The last time the Dallas Mavericks won a postseason series, Jason Kidd celebrated by hoisting the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship trophy. Thursday night’s celebration after the Mavericks dispatched the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2022 NBA Playoffs was more subdued. However, it wasn’t lost on anyone that J-Kidd was once again present, this time — 11 years later — as the Head Coach of the Mavs.

Throughout the 2021-22 season — his first at the helm of the Mavs — Coach Kidd has described his team as resilient while preaching to them to believe in each other. Those characteristics were on full display during Game 6 as Dallas dug deep to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. The Mavs followed up one of their best performances of the season in a Game 5 rout with a grind-it-out type of performance that championships are made up, conquering the Jazz, and the hostile crowd in Salt Lake City to close out the series with a 98-96 victory at Vivint Arena.

The backcourt duo of Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson continued to be tough to guard. Doncic filled up the stat sheet with 24 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, while Brunson added 24 points of his own. The duo got help from Dorian Finney-Smith, who had a double double with 18 points and 10 rebounds and Spencer Dinwiddie, who finished with 19 points off the bench.

Coach Kidd, whose halftime adjustments helped the Mavs overcome a 12-point deficit at the break, deflected credit to his players and discussed after the game how the team continues to be unselfish in order to be successful.

“It’s a credit to that group in that locker room,” Coach Kidd said. “They compete, they trust the game plan, they trust the coaching staff and the medical staff, but they do the work… We don’t have a lot of big names, Luka is the one that gets the majority of the attention, JB, Dorian and Reggie and those guys really truly believe in team and that’s what helped us win this series.”

Though the night ended in triumph, the Mavs struggled early to find their rhythm offensively.

After a standstill of nearly six minutes with neither team able to pull ahead by much, it was Utah that finally established a real advantage when Dallas went cold over the final two minutes of the quarter, and the Jazz held a 21-15 lead after one.

Dallas got the scoring going at the start of the second quarter. After each team hit a few free throws, Doncic found Finney-Smith for a three and after a Reggie Bullock steal, Dinwiddie pushed the ball ahead to DFS who finished the break away dunk to tie the game at 22-22. Both teams continued to trade baskets from there, but once again in the late stages of the quarter, Utah started to pull away.

Following a Brunson basket, Donovan Mitchell drove for a layup then he found Royce O’Neale for a layup of his own. Mitchell capped off the 6-0 run with another layup to put Utah up five, 41-36. Dallas did not do themselves any favors offensively in the first half, shooting 17-of-44 from the field and hitting just three threes. Utah continued to hit baskets late and, after a 12-4 run, entered halftime with a 53-41 lead.

Staring down a potential Game 7 against a tough team, Coach Kidd made some major adjustments to his lineup entering the second half with an eye toward stealing Game 6 and ending the series abruptly. The biggest of those adjustments was the decision early in the second half to go with a smaller lineup. Dwight Powell went to the bench, and the Mavs went with the guard trio of Doncic, Brunson and Dinwiddie, along with Bullock and Finney-Smith.

Dinwiddie entered the game less than three minutes into the third, and from that point until the end of the quarter, Dallas outscored Utah 32-15. Changing the approach to a small lineup allowed the offense to spread out more and gave Doncic the opportunity to find open teammates. Moments after Dinwiddie entered, Doncic drove in for a bucket to make it a 10-point game. On the next time down, Dinwiddie located Bullock for a three-pointer and a possession later DFS swung a pass to Dinwiddie for a three of his own forcing Utah to call a timeout to stop Dallas’ 8-0 run with the deficit trimmed to four.

After the game, Coach Kidd discussed how his team needed to make a change out of half. He inserted his small lineup from the start of the third and explained the impact it made.

“That third quarter we caught fire and we got to the small lineup which helped with that,” Coach Kidd said. “The small group again rebounded the ball and put us in a position to win the game on the road.”

Approaching the five minute mark, Doncic got hot and hit a pair of treys, but both threes were answered by Bojan Bogdanovic. The Mavs deficit remained at four, until Dallas closed out the third on a run that saw them move the ball so well that every basket was accompanied by an assist. Maxi Kleber found Bullock for a three, then shortly after the roles were reversed, with Kleber receiving a pass from Bullock and hitting a jumper. Kleber continued facilitating and assisted on the next two three-pointers, which were drained by Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith.

The massive 13-2 run ended with DFS finding a cutting Dinwiddie who finished a layup. The Dallas offensive explosion saw them shoot an efficient 13-of-20 from the field in the third, including eight three-pointers. The Mavs outscored Utah 36-19 in the quarter and entered the final frame with a five point lead, 77-72.

Entering the fourth quarter, Dallas continued to utilize the small lineup, but the efficient shooting did not carry over from the third. After a couple of early baskets from each team, the pace of the game slowed down. Dinwiddie checked in with under nine minutes remaining and quickly hit a three to maintain the five point advantage. Shortly after, Brunson found an open Finney-Smith for another three, and Utah saw the game getting out of reach.

Mitchell took control of the offense and brought Utah back. He drove inside for a layup and on the next possession Jordan Clarkson had a putback basket. Utah’s 8-0 run to tie up the game was topped off by a phenomenal play by Mitchell. The All-Star guard drove into the teeth of the Dallas defense and while surrounded by Mavs defenders, was able to locate Gobert for a dunk to tie the game 88-88 with under five minutes to play.

Though staggered, the Mavs were not stifled and regrouped for the final minutes of the game, determined to not let it slip out of their hands. Doncic continued to get his teammates involved, and he found Finney-Smith for a 28-foot three-pointer to give Dallas the lead back. After a couple of Gobert free throws, Doncic had a mismatch with Gobert guarding him, so he used his signature stepback to drain a three-pointer to put the Mavs up 94-90.

In the final minutes of the game with the Jazz down three, Mitchell again drove inside and as the Mavs defenders collapsed on him he again found a teammate, passing to the corner to a wide open Bogdanovic whose three-pointer had things knotted up at 94. Dallas had the same recipe in their next possession, with the Jazz defense spread out Doncic knew if he drove they would fly to guard him. He drove slightly to his left and as the defenders came he swung a pass to the corner where Brunson nailed a 24-foot three-pointer, to give Dallas a 97-94 advantage.

During the remaining seconds Utah had multiple opportunities to draw even or take the lead. Another Mitchell drive inside led to an easy basket down low for Gobert, to make it a one-point game. Doncic attacked Rudy on the next Mavs possession but could not make the tough shot, O’Neale gathered the rebounded and pushed it ahead, the ball found Mike Conley and as he cut inside the Mavs were there to cause just enough hesitation which made Conley travel. On the ensuing possession, Brunson was fouled, but only made one free throw during his trip to the line.

Down two with 4.3 seconds left, Utah called a timeout to draw up a play. Out of the timeout the Jazz utilized the screen to pick Bullock, that got Bogdanovic a wide open look from 23-feet out. Bojan gathered himself and let Dinwiddie fly by before launching the would-be game winner, but the ball springed off the rim and Finney-Smith rebounded the ball as the buzzer sounded. Coach Kidd lauded his team looked ahead to their next matchup against the Phoenix Suns. He believes his group is ready to take on the defending Western Conference champs.

“This is a special group,” Coach Kidd said. “They truly believe small or big, and we’re not very big, but they find a way to win and they have fun doing it. Hopefully this gives us confidence going against the best team in the NBA right now.”

The second round of the playoffs begin Monday, with the Mavs traveling to Footprint Center to take on the Suns at 9p.m. CT.