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On Thursday night, it looked as though the Dallas Mavericks were on their way to pulling off an escape act in Salt Lake City as they came from all the way down 16 points to take the lead late in their game against the Utah Jazz. However, the Mavericks lost the plot in crunch time. With the score tied at 113 apiece, the Mavericks had their help coverage all mixed up, and they ended up allowing a wide-open dunk to John Collins which then gave the Jazz a 115-113 win.
It became rather clear that Luka Doncic and Quentin Grimes weren't sure of how the Mavericks coaching staff wanted them to defend on the final possession. They were looking towards the bench for clear instructions, but in the process of doing so, they lost concentration on the task at hand, forgetting about the wide-open Collins along the baseline which then proved to be a game-losing mistake.
Doncic has already owned up to his part to play in the Mavericks' late-game gaffe, and for head coach Jason Kidd, all he could do was chalk up this mistake to some inopportune miscommunication.
“Communication. There was a lapse there. It happens and they took full advantage of it. We gotta be better,” Kidd said in his postgame presser, per Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal.
Defensive breakdowns due to miscommunication does indeed happen all the time even in a league as competitive and talented as the NBA. But for a Mavericks team with lofty contending ambitions, these mistakes simply cannot happen especially with the game on the line.
Even if the Jazz did not take a timeout, the Mavericks must know beforehand how they would play such a scenario. Some may have pointed out on social media that the Mavs have utilized a similar scheme in the past. However, there must be an awareness of the exact circumstance they're in. The priority in late-game scenarios where the game is tied is not allow a clean look at the basket, which is the exact opposite of what the Mavs did.
The Mavericks have already had a few trying moments in the clutch this year, but this blunder against the Jazz takes the cake for their most heartbreaking moment of the season thus far.
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Luka Doncic and the Mavericks miss golden opportunity to end skid
The Mavericks, in recent seasons, have had a history of being outplayed by their opponents whenever Luka Doncic is on the bench. On Thursday night, the opposite was true. The Mavs mounted much of their 16-point comeback with Doncic on the bench, and it looked like the Slovenian star was coming in to finish the job.
With 1:33 left, the Mavericks took a 110-108 lead after an incredible unselfish play paid off in the form of a Dereck Lively II lob dunk. And then after the Mavs fell behind 113-110, Klay Thompson came off the bench to hit a game-tying three from deep.
Alas, one blunder in the end undid all the Mavericks' comeback efforts, and they're now back to the drawing board as they look to stop the bleeding.
