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Old 05-09-2022, 06:04 AM   #142
dirt_dobber
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Dallas Morning News*Brad Townsend
Mother’s DéjÃ* Vu: Mavs’ Game 4 win harkens back to ‘Mother’s Day Massacre’ vs. Lakers
The series-tying win comes 11 years to the day after the Mavs dismantled the Lakers on Mother’s Day 2011.

Jason Kidd understands why reporters and Mavericks fans keep invoking 2011. He’s a direct tie, after all, to that championship team. And it was the greatest time in franchise history, something to savor.

Kidd, though, wants the current Mavericks to carve their own path. Make their own history. Not dwell on the past.

Sunday afternoon’s 111-101 victory over Phoenix in American Airlines Center that evened this second-round playoff series at 2-2, though, was a wondrous melding of past and present, with parallels too uncanny to ignore to another momentous Game 4, in 2011.

That second-round game, too, happened on Mother’s Day. And on a May 8 afternoon. The difference is that 122-86 rout clinched a 4-0 sweep of the two-time reigning champion Lakers, whereas Sunday’s win over defending West titlist Phoenix tied the series.

“I’ve heard a lot about that Mother’s Day,” Kidd said. “That was a good thing. A good omen. Good things happened on that day, and we won. So I was hoping it was going to be the same way — and it turned out to be that way.”

Back in 2011, point guard Kidd had 7 assists, 4 steals and helped limit Kobe Bryant to 17 points on 7-of-18 shooting. Playing the role of Kidd on Sunday was Reggie Bullock, who held Chris Paul to five points before he fouled out in 23 minutes.

The similarities didn’t end there. Far from it. The Mother’s Day 2011 game featured the Mavericks raining in 20 3-pointers (in just 32 attempts), a franchise playoff record that stood until Game 2 of this year’s first-round series against Utah, when Dallas made 22 of 47 treys.

On Sunday the Mavericks bombarded the Suns with 20 3-pointers in 44 attempts, including a franchise playoff-record-tying 14 made 3-pointers in the first half.

On Sunday Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith torched the Suns with eight 3-pointers in 12 attempts, coming within one 3-pointer of Jason Terry’s franchise playoff record. That, of course, was set on May 8, 2011, when Terry made 9-of-10 3-point attempts.

Finney-Smith, wisely signed this season to a four-year, $55 million contract extension that’s already looking like a bargain, said it’s an honor to be mentioned in the same company as Mavericks great Terry. Finney-Smith’s daughter, Sinai, played on one of Terry’s AAU Lady Jets teams last year.

Finney-Smith said that after he made his eighth 3-pointer, his teammates “yelled at me because they drew up a play for me and I didn’t shoot it.”

After Finney-Smith joined the Mavericks in 2016 as an undrafted free agent and he shot 29.3%, 29.9% and 31.1% from 3-point distance his first three seasons, it was unthinkable that he would have a day like Sunday.

Luka Doncic wouldn’t recognize that Finney-Smith of years ago. Five of Doncic’s 11 assists on Sunday were to Finney-Smith, all of them 3-pointers.

“When I’d hit five 3′s he was telling me, ‘You’re about to get some more,’ " Finney-Smith said. “When LD tells you you’re about to get some more 3′s, well, I figure I was gonna get some.”

Back on May 8, 2011, an astounding 17 of the Mavericks’ 3-pointers came from bench players. Sunday’s bench players weren’t that productive, but then again the 2011 game was a blowout. Sunday’s game went down to the final minutes, which made the eight treys from bench players all the more timely.

Timely, as in Frank Ntilikina’s 3-pointer with 15.8 seconds left in the third quarter, as the shot clock reached one, to give Dallas an 87-78 lead.

Timely, as in Davis Bertans putting the Suns on their heels with 4-of-6 3-point shooting in just 13 minutes. Trade deadline acquisition Bertans’ Game 4 was reminiscent of late-season 2011 Mavericks addition Peja Stojakovic, who drained 6-of-6 3-point attempts in that 2011 Mother’s Day game.

“I got good looks and I made them, that’s it,” Bertans said. “Of course it feels good, but at the same time everybody knows that that’s what I do.”

Said Kidd: “Davis was on fire. This time of the year, it’s always someone that you don’t talk about that can give you a lift. And Davis was that for us.”

So much about this Mavericks season has conjured reminders of 2011. Kidd taking over as coach. Dallas winning its first playoff series since 2011.

And now this team is two wins away from earning the fifth conference finals berth in franchise history and the first since 2011. Regardless of what happens in Tuesday’s Game 5 in Phoenix, there will be a Game 6 on Thursday in American Airlines Center.

“I thought the fans were great in Games 3 and 4,” Kidd said. “It was electric. And we’re going to need that in 6.”

Imagine these Mavericks echoes would stir if this season goes beyond that.
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