Dallas Basketball

Brunson & Dinwiddie Detonate Jazz; Mavs Star Doncic Prepares for Game 4 Debut

The Luka Doncic-less Dallas Mavericks are playing excellent team basketball, which has led to a 2-1 series lead over the Utah Jazz.

Dalton Trigg

The Dallas Mavericks appear to be in the driver’s seat of their first-round series with the Utah Jazz after stealing back home-court advantage in Game 3… even without superstar Luka Doncic having played a single minute so far.

Led by Jalen Brunson, Spencer Dinwiddie and a handful of other important role players, the Mavs won 126-118 on Thursday in Utah to take a 2-1 series lead. Brunson finished with a team-high 31 points, and Dinwiddie put up 20 points of his own — including a detonating dunk over Rudy Gobert in the third quarter.

On today’s live-recorded episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, hosts Dalton Trigg and Matt Galatzan are joined by guests to break down the Game 3 win, Brunson’s dominance in the series, Dinwiddie’s clutch gene, the Mavs’ bench providing a big spark, and much, much more.

One of the more interesting topics brought up was about the future of Gobert if the Mavs take care of business and finish off the Jazz. Before the postseason began, rumors started circulating about Dallas being interested in a potential Gobert trade if Utah decides to blow things up. Given Gobert’s play in this series, should the Mavs still be interested? Trigg explains why his answer to that particular question is still an emphatic “yes.”

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Jeff Swinger/NBAE via Getty Images
Jalen Brunson, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images
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Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

Taking a look at what’s going on in the rest of the Western Conference playoff bracket, it’s hard not to look ahead a little bit even though the Mavs still have work to do. The top-seeded Phoenix Suns, who are in a 1-1 series battle with the New Orleans Pelicans, will be without superstar Devin Booker for at least two-to-three weeks due to a Grade 1 hamstring strain.

Whether the Suns or Pelicans win the series, this turn of events could impact the Mavs' chances of moving past the second round, especially since Doncic is expected to make his playoff series debut in Game 4 vs. the Jazz.

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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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