Key moments in Mavs-Jazz from Monday

Small things make a big difference, both in life and in basketball. I can think of countless examples in my personal life where inch cloning made a positive difference, and I’m sure you can too.

I recently had a conversation with someone who has a basketball sense that I greatly respect – my brother, Rob Harris. He tuned in to the Pod Maverick podcast Saturday night, where I had the privilege of joining Kirk Henderson and David Trink. Coming off that episode, my brother suggested the idea that at Mavs Moneyball we cover some of the little things that can get lost in the course of watching a game, but nonetheless have a big impact on momentum swings and ultimately the result. As a result of that idea, we welcome you to the first installment of Turning Points after the Mavericks defeated the Jazz 110-102 on Monday night.

Turning Point: Kyrie Irving’s late 3s in the first quarter

At the 59-second mark of the first quarter, Kyrie Irving missed a jumper that resulted in a Collin Sexton three for the Jazz nine seconds later. With the Mavs lead cut to two, Kyrie came back on the other end and got a three of his own. After forcing a Jazz missed three, Kyrie again hit his own three with one second left. In less than a minute, a two-point lead grew to an eight-point lead. This is an object lesson in why you keep hearing about neighborhood closings.

Turning point: Klay Thompson’s 3 near the end of the first half

With 33 seconds left in the half, Luka Doncic found himself at the free throw line. He hit his first attempt to give the Mavericks a five-point lead, but missed his second freebie. Dereck Lively cleaned up the offensive board, turned and hit a pass to Klay Thompson, who was unsurprisingly in the perfect spot at the top of the three-point arc. Thompson calmly drained a three to extend the lead to eight on a four-point possession.

Turning point: Luka Doncic’s technical foul in the third quarter

In the third quarter, Doncic got on the wrong side of the officials and earned a technical foul. The technical came at the 7:26 mark with the Mavericks leading by 13. At the 6:16 mark, the Jazz had ripped off eight straight points to cut the lead to five and continued to hang around. Techniques are like a foul in baseball, as they are so often a momentum killer for the offending team that can all too easily result in a positive breakout for the opposing team.

Turning point: Luka Doncic’s 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter

For the final turning point of the evening, we have something of a two-for-one. After Klay Thompson extended the Mavs lead to eleven straight inside the five minute mark, Dallas was ready to put this one away and go to garbage time. The Jazz had other ideas. Jordan Clarkson hit a three, Collin Sexton was awarded two more points on a Daniel Gafford field goal and Kyrie Irving had an uncharacteristic turnover to make it a six-point game and more interesting than Mavs fans wanted.

Enter Luka Doncic, who hit his first three of the night to extend the lead to nine. Closing out from there, Kyrie hit two free throws and Luka added a layup around some key stops. The Stars rallied in the final minutes to get the win.

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