PHOENIX, AZ – The four seed Dallas Mavericks dropped game one in Phoenix to the one seed Phoenix Suns 121-114 on Monday night.
Dallas got down early in this game to the Suns. Within the first five minutes they were down seven points. From early on the Mavs were in an uphill battle for the remainder of the game.
This was an offensive game from the jump. Both teams shot very well from the floor, the Mavs shot 47 percent from the floor and the Suns shot 50 percent.
There were a lot of three’s that were made in this game. Dallas connected on 16 three-pointers and the Suns connected on 11.
Like I said both teams shot very well but The Suns had a massive lead almost the entire game until the very end of the fourth quarter, their largest lead was 21 points.
The difference maker in this game and the reason that Phoenix was rebounding and free throws. The Mavs are not a good rebounding team lately and it continues to get them in trouble. It happened with the Jazz as well, the games that they got outrebounded really bad they lost.
The Suns out rebounded the Mavs 51-36 and got burned on both the offensive boards and the defense boards. Dallas can not expect to win when they don’t rebound the ball.
The other issue that Dallas had was their ability to convert on free throws. The Mavs shot 18-of-25. At the beginning of this game and midway through the game it didn’t seem too important since they were consistently down double-digits, but at the end of this game it got very very close and they could have used those seven free throws at the end.
With 47 seconds remaining in the game the Mavs were down 114-107. Those seven free throws would have come in handy at that point in the game.
Luka Doncic carried the Mavs with 45 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists. He has six 40+ Playoff games in his career.
Maxi Kleber came off the bench and added 19 points and one rebound. He converted on 5-of-8 from beyond the arc and came up big for the Mavs in the first half.
Game two in the West semi-finals will be in Phoenix on Wednesday and tip off is at 9 PM CST.
