Dallas keeps finding new ways to lose in the clutch.
Thursday night the Mavericks dropped their fourth game in a row — by a total of eight points — when a defensive miscommunication left Luka Doncic in no-man’s land and Utah’s Jordan Clarkson whipped a pass right past him to John Collins for a game-winning dunk.
Dallas’ Naji Marshall missed a 3, and Utah picked up the win, 115-113.
After the game, both Mavericks’ coach Jason Kidd and Doncic agreed a defensive communication issue led to Collins getting free for the game-winning dunk, with Doncic saying it was his fault for not understanding what Mavs defensive coordinator Sean Sweeney called.
“It was a misunderstanding,” Doncic said, via Grant Afseth. “I thought I was going to go hit, and Grimes thought he was going to go hit. And it was a lob, so we misunderstood the bench. That’s on me.”
The Mavericks were equally without answers about their late-game execution issues overall — Dallas is 1-6 on the season in clutch games (within five points in the final five minutes) with a -20.5 net rating in those minutes. All four games in Dallas’ losing streak were within one possession.
This was a nice win for the Jazz, who were led by Collins with 28 points and nine rebounds, while Clarkson scored 20 Lauri Markkanen couldn’t finish the game due a blow to his face that led to vision issues.
Doncic had 37 points and nine assists to lead Dallas.
