DALLAS — Luka Doncic smiled.
He shouted.
He took off his sweatshirt. Waved a towel. Hunched over in anticipation.
Throughout the fourth quarter Monday night, he watched as one of the 20,000-plus in American Airlines Center wild with enthusiasm as his Mavericks teammates transformed their playoff outlook with a 110-104 win over the Utah Jazz.
By erasing a double-digit deficit for the NBA-leading 18th time this season, the Mavericks tied the first-round series at one game apiece despite missing their 23-year-old All-Star to a left calf strain for a second consecutive game.
Jalen Brunson tallied a career-high 41 points, eight rebounds and five assists while shooting 15 of 25 from the field in 42 minutes while Maxi Kleber snapped a months-long shooting slump by hitting 8 of 11 three-pointers for 25 points off the bench.
The Mavericks hit a team-record 22 three-pointers on 47 attempts (46.8%).
The win marked the Mavericks’ first in American Airlines Center since April 26, 2015, when they beat Houston 121-109 to win Game 4 of their five-game, first-round series loss.
Over the last month of the regular season, players had been vocal about their desire for home-court advantage as a top-four seed and about why this postseason would be “different” than their 0-3 home slide against the Los Angeles Clippers last spring.
They guaranteed at least a Game 5 return.
Dallas will play Games 3 and 4 in Utah’s Vivint Arena, where they’ve lost 11 consecutive times since April 2016, but their second-half surge Monday ensured they avoided an even more wary outlook.
Just 31 times in 435 NBA playoff series had a team overcome a 2-0 deficit to advance to the next round.
Now, the Mavericks ensured the series will become a best-of-five showdown -- with hope their superstar Doncic, undoubtedly the best player on either side when healthy, can provide All-Star reinforcement soon.
The few hundred fans in American Airlines Center about an hour before tipoff got to see Doncic play -- briefly at half-speed.
Doncic took the court during his normal warm-up window, about 70 minutes before the game, and chatted with teammates, dribbled idly and shagged some rebounds until most of the Mavericks cleared the court.
Then he started another extended shooting regimen, similar to the pace and looks he took after the Mavericks’ practice Sunday, his first basketball activity in view of reporters since straining his calf April 10.
He started close to the rim, worked out to mid-range attempts and then shot from five spots around the 3-point line.
He gingerly maneuvered around assistant coach Ignor Kokoskov’s picks, hoisted his looks above assistant coach Peter Patton’s outstretched hands and walked through some pivots on post-ups.
“He’s definitely going in the right direction,” Kidd said. “He’s doing more each day. … He’s doing everything he can do up to this point, and hopefully he can play sooner.”
But he didn’t show any explosive movements or push off his left calf at full speed as director of player health and performance Casey Smith and director of athletic performance Jeremy Holsopple watched and chatted from the bench.
Doncic thrilled a few young kids when unlaced his all-white Jordan Brand shoes at the end and tossed them to the group who’d cheered his every move during the 20-minute session.
