If the Jazz lose this first-round series to a Dallas club that’s playing without Luka Dončić—a loss that would likely bring about a significant shakeup in Utah—they’ll likely look back at Monday’s Game 2 defeat as the night that it all came apart.
Just in case starting point guard Mike Conley’s scoreless, 0-of-7 showing in 22 minutes wasn’t startling enough, the Jazz surrendered a 41-point, five-assist, zero-turnover showing to 6'1" Mavs guard Jalen Brunson in the 110–104 defeat, which evened the series at 1–1. No one—not Luka, not Dirk—in Mavs history had ever posted a 40-point, zero-turnover game in the playoffs before that. The man is going to make a lot of money this summer.
You might wonder how a player that small, however talented he might be, could generate that much offense against a team with perhaps the best rim protector in the game. But while Brunson shot over the top of the Stifle Tower a few times, he often pulled up before getting to him, attacking in that challenging in-between space of the floor after beating slow-footed Jazz perimeter defenders to the spot. Rudy Gobert, trying to play both his man (Dwight Powell or Maxi Kleber) and the ball, was generally only comfortable coming up so high, not wanting to surrender a lob or an open triple.
