Mavs 4th Quarter Success vs. Suns in Game 1: Fluke or Blueprint?

Despite their Game 1 loss, the Dallas Mavericks believe their fourth-quarter performance could carryover to success in Game 2.

Dalton Trigg | May 4, 2022

The Dallas Mavericks got off to a shaky start in their second-round series opener against the Phoenix Suns on Monday night. Whether it was nerves, strategy or a little bit of both, the Mavs started Game 1 by going down by nine points in the first two minutes of action, and they were never able to fully recover from that.

Trailing by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter, Dallas made a late rally behind Luka Doncic’s 45-point performance to cut the deficit to single digits with 1:19 remaining, but the Mavs still ultimately lost the game, 121-114.

E79C2D6C-9071-4629-B747-D321F8E61939 — Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks, Mikal Bridges, Phoenix Suns — Joe Camproeale-USA TODAY Sports

gettyimages-1395068341-594x594 — Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Heading into Game 2 on Wednesday night in Phoenix, the Mavs don’t think what transpired in that Game 1 fourth quarter was a fluke. Instead, they believe it was a blueprint for success going forward in the series, and they just might right.

The Mavs were down 102-83 with a little over 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 1 when coach Jason Kidd decided to roll with his small-ball lineup of Doncic, Jalen Brunson, Spencer Dinwiddie, Reggie Bullock and Dorian Finney-Smith. When Bullock fouled out with 2:40 remaining, Josh Green took his place in that smaller lineup, and all together, Dallas out-scored Phoenix 31-19 in that final frame after making that adjustment.

“I'm probably going to play a lot more five (in Game 2),” said Finney-Smith. We've just got to rebound, play big. … We've been here before. Don't overreact. We've just got to go back to the drawing board. We know how they're playing. We've got to make our adjustments."

gettyimages-1395068435-594x594 — Christian Petersen/Getty Images

gettyimages-1240410132-594x594 — Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images

gettyimages-1395068345-594x594 — Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The biggest adjustment for Dallas could have already been made based on what we saw in Game 1. If the Mavs can sustain their small-ball success and find a way to get off to a better start in Game 2, we could see a 1-1 tied series heading back to Dallas for Games 3 and 4 over the weekend.

"We just didn't get off to a good start, but we didn't give in. We kept playing,” said Kidd. “I thought the tempo was great for us. We got a lot of good looks at three that we just didn't make."

Published May 4, 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.