Suns defeat Mavs, 121-114, despite 45 points from Doncic

PHOENIX — For a team that prides itself on the numerous strides they’ve made on the defensive end of the court this season, the Dallas Mavericks’ defense was non-existent for the first three quarters during Game 1 of Monday night’s Western Conference best-of-seven semifinals series against the Phoenix Suns.

And by the time the Mavs’ defense finally woke up in the fourth quarter, it was way too late.

The Suns shot 50.5 percent from the field, won the rebounding battle by 15, and managed to get out of Footprint Center with a 121-114 victory over the Mavs. It was a game where Phoenix led wire-to-wire and showed why they racked up an NBA-best 64-18 record during the regular season.

Game 2 in Phoenix will be Wednesday at 9 p.m. before the series shifts to American Airlines Center for Game 3 on Friday at 8:30 p.m. and Game 4 on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Before fans could settle in their seats, the Suns had already built a 9-0 lead less than three minutes into the game. That lead swelled to 22-7 with 4:58 remaining in the first quarter following a pair of free throws by Devin Booker as Phoenix had the Mavs back on their heels.

“I think our defense lost us the game today,” point guard Luka Doncic said. “I think our start on the defensive end was terrible, and we’ve got to change that.

“I know we can play way better defense and I know we will the next game.”

For three quarters, it was as if a lesser team had switched jerseys with the Mavs. Phoenix piled up a whopping 96 points through three quarters – the Mavs had 79 points at that juncture – as the Suns kept scoring almost at will.

“We held the No. 1 offensive team the last series (against the Utah Jazz) a couple of times under 100 points,” center Maxi Kleber said. “So we can’t come in here and give them so many free throws, so we have to do a better job.

“Obviously, it’s going to be a little bit different because (the Suns) have different options on offense and the way they play. But we just got to figure it out.”

By the time the Mavs figured things out Monday, the Suns had taken a 106-85 lead with 8:46 to go following a fast break dunk by JaVale McGee. And when it wasn’t DeAndre Ayton (25 points, eight rebounds) who had the Mavs looking over their shoulders, it was Booker (23 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) or any of the other hot Suns.

“We just didn’t get off to a good start, but we didn’t give in,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We kept playing. We talked about it at halftime – being only down 13 – that we’ve been here before.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump. This is probably the first time we’ve had a slow start in the playoffs, but I like the way we responded.”

The Mavs sliced that early 15-point deficit to 51-47 midway through the second quarter after Kleber hit his fifth three-pointer, Reggie Bullock’s four-point play, a hoop from downtown by Doncic, and a dunk by Dwight Powell via a lob pass from Doncic.

Unfortunately, the Suns didn’t blink as they rebuilt their lead to 69-56 at intermission. And not even a spectacular performance from Doncic could prevent Phoenix from beating the Mavs for the 10th consecutive game.

Doncic was 15-of-30 from the field, 4-of-11 from three-point land and finished with 45 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.

“He got whatever he wanted,” Kidd said. “When you look at the shots in the paint, behind the arc, mid-range, and then also I thought he got his teammates some great looks that we normally have made. But I thought he played great.

“Again, in that fourth quarter those guys started to get a rhythm and started to play a little bit harder, but I thought he played great. I know he’s going to look at those (five) turnovers and say that he can be better. But he did everything to help this team be in position to try to win on the road.”

In outscoring the Suns, 35-25, in the fourth quarter, the Mavs eventually got within 119-114 with 10.5 seconds left after Doncic drained a three-pointer. But it just wasn’t enough time left to complete an improbable comeback.

“We have our schemes and we know what we have to do in certain situations,” said Kleber, who was 5-of-8 from downtown and scored 19 points. “Maybe we were still stuck on the Utah Jazz series where different looks came out.”

And that’s not all.

“We did a terrible job today communicating,” Kleber said. “It was loud in the gym, so everybody’s got to speak up, and we have the whole bench, too.

“Everybody has to do a better job talking, and then open looks against a team like that obviously you can’t give them that.”

Doncic, who played 44 minutes, also pointed to lack of communication as the main source of the Mavs’ problems on defense.

“The communication wasn’t good at all today, especially in the first half,” he said. “It’s the loud building, the fans are very loud here, so it’s going to be tough. I think we just got to be more together.”

Doncic also offered another tip that he thought could have reversed the outcome of Monday’s game.

“I think we just got to attack more paint,” he said. “I did too much step-back for me. Attacking the paint is our lethal weapon.

“When we do that we can score easily, especially in five-outs. And they have bigs rotating and we can attack more of the paint.”

The Suns got 19 points from Chris Paul, 17 from Cameron Johnson, 13 from Mikal Bridges and 11 from Jae Crowder, who drew a Flagrant-1 for accidently kicking Doncic. Meanwhile, Dorian Finney-Smith scored 15 points and Jalen Brunson was held to 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting.

“They just came out with a lot more energy than us in that first quarter and we just had to battle back ever since then,” Finney-Smith said. “But we definitely put ourselves in a hole the first couple of quarters.”

How do the Mavs correct that in Game 2?

“We just got to be more physical and play a little bit more faster,” Finney-Smith said. “We played with a lot more tenacity and fight that fourth quarter.

“It was everybody moving and talking, so we just got to be that way the whole game.”

Kleber took that a step farther, saying: “We didn’t come out with the right energy. Maybe as a team we were a little bit nervous.

“But I think it’s things that we can fix, because we showed that we can do it. We came back and made the game close.”

The Mavs simply didn’t make the Suns uncomfortable enough, as too many baskets came too easy for Phoenix.

“I believe they got the shots they wanted,” Kidd said of the Suns. “There were some times there where we got the misses, but we just couldn’t come up with the rebounds. We gave up 13 offensive rebounds and you’re not going to beat Phoenix if you do that.”

Twitter: @DwainPrice