It took three games, but Josh Green finally made his mark in the series. In Games 1 and 2, he was little more than a blip on the stat sheet. Not so in Game 3.
Green came out strong, knocking down shots that mostly eluded him in the first two games. The Utah Jazz again didn’t see him as a threat, leaving him wide open on the perimeter. This time, he made them pay, paving the way to a 126-118 win for the Dallas Mavericks.
“Obviously, going into the game, I was struggling shooting my threes for a couple of games,” Green said. “It’s hard to adjust to somebody playing you that way and dropping off. So, for me, just going in knowing that I shot well in the regular season, going in with the same attitude. At the end of the day, to make them you’re going to have to take them. For me, just going in and stepping in with confidence. It was good.”
After going 1-for-9 combined in the first two games for a total of two points, Green went 4-of-6 Thursday night and scored 12 points. He also knocked down three shots from deep in the first half as Utah center Rudy Gobert left him open.
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“When somebody is so far off you, you kind of get indecisive,” Green said. “Now over time, watching film, and watching what I need to do, it’s comfortable for me. Just stepping into it, making sure I’m hitting them, playing with my teammates, and just working around it.”
It wasn’t just his scoring that helped the Mavericks take a 2-1 series lead. Green filled up the box score, chipping in three rebounds, six assists, and two steals.
“Josh, in that first half, was incredible,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said. “Not just shooting the ball but his playmaking. He had six assists.”
His six assists tied Spencer Dinwiddie for the most on the team.
This is the most run Green has seen in the postseason. He played four minutes against the Los Angeles Clippers in the first-round last year. Green says he wished that he could have played in front of the home fans, but now that he is getting an opportunity, he is making the most of it.
“To be out there now and playing, it means a lot to me,” Green said. “It’s good. A lot of hard work was put into that. Now, it’s just my job to keep it going, developing, and doing whatever I can do to help the team out.”
Here’s our latest episode of Mavs Moneyball After Dark. If you’re unable to see the embed below, click here to be taken to the podcast directly. Or go to your favorite podcast app and search Mavs Moneyball Podcast.
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