Mavericks led by Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson make a dominating comeback in the series with a 103-94 win while Chris Paul and Devin Booker have a down game.
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The Dallas Mavericks rocked the boat for the #1 team in the West. After getting completely dominated by the Point God and his Suns a game ago, Luka Doncic and Co come roaring back in the series.
Although the Slovenian had a combined 80 points, 17 rebounds, and 15 assists in the first two games, the Suns had no difficulty in closing out both the games at home.
The first game was a complete team performance by Phoenix who had six double-digit scorers with Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, and CP3 leading the way. Whereas Game 2 was a Book-Paul show, the duo had a combined 58-points in a 129-109 runaway victory.
And they came out pretty expressive after the game when asked about Luka, watch it after the 10 min mark in the embedded video.
Luka Doncic answers Chris Paul and Devin Booker’s disrespect in the most Doncic-way
In the post-game press conference of Game 2, when asked about how they would adjust and prepare to play against a player of Doncic’s caliber, both Paul and Booker exchanged a look. It looked like they were trying to keep themselves from laughing.
Luka definitely saw that video of CP3 & Booker laughing at him.
Bro was playing ANGRY and PHYSICAL in the 1st half.
— Guru (@DrGuru_) May 7, 2022
CP3 has a habit of doing things to get under an opponent’s skin. However, Luka Magic is not any ordinary opponent, he almost had a massive triple-double (26-13-9) in response to that disrespect. But what really helped him and Dallas was the performance by the other Mavericks.
Jalen Brunson went to work in the @dallasmavs Game 3 W, dropping 28 points to lead the Mavs in scoring! #MFFL@JalenBrunson1: 28 PTS, 5 AST
🏀 Game 4: Sun. 3:30pm/et on ESPN pic.twitter.com/ZvBwXs7H5B
— NBA (@NBA) May 7, 2022
Jalen Brunson came back to his first-round form and put up a game-high 28-point performance, while Reggie Bullock who has been shooting lights out since the start of the Playoffs had 15 points going 40% off the 3-point line, while Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber had 14 point contributions each.
All three of them contributed massively on the defensive end as well but Doncic would still be the MVP of the game with a game-high +20 in the plus-minus column.
Now, Mavs will have to do it all over again in Game 4 to even the series and have a chance of putting the pressure on, theoretically, the best team in the league.