DALLAS — Back on Sept. 27, Mavericks media day on the eve of training camp, Jalen Brunson knew the question was coming as he sat down in front of reporters in American Airlines Center and others on Zoom.
First came a few general questions about the new coaching staff and upcoming season, an easing of sorts into the big one: What about Dallas’ playoff collapse against the Clippers and Brunson’s diminishing output and role as the series progressed?
“It sat with me all summer,” Brunson said. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about since June 6.”
The date and circumstances of Dallas’ Game 7 loss remained somewhere in Brunson’s consciousness as he averaged a career-best 16.3 points this season, and now even more so as the Mavericks prepare to host Utah on Saturday in Game 1 of the teams’ first-round playoff series.
“I’m ready to go,” Brunson said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
Though he long has looked forward to this moment, he certainly didn’t envision it playing out this way. Luka Doncic’s playing status for Game 1 is in doubt. And there is a good chance that, instead of Doncic, the player who’ll start alongside Brunson in the backcourt became a Maverick just two months ago.
Spencer Dinwiddie and Brunson have started together only twice since Dinwiddie’s Feb. 10 acquisition from Washington. Now, due to the left calf strain Doncic suffered in Sunday’s regular-season finale, the Brunson-Dinwiddie combo might have to fill a superstar-sized void for one or multiple games against the Jazz.
“The couple games [Doncic] hasn’t played and I’ve been, just my usage goes way up,” Dinwiddie said of his potential role shift. “Just try to continue to make plays, be aggressive, but understand that it’s probably 30 pick and rolls versus like 10.”
The Doncic-Brunson-Dinwiddie rotation has proved potent while also improving Dallas’ record in clutch games (8-1 since the All-Star break), but the only two games in which Doncic didn’t play were a one-point win over Sacramento and a 19-point win over Houston.
Not exactly primers for facing Utah’s three-guard tandem of Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson.
Utah’s threesome averages a combined 55.6 points. If Doncic plays, Dallas would boast a troika with an even higher combined average (60.0). If Doncic doesn’t play, however, Dinwiddie and Brunson must balance the need to contribute more on offense without forcing the issue.
In the aforementioned win over Sacramento, Dinwiddie scored 36 points on 11-of-22 shooting. Brunson shot 8 of 15 and scored 23 points. In the blowout win over Houston, Dinwiddie and Brunson combined for 54 points on 18-of-32 shooting.
But that was Sacramento and Houston.
“When you look at if we had to play without Luka, Spencer being able to come in and fill that role, we’re not asking him to be Luka,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “We’re asking him to be himself and feel confident if he has to start, that’s what we’ll do.”
The prospect of playing without Doncic is daunting. Imagine, though, in the aftermath of losing Tim Hardaway Jr. to a leg fracture, if the Mavericks had not traded Kristaps Porzingis for Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans.
“We got a play-maker, a scorer, a bigger guard,” Kidd said of Dinwiddie. “So I think when you talk about him starting or coming off the bench, he’s been a positive for us; it’s something that we didn’t have.”
While Dinwiddie has boosted Dallas for the past two months, Brunson has been one of the most productive and consistent Mavericks all season.
His 16.3-point average is a significant jump from his 12.6 average last season. After starting 12 games last season, he’s started 61 this season, moving into that role well before Hardaway’s Jan. 22 injury.
Impeccable timing to produce immaculate vibes, as Brunson would say, given that he is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
But while Brunson has proved himself to be starter-caliber on some NBA team next season, there’s the matter of proving himself on the playoff stage.
Because of a torn labrum, Brunson didn’t play in Dallas’ 2020 playoff loss to the Clippers in the Orlando bubble. Entering the 2021 playoffs against the Clippers, Brunson was regarded as an X-factor, an ingredient the Mavericks lacked the previous postseason.
Instead, Brunson averaged 8.0 points, 1.4 assists and 16.3 minutes per game against the Clippers, who virtually took him out of the series by matching him against bigger wings and guards on both ends of the floor.
Brunson played only 10 minutes in Game 5, 15 minutes in Game 6 and 10 minutes in Game 7.
Within days after the Game 7 loss, GM Donnie Nelson, then coach Rick Carlisle, were gone. In came Kidd, who made it a point to meet with Brunson within days after his hiring.
“I think our most important conversation was about our last series,” Brunson said in late July, when he took part in a Mavs Academy Hoop camp in Frisco. “We just talked about what I can do to improve and the things we can do to be a better team.”
Those conversations have continued throughout this season. On Tuesday, Brunson was scheduled to speak to reporters after a practice, but he and Kidd were so engrossed in a conversation that Brunson didn’t realize 20 minutes had passed.
“It’s never planned, which is kind of how I like it,” Brunson said. “It’s organic. We say things we need to say, hear each other out and move forward. He’s been great for me, and he’s been a big part of the reason I’ve been able to play the way I’ve played.”
We don’t know what they discussed on Tuesday, but given Doncic’s uncertain status for Saturday, Brunson and Kidd probably had more to cover than their usual chats.
