Luka Doncic feels 'happiness' after advancing for first time as Dallas Mavericks close out Utah Jazz

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Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic's shot at the buzzer felt like it hung in the air for 15 seconds, from the point of view of Luka Doncic.

The Dallas Mavericks had a two point lead with 4.3 seconds left in the game. With his team's season at stake, Jazz coach Quin Snyder called a timeout and drew up a play to get his team's best shooter a potential game-winning look from the left wing. When he let the shot go, he was wide open because he caught the pass and pump-faked to get Spencer to fly by him.

Doncic thought that he didn't miss a lot of those.

For the first time in his career, Doncic celebrated after his shot bounced harmlessly off the iron.

Doncic said after the victory that he was happy. We should get past the first round. Everyone fought their ass off today. Everybody was staying together despite the fact that we didn't play well today. The key to winning the game was keeping everyone together.

The Mavericks won their first playoff series since the NBA Finals in 2011. Dallas will face the top-seeded Phoenix Suns in the second round.

Doncic said that they would have to play their best basketball to beat them.

The site of the first playoff closeout for the Mavs is now the home of Doncic, who had 24 points, nine rebound and eight assists in the series finale. In the finale, Doncic played the entire second half after missing the first three games due to a strained left calf.

It is not easy to win his first series, said first-year Mavs coach Kidd, the point guard of the 2011 title team.

The Jazz held on to their halftime lead for only nine minutes, 32 seconds, as the Mavs exploded on the board. The Mavs went to a small lineup and got rolling by creating clean looks from 3-point range, just as the LA Clippers did when they came back from a 25-point deficit and eliminated the Jazz in the playoffs last season.

In the second half, the Mavs made 14 3-pointers, the most in a playoff half in franchise history, as the Jazz had total field goals.

We were able to get in the paint, trust each other, and make things happen, and that's what we did in the series.

In the six games, he averaged 27.8 points per game and committed only four turnovers. It's the highest scoring average in a playoff series by a player who committed five or fewer turnovers, bettering Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird's 27.2 points per game in the 1986 Eastern Conference semifinals.

Dallas dominated the third quarter. The Mavs went 8-of-12 from 3-point range in the quarter, when Doncic had 10 points. The Dallas baskets were the result of beautiful ball movement after Doncic passed out of traps and double-teams.

Doncic said that he likes sharing the ball. We have been playing against hits the entire season and I think we did well. Then it is basketball, four-on-three.

Nine of the 13 buckets the Mavs made in the quarter were assisted, and 10 of them were layups. The Mavs made more 3s than the Jazz in the quarter.

The longest active streak in the Western Conference is six straight playoffs, but the Jazz failed to advance to the conference finals during that time. Rudy Gobert said that a first-round exit represented a lot of disappointment for the franchise.

The Jazz star guard, who had 23 points, eight rebound and nine assists in the elimination loss, said that if they were given another chance, they could get it. I am not ready to talk about that right now. I am not. To be completely honest with you, I am not in that state of mind. I am really not. It sucks to me. If you ask me that in a week, maybe, but I am not in a position to answer that for you.