The Utah Jazz won Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs over the Dallas Mavericks who were playing without Luka Doncic. A series that with Luka Doncic would be an offensive based series has instead turned into a half court defensive series. This is not a big surprise. However, it forced the Jazz to win a game very differently than they usually do.

The Mavericks are really thin without Luka Doncic and don't have ballhandlers. So when Jalen Brunson or Spence Dinwiddies goes off the floor it is really a problem for the Mavericks and the Jazz exploited that in Game 1. Largely, because Rudy Gobert was completely dominant in the middle of the floor altering shots, changing routes and making plays.

The Jazz offensive rebounding punished the Dallas Mavericks for going small on the Utah Jazz as the Jazz grabbed 44% of their offensive rebounds in the half court .

Overall, the Utah Jazz had great focus as Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic and Mike Conley all made big plays and throughout the game the Jazz had great recognition of what was taking place and how to react. Maybe best exemplified by Donovan Mitchell's steal.

Now what should we expet in Game 2 of the series.

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David Locke and Ron Boone also bring you POSTCAST after each Jazz game

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