Deron Williams Takes Blame For Mavs Loss to the Utah Jazz

The Dallas Mavericks fell in a crushing defeat on a last second deep 3-pointer by Rodney Hood last night. Deron Williams takes the blame for the loss, or at least losing in that way.

No matter how you look at last night’s game against the Jazz, it is hard to swallow exactly what happened to the Dallas Mavericks. After playing such a great game and fighting through a lot of adversity, it seemed wrong that the loss came in the way that it did.

But, considering the start to this Mavericks season, I guess it makes sense.

The Mavs played a tough game against a tough opponent in a tough arena last night. The Utah Jazz are 17-10 on the season so far, including 10 of their last 12. The two losses came to the Warriors and the Heat.

Clearly the Jazz are one of the hotter teams in the league currently, and the Mavs are still not there. Coming into it, most people expected a convincing win for Utah. This was not the case though.

Dallas fought hard in the first half, hitting shots and getting stops to eventually only trail by 6 after the first 24 minutes. The third quarter was a little less than stellar as the Mavs were outscored 26-19. This left the Mavericks trailing by 13 with one quarter left to play.

Joe Johnson made that a 15-point deficit with the first shot of the 4th quarter, but then Dallas went to work. Led by a balanced attack from Harrison Barnes, Seth Curry, Wesley Matthews, Justin Anderson, and D-Will, the Mavs clawed their way back into a tie at 100-100 with only 45 seconds to play.

Dallas got a tough, gritty stop against the Jazz with less than 24 seconds left and the whole crowd held their breath as surely the Mavs would be taking the final shot of regulation. Deron Williams had other ideas though.

With 10 seconds on the clock, D-Will got a pass from Seth Curry and fired up a contested three that caught back iron. Rodney Hood grabbed the rebound and dribbled to the other end where he drilled a 26-footer with 0.8 seconds remaining on the clock.

D-Will was interviewed after the game by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, where he took responsibility for the loss after the highly questionable shot. Here is what Williams had to say.

Clearly the Mavericks expect smarter and better play from one of the veterans on the team like Deron, but what happened, happened and it is time to look towards the next game tomorrow against the Sacramento Kings. Until then, take this loss with some hope, as the Mavs are looking better.