Utah Jazz Vs. Dallas Mavericks Game Recap: Utah Bows Out

The Utah Jazz are heading into the offseason after suffering a knockout blow at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night. The Jazz played with energy and heart for most of the game, but couldn’t overcome offensive struggles and costly turnovers during crunch time. This loss will probably haunt the Jazz players and fans for a long time as they ponder what could have been this year. Alas, this Jazz team can officially add the phrase “there is always next year” to the story of the 2021-22 season.

Give credit to the Dallas Mavericks, they no doubt came into this game wanting to end it instead of risking a game 7 collapse and they played with grit and confidence. Luka Doncic didn’t play particularly well in the first half but turned it up in the second half with some big shots to stop the Jazz momentum. Jalen Brunson continued to be a problem that the Jazz couldn’t solve as he and Luka both dropped a game high 24 points on the Jazz. The Mavericks overcame a 12 point halftime deficit to snag the close victory.

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Although it wasn’t perfect, Utah played about a good a half as they have all series in the first half. Not all shots were falling but the team was being aggressive exploiting Dallas inability to get stops at the rim. As has been the case so many times this season though, the offense sputtered in the early minutes of the second half and the Jazz lost the third quarter 36-19 to fall behind 77-72 entering the final quarter. The Jazz tightened up the defense in the fourth, but they weren’t able to stop the red hot Mavericks from hitting big shot after big shot. The Jazz were led by Donovan Mitchell tonight with 23 points and 9 assists.

The Mavericks move on to meet the top seeded Phoenix Suns and the Jazz ride off into the sunset until next October. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Utah and what will happen this offseason, but I think all Jazz fans can agree that this season has been less than ideal and hopefully the team can fix whatever is holding them back. The talent is there for this team to make noise in the playoffs and even make a run at the championship but for whatever reason, they haven’t been able to capitalize thus far. The painful thing about this year is that there are no excuses such as injury for the fans to hold onto. Whatever the problem or problems may be, let’s hope that they will just be a speed bump on this team’s road to a championship. Until next season Jazz fans…….