Jalen Brunson Surgically Leads Mavs to Game 3 Win Over Jazz

Mavericks star Jalen Brunson is one of the main reasons Dallas leads its first-round series with the Utah Jazz.

The Dallas Mavericks hold a 2-1 series lead over the Utah Jazz without reigning All-NBA first-team guard Luka Doncic having played for a second of the initial three games.

How? Start with Jalen Brunson.

Through three playoff games, Brunson is averaging 32.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.0 assists. While that's impressive, the level of efficiency he's doing it with is staggering. Even with a 33.6 percent usage rate, he's rising to the occasion in the playoffs with strong efficiency. 

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In Game 3, the Mavericks were playing in a hostile environment against a Jazz team that should be feeling pressure to perform given their expectations for postseason success. 

Even with that backdrop, Dallas achieved a 126-118 win while Brunson was again surgical to set the tone — finishing with 31 points and five assists with one turnover. 

"It's just me being myself, just trying to help my team win," Brunson said. "That's all I'm thinking about now. I'm not really thinking about it as a coming-out party."

With how playoff basketball tends to bring significant swings and runs, the Mavericks had to hold onto their advantage. It takes a steady hand running the offense to keep things stable. 

Utah made a significant run after going small with Rudy Gobert and Hasson Whiteside on the bench in the second half. The Mavericks led by as many as 17 points after taking advantage of the Jazz continuing to deploy lineups with a big man. With Mike Conley's step-back 3 with 6:42 left in regulation, Utah cut the deficit to just one point. 

"We're playing at such a level that we're able to withstand their runs," Brunson said. "The fact we were able to do that tonight is special because obviously, this is a hard place to play. We've just got to continue to play our style of basketball and stick together. I think that we did that. Even when they cut it to one, we were still poised. We were still calm and collected. We've just got to keep that up."

Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

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Brunson elevated his game when the Mavericks needed his scoring. Starting at the 4:35 mark of the fourth quarter, he scored six consecutive points to push the Mavericks' lead back to 112-104. The Jazz never came within five points for the remainder of the game. 

''His shot-creating and shot-making has been amazing all season, but the determination he has coming down the stretch to hit those big shots and the confidence he has is just fun to watch,'' Maxi Kleber said.

The Mavericks began the series feeling out their offense in Game 1 by involving Dwight Powell often in ball-screening situations more — affording Gobert the opportunity to make his presence felt in the paint. Dallas has increasingly utilized lineups favoring shooting, using perimeter players as screeners, and spreading things out for Brunson to break down his man. 

By spacing out Gobert's man to the weak-side corner, Brunson can do what he wants in the paint. Using a perimeter player as a ball screener instead of a non-shooting big has offered the Mavericks their pick of which defender to involve in the play to make them play defense directly. Brunson has punished them when using show-and-recover techniques, too.

The Jazz lack an on-ball defender that can contain Brunson out in space. Their stopper is Royce O'Neale, but unless he's sending the opponent to the training room with a dirty play, he's not going to contain shifty guards that are breaking him down off the bounce. The rest of the unit is all the more underwhelming, too. 

Even in a situation where Brunson drew Gobert directly on a switch after a handoff, he successfully attacked him out in space. The result was a tougher short-range jumper, but those are looks he's accustomed to taking and making. 

With how successful that's been, the Mavericks' offense will become more potent with Luka Doncic back in the lineup. There will be multiple dynamic options on the floor to attack weak points in the Jazz defense.

On Thursday, it was reported that the Mavericks plan to bring back Doncic for Saturday's Game 4. He was upgraded to questionable before Game 3, but it was ultimately decided not to get him back into the lineup.