Dallas Basketball

'Dress Rehearsal': Doncic, Hardaway Jr. Lead Mavs' Win Over Jazz in Preseason Finale

Despite a slow start, the Dallas Mavericks caught fire in the fourth quarter to pull away from the Utah Jazz. Luka Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Christian Wood led the way in Dallas' preseason finale victory.

Dalton Trigg

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The Dallas Mavericks (2-1) took on the Utah Jazz (1-3) in Salt Lake City on Friday night in what was their "dress rehearsal" for the 2022-23 NBA regular season, which begins for Dallas on Wednesday, Oct. 19 next week against the Phoenix Suns.

Despite some sluggish play throughout the first three quarters, the Mavs caught fire in the fourth quarter and pulled away from the Jazz with a 115-101 win. Dallas was led by Luka Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Christian Wood.

Doncic, who is the MVP favorite for the third consecutive season, looked comfortable in his preseason finale, as he finished with 24 points, three rebounds and five assists while shooting 9-18 from the field. He played 30 minutes in this one and didn't touch the floor in the fourth quarter. The Mavs have a few questions that need to be answered this season to determine if they're true title contenders or not, but Doncic will not be one of them.

In case you didn't already know ... Tim Hardaway Jr. is back, and he looks as good as ever. Hardaway was Dallas' second-leading scorer with 20 points on 4-5 shooting from 3-point range. He also pitched in on the defensive end by tallying two steals. After being forced to miss the Mavs' Western Conference Finals run last season, Hardaway hope he can help the team get back to that point with his bench production.

After getting off to a slow start and not making a field goal in the first half, Christian Wood took it up a notch in the second half and finished with  12-point, 10-rebound double-double. He also played with some aggression on defense by recording two blocks and one steal in 23 minutes off the bench. If that part of his game continues into the regular season, Dallas will be in good shape this year.

"Today I was making an emphasis to focus more on the defensive end, the help side," said Wood when asked about his performance.

"We have a lot to work on ... but I think we're going to be a deep team, a scary team at that. There's so much space on the floor for Luka, (and) how deep our bench is with shooting. I think we'll be great."

The next time the Mavs take the court, the outcome of the game will actually count. Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com for extensive coverage next week as we prepare for Dallas' opener against Phoenix.

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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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