The Dallas Mavericks return home on Monday night after suffering their first loss of the season against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night. They came home to play against the Utah Jazz, who were looking to get their first win of the season.

Dallas offered the same starting lineup consisting of Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford, while Utah started Keyontae George, Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Taylor Hendricks and Walker Kessler.

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It was again a slow start offensively for both sides. When Utah head coach Will Hardy called a timeout five minutes into the quarter, the score was 9-5 Dallas and both sides were shooting 6-of-23 overall. Klay Thompson hits Mavs; His first shot gave them a 3-2 lead, but the Jazz crashed the offensive glass hard, breaking five offensive boards in the first five minutes. Hardy was quickly defeated by Jordan Clarkson in the first few minutes, which produced mixed results.

Spencer Dinwiddie was the first player to come off the bench for Dallas, which is a surprise considering he never played against Phoenix. While Dallas got some help from Utah, the Jazz missed their first three free throws. While the Jazz cut the lead to 13-12, Dallas pulled away with a quick 6-0 run and took a 21-14 lead at the next break. It was sloppy basketball, with some missed drives and double dribbles on both ends, but Kyrie Irving finished the quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to 27-19.

The second quarter also started quite badly. John Collins’ dribble to the basket woke up the crowd, but Doncic responded with a lob to Gafford, who sent the ball into the goal. Doncic wasn’t scoring well early on, but he was passing well and playing solid defense. He received a disappointing foul 90 meters from the basket after missing his tenth shot attempt in a 1/10 start. Despite their rough start, the Mavs still managed to win 35-31 midway through the quarter.

Lively’s sequence of blocking a shot by Cody Williams and then finishing off a lob in transition was the best of the first half, especially when she broke up a lob attempt at the other end on the next play. The rest of the quarter was sloppy though. Doncic’s shoe change helped him score the basket, but the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the team. With a total score of 16/46 between the two teams in the second quarter, Dallas entered the first half ahead 49-43.

Dallas was playing great defense, holding the Jazz to 28.8% shooting from the field, but they were fouling too much, which allowed Utah to fall behind. Even though PJ Washington didn’t shoot well from outside, he had a great half with eight points, seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks in 18 minutes of the first half.

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Dallas, which shot just 4-of-21 from three-point range in the first half, ran a nice ghost screen with Klay Thompson, who stayed wide open and was able to start the half. Will Hardy, who increased the lead to double digits again with a few quick baskets by Kyrie Irving, was forced into an early timeout.

Both offenses came to a halt, and the situation was made worse when second-year Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks slipped and suffered a devastating lower leg injury. Coaches rushed out to protect his leg as he stretched off the floor, which halted the game for a while as the Jazz shook off the mental image of their teammates falling to the ground. I hope he recovers quickly, but it was a very bad injury.

The Jazz took a one-point lead after this injury, but Spencer Dinwiddie’s corner triple, his first basket of the season, helped stop the bleeding. A few minutes later, after Utah had cut the lead to two, he hit another three-pointer to push the lead back to double digits. Then, he made another three-pointer in the closing seconds of the quarter, leading 82-70 in the fourth quarter. After playing almost nothing in the first two games, he had a HUGE performance in the third quarter. Dallas scored only 18 points in 8:30, but scored 15 points in the last 3:30 of the third quarter.

John Collins started the fourth quarter by making three consecutive three-pointers and narrowed the gap back to five for Utah. Kyrie Irving kept the offense afloat with masterful finishes before Quentin Grimes’ free throws increased the lead to 11 with 8:30 left.

The lead would fluctuate between 8 and 11 over the next four minutes before Utah increased the lead to six with 3:51 left. Doncic charged after missing a breakaway, which erased a potential three-pointer that would have further diminished Markkanen’s chances of taking the lead. Doncic was determined to make an impact on the game even if he didn’t score.

The first three-pointer of the match came from Doncic and the difference increased to nine in the last three minutes. Great defensive play and quick baskets by the Mavs increased the lead to 13 with just over a minute left, which secured the score. Although a few final baskets while on the Dallas bench narrowed the gap, Dallas would win 110-102.

Luka Doncic finished the game with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, but shot only 5/22 from the field and 1/9 from three. During Doncic’s fight, Kyrie Irving played with 23 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds on 8/14 effective shooting.

Four other Mavs could finish in double figures: Klay Thompson (18 points, 3/4/11), PJ Washington (12 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 blocks), Dereck Lively II (14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 rebounds). block) and Spencer Dinwiddie (11 points, all in the third quarter).

Dallas still struggled to make just 11/39 threes on the night, and shutting out 1/9 of Doncic doesn’t make things any better. They also fouled too often and allowed the Jazz to make 29 free throws, which kept them in the game.

Utah’s scoring was led by Collin Sexton, who scored 23 points during the September 11 attacks. Dallas did a great job against Lauri Markkanen, who scored 17 points but shot just 4-of-15 from the field.

Dallas improved to 2-1 and will play the second night of a back-to-back on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. ET.

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