DALLAS – They ran in unison, two 7-foot-1 green beans, tasked with elevating respective MVP candidates in the second round of the playoffs during their first professional seasons. But when Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City’s starting center, turned to his defensive stance at the top of the key, he saw Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault gesturing for Holmgren to argue with his counterpart, the great Dereck Lively II of the Mavericks, before Luka Dončić or Kyrie Irving could do it. initiate any formal crime.
So Holmgren spread his endless arms, running along the baseline, while Lively’s curly hair floated behind him like a roadrunner outpacing a coyote, like two huge kids on the schoolyard, instead of on the hardwood under the watchful eyes of 20,325 people, including a Patrick on the court. Mahomes. Lively, to her credit, evaded Holmgren’s clutches. “He was playing tag for a while,” said Mavericks forward PJ Washington, who finished with another team-high 27 points.
Lively would eventually get tangled up and missed three of her first four attempts due to intentional fouls by OKC. Dallas head coach Jason Kidd removed the Duke product from his lineup shortly thereafter. Veteran shooter Tim Hardaway Jr. stepped in for him, leaving the 6-foot-7 Washington as the Mavericks’ biggest player on the floor. For a minute, it looked as if Dallas was putting together a smaller lineup without any of his traditional centers on the floor, something the Mavericks haven’t implemented with Maxi Kleber sidelined with a shoulder injury.
However, Lively’s break was short-lived. “He wanted him to just catch his breath,” Kidd said. Irving then encouraged Lively to stop thrashing around on the floor once he returned. “Take it as a compliment,” Irving said.
“You don’t have to run around and play hide-and-seek,” Kidd added.
Lively calmly exhausted her next four attempts at the line, going 5-of-8 to punish OKC’s strategy. The free throws allowed Dallas to establish its defense, where the Mavericks forced several turnovers following Lively’s trips to the charity stripe. Irving went on a streak of consecutive goals, and the Mavericks took a 2-1 lead over the Thunder, thanks to a hard-fought 105-101 victory over the visitors.
This Game 3 was much more physical than those touch fouls that dared Lively not to blink. These late-night playoff matchups pit the same defensive assignments against the same offensive stylists, and with each passing battle the familiarity of it only increases, the back-and-forth begins to feature a lot more scrapes and bruises. “What you’re seeing out there,” Irving said, “we’re definitely feeling it.” Irving appeared grimacing on one possession and extended his right hand. Thunder guard Jalen Williams writhed in pain late in the third quarter, clutching his pink sneaker and a bad left ankle. Dončić remains the lamest of all, suffering from a bothersome sprain in his right knee.
When asked where exactly the weight of the three matches defended by Luguentz Dort is felt, Dončić replied simply: “Everything.” The Oklahoma City Bulldogs’ perimeter blight has shadowed the ailing Dončić on every inch of the court. “Guys try to get into his head,” Washington said. Dort attacks Dončić every time he sees that he can get his way, and even those times when they still whistle at him. He committed five fouls in each of the first two games, before committing a sixth plus an ejection in this one. Dort is so annoying, so brutish, that Mahomes told the ESPN broadcast that he could suit up in the NFL. So when Dončić crashed to the ground after what resulted in a jump off a defensive rebound with 1:28 left, it was of course Dort whose own momentum toward the rock leveled Dončić like a rock. “He was on his back,” Dončić said. “I mean, right now, that’s the least of my problems.”
His knee remains the biggest obstacle of all. There was Dončić lying on the ground again with 12 seconds left, having landed on that troublesome joint after trying to sneak past a pair of Thunder players who were trapping him. “Obviously no one touched me,” Dončić said, flashing a smile. He was not as jovial every time he presented his arguments to crew chief John Goble, or whenever he presented his arguments to referee Billy Kennedy, as he always does during stoppages of play or during breaks or someone’s free throws. For much of this series, it seemed like Dončić was more focused on drawing fouls on Dort, only to send him to the side, rather than simply attacking the big man in front of him. He was just 1 of 4 from long range, scoring 22 points in a much clumsier performance than OKC rival Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose series of mid-range jumpers were as smooth as any package any player can produce in this scenario.
Dallas, however, now has Washington at its disposal, not to mention Irving’s ability to whip up any recipe at any time. For the second straight game, the Mavericks made a point of finding their key trade deadline acquisition in the post. Washington took another five 3-pointers after tying a career-high with seven in Game 2. When he’s not in the corners, always ready for a pass from a screaming Dončić, Washington is able to put the ball on the floor and attack the smaller Josh Giddey. , and the rest of OKC’s lineup isn’t named Holmgren. After four and a half seasons in Charlotte, failing to advance beyond the play-in tournament, Washington has reaffirmed the Dallas front office’s belief that he was worth a protected top-two first-round pick, and affirmed his own belief. that it could perform in this scenario. “I’ve been waiting to get here my entire career,” Washington said, “so I’m enjoying every second of it.”
Their next match will be on Monday, with extra time to recover, as Dončić pointed out, thanks to the morning tip from this match. Irving said recovering this time of year requires sacrificing time away from his wife and children. And yet, there is a championship at stake. The other Western Conference matchup features another 2-1 heavyweight matchup. The Mavericks acknowledge that they haven’t accomplished anything at this stage of their postseason, yet they have come tantalizingly close to what is currently considered a great shot at reaching the Finals. “Of course we can,” Dončić said. “You have to believe.”