In this year's second round and Dallas, Paul was just as safe with the ball in Game 1 and only slightly worse in Game 2. That was a four-game sweep over the Denver Nuggets. Suns: In the second round last season, Chris Paul committed just five turnovers in the entire series. If Dallas is going to win this thing, it must do so as a team. Their defense needs to protect him when he is switch-hunted. Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie have to take some of the shot-creation burden off of Doncic. That's the balance Dallas needs to strike the rest of the way. Dorian Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock did their part as stout defenders, and the Mavericks managed to beat the Suns as a team rather than as a set of role players orbiting one superstar.
After two slow games, Jalen Brunson picked up where he left off against Utah and gave Dallas 28 huge points. He didn't even lead the Mavericks in scoring in Game 3. Mavericks: Luka Doncic scored 80 points in the first two games of this series. Odds: DAL +105 PHO -125 O/U 214.5 (via Caesars Sportsbook).TV: ESPN | Live stream: fuboTV (try for free).Where: American Airlines Center - Dallas, Texas.Here's how you can tune into the Game 4 action. Now we'll see if that game was a fluke or if Dallas has really figured out what it needs to do to hang with the NBA's best team. Their defense, which had been torched on the road, allowed just 94 points on their home court.
Now, all of a sudden, Dallas is 48 minutes away from tying this series at 2-2.Īfter two enormous games from Luka Doncic in Phoenix, the Dallas supporting cast stepped up when the Mavericks returned home. The top-seeded Suns, winners of 64 games in the regular season, looked well on their way to a sweep of the Mavericks before Friday's Game 3. Now let's see how they handle them in a more normal game.The Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks played two games in Phoenix, and based on what happened in those matchups, there was little reason to believe they'd be playing Game 5 in Arizona. By virtually any measure, Game 3 was an outlier for Phoenix. Jae Crowder isn't leading the Suns in scoring again either. Then he turned it over six times in the first half of Game 3.
The Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks played two games in Phoenix, and based on what happened in those matchups, there was little reason to believe they'd be playing Game 5 in Arizona.