Dallas Basketball

Salt Lake Shocker! Josh Green, Jaden Hardy's Career Nights Push Shorthanded Mavs Past Jazz

Fresh off shaking the NBA landscape by trading for Kyrie Irving, the shorthanded Dallas Mavericks shocked the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Monday night thanks to a career night from Josh Green.

Dalton Trigg

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Following the excitement from Sunday's blockbuster trade for Kyrie Irving, it was back to on-court business for the Dallas Mavericks (29-26) on Monday night as they took on a Utah Jazz (27-28) squad that is close behind them in the Western Conference standings.

With an admirable performance from a team missing Luka Doncic, Irving, Maxi Kleber and the two players they just traded away – Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie – the undermanned Mavs were able to finish the job in Salt Lake City and defeated the Jazz, 124-111. It was an all-around, feel-good win for Dallas as it looks to climb the West ladder.

Josh Green, who will undoubtedly have a bigger role for Dallas going forward with the departure of Finney-Smith, got off to a great start in this new era, as he finished with a career-high 29 points on 10-17 shooting from the field, 3-6 from deep and 6-6 from the free-throw line. Green was an outstanding +39 in his 37 minutes of action as a starter.

All other Mavericks starters finished with double-digit points, and rookie guard Jaden Hardy tied Green as Dallas' leading scorer with 29 points off the bench. The 20-year-old shot 8-12 from the field, including 4-6 from deep and 9-9 from the free-throw line.

“It’s just a game, it’s just hoopin," said Hardy in his postgame interview with Bally Sports Southwest. "I've been doing this, this is nothing new to me. I've been playing pros my whole life, so just staying confident, staying humble and wait my turn. I mean, cream of the crop gonna rise to the top."

If Monday night was any indication, the future is brighter for the Mavs than people realize ... and that's not factoring in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving just yet.

Next up, the Mavs will travel to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers on Wednesday in what is expected to be Irving's Dallas debut. It will be at least one more game before Irving teams up with Doncic, though, as he'll miss Wednesday's game while still recovering from a heel contusion.

"It's going to be scary with him (Kyrie) and LD (Luka),” said Hardy. “We got a goal, and that's to win a championship. I feel like him coming in is going to help us a lot."

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Dalton Trigg
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.

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