The Dallas Mavericks and the Utah Jazz had a bit of a rivalry during their regular-season games this season. The Jazz has beaten the Mavs twice this year and lost once, but the one loss on March 7 was a tough night for Rudy Gobert in particular.
Gobert failed the one-on-one challenge with Luka Doncic down the final stretch of the game, a week after Gobert locked Doncic down to help the Jazz to a win. The game also saw the Mavericks bench talk a lot of trash to Gobert, with details of what was being said being revealed by Mavericks guard Theo Pinson on the Locked on Mavs Podcast.
“We didn’t even say anything crazy,” Pinson said. “He did a hook shot that hit Jerry West on the backboard and we were just like ‘Woah, what was that.’ I think it got into his head that we were like ‘What was that?’ I think that we had him for the rest of the game.”
What did the Dallas Mavericks bench say to Rudy Gobert to "get into his head" last game?
Theo Pinson gives us the hilarious explaination. pic.twitter.com/wb15URoy8z
— Locked On Mavs (@LockedOnMavs) March 15, 2022
Gobert has previously expressed his dissatisfaction with the Dallas Mavericks bench and their verbal exchanges with Gobert in previous games. He went on a long-rant after the last game against the Mavs about referees needing to control trash-talk from the bench. It is evident now that Gobert was referring to Pinson, who has become a crucial glue guy for the Mavs despite not playing.
The Mavericks and the Jazz facing off in the first round of the playoffs is becoming reality by the day, as the teams recently swapped the 4 and 5 seed with the Mavs overtaking Utah. They will face each other again on March 27.
