SALT LAKE CITY — One of the side effects of working next to transcendent talent is the danger of being blinded by the glare. Seamheads mostly blame Nolan Ryan’s fairly mediocre won-loss record on the mostly mediocre teams behind him. But, a sub-theory holds that his teammates were often hypnotized by the epic duels between Hall of Famer and hitters, not to mention the tingling sensation that developed from the prospects of a no-hitter on any given night.
Playing next to Luka Doncic often seems to have had the same effect over the last four seasons. He takes his good time working his magic act, which occasionally makes spectators out of more than just the paying customers.
Considering the unintended consequences of the phenomenon, it seems like it’s been a good thing that the Mavs have gone up 2-1 over the Jazz without Luka.
Before our very eyes, the Mavs have grown up a little. Or a lot. Maybe Luka even learned something about his teammates in the process.
“I knew my teammates,” he countered. “I didn’t learn anything.”
You’re not surprised to be up 2-1?
“No,” he said. “We’ve been playing like this the whole season. The start wasn’t that good, but, I think after the start we played like this every game.
“Almost every game.”
Not even close to every game, actually, but, in Luka’s defense, Jason Kidd tried to sell the same line. Before the Mavs even made it to the playoffs, he said, they learned they could play and win without Luka. They were and have always been, he said, a team first.
“Luka dominates the headlines, which he should,” Kidd said. “He’s a special talent.
“But we rely on one another and not just one guy.”
That’s certainly been the takeaway lately, but it wasn’t during the regular season. Since New Year’s, as Luka rehabbed his conditioning and game and returned to MVP-level play, the Mavs have played without their superstar three times. They did, indeed, win all three games. Twice against Houston, the other against Sacramento. Hardly a murderer’s row. Before New Year’s, the Mavs went 5-8 in games Luka missed. No one stepped up back then. Yes, Jalen Brunson had some of his best games in Luka’s 10-game absence from Dec. 12-31. But, he had back-to-back 20-point games just once, when the Mavs split a home-and-home with Sacramento.
Yet, in this series against the Jazz, he’s gone off for 24, 41 and 31 points. He’s not the only one to break out, either. After the All-Star Game, Maxi Kleber shot just 18.8% on 3s in the regular season. Against the Jazz, he’s hit 14 of 21, a blistering 67%. Davis Bertans, who, if not hitting 3s is essentially stealing money, went through a 14-game stretch of the regular season in which he shot 29.6% from the 3-point line. Since April 3, he’s 48.4%.
Even Josh Green, who was 0 for 6 on 3s in the first two games of this series, was 3 for 5 Thursday.
In the Mavs’ 126-118 win, a development that turned the locals on their beloved Jazz, Kleber, Bertans and Green combined to go 11 of 17 on 3s. Most of those came early as the Mavs built a 17-point halftime lead.
Watching role players rain 3s, Donovan Mitchell conceded, was “deflating.”
“That can become a mental thing at times,” he added.
For most of the first half Thursday, the Jazz looked like a team in search of an exit. Nothing’s working. They go big, and the Mavs beat them with 3s. They go small, as they did in Thursday’s 40-point third-quarter comeback, and Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie return to the paint to pull away again.
Notwithstanding Thursday’s hammerdunk on Rudy Gobert, which Dinwiddie ranks as a career best, he hasn’t exactly been himself lately. Shooting just 33% in this series, mostly because of Gobert’s looming presence. But with Gobert and Hassan Whiteside on the bench in Utah’s small lineup, Dinwiddie gets to do what he does best, which is drive.
Basically, the Mavs have bamboozled the Jazz. This is not the team they expected without Luka. This isn’t the team anyone expected. And now, if all goes as planned, Luka will be back Saturday. He returns to a different team, whether he wants to admit it or not.
Going Luka-less was the best thing that could have happened to the Mavs.
“I think going forward long-term, yeah,” Dinwiddie said, “because you want the guys to have confidence that you’re a good basketball team without him.”
Of course, they’re even better with Luka. They won’t go far without him. They might not beat the Jazz if he’s not back soon.
But, now they know what they can accomplish if he’s not.
“Hopefully,” Dinwiddie said, “we can close the series out and start looking what we need to do long-term.”
They can see their future now that it’s no longer lost in the glare.
