although there are a handful of teams the Mavs could potentially play in a first-round series — including the Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets — a matchup with the Jazz is among those scenarios. If Dallas really wants to test its playoff readiness, it should treat this game with Utah as Game 3 of a series while trying to avoid going in an 0-3 hole.

In Dallas’ most-recent game with Utah a little more than a week ago, the Jazz pulled away with a 114-109 win while Rudy Gobert stifled Luka Doncic down the stretch. Can the Mavs get over the hump and beat the Jazz for the first time this season, especially given that Utah will be on a second night of a back-to-back? Whether it happens or not, one thing is already a given — the Mavs have put themselves in a great position to control their own destiny.

Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com all day on Monday for Mavs Gameday coverage.

Published Mar 6, 2022

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.