Lauri Markkanen did most of the carrying. He led Utah with 21 points, and with Jaren Jackson Jr. (MCL) and Jusuf Nurkic (foot) still out, there weren't many other places for the offense to go. Neither team had its starting center. The difference was that Dallas had more people who could get a bucket once the game opened up.
P.J. Washington was the main one. He led all scorers with 23 points, more than Kyrie Irving, who the preview had pegged as the guy to close this out. Dallas didn't need Irving to save the night like he nearly did in San Antonio. It needed 1 good quarter, and it got one.
The 3rd quarter was the whole game. Dallas scored 32, Utah scored 19, and a tie turned into an 89-76 Mavericks lead going into the 4th. It's the same thing that's dogged the Jazz all season: they hang around, sometimes they even build a lead, and then one stretch comes along that they can't stop. Against New Orleans it was the 4th quarter and overtime. Tonight it was the 3rd.
Utah did take the 4th quarter 24-23, but that was garbage time against a Dallas team that was already up 13. The Jazz never got the lead back under single digits for long enough to matter. Holding a team to 100 points without Dereck Lively II in the middle won't count for much if you can't win a quarter that actually matters.
Dallas goes to 5-4 and gets the Sacramento loss and the 1-point loss in San Antonio off its mind. Lively, Tarik Biberovic and Sergio de Larrea are still out, and the box score leaders didn't say how much Santi Aldama gave Dallas in what would have been his Mavericks debut. For Utah it's loss No. 8 in 9 games. The Jazz keep getting halfway there, and halfway hasn't won them anything yet.
