It’s not complete revenge for their elimination in last year’s NBA playoffs, but the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
The Thunder advanced to the NBA Cup semifinals by stifling the Dallas Mavericks in a 118-104 home victory. They will face the winner of Wednesday’s quarterfinals between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets.
The victory began and ended as a mostly miserable day in the gym for Mavericks star Luka Dončić, which has become a recurring story for the Thunder, owners of the league’s best defensive rating.
The five-time All-Star finished the game with 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting. At halftime, he only scored two points on 1-of-7 shooting and four turnovers. He made his numbers more respectable in the fourth quarter, but Dallas never got within eight points of OKC.
With their primary offensive engine failing, the Mavericks gave up too much ground to the Thunder. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had one of his best games of the season with 39 points on 15-of-23 shooting with eight rebounds, five assists and three steals, completely outperforming his superstar counterpart.
The Thunder entered the quarterfinals as the top seed in the West by virtue of their performance in four pool games and looked like the conference’s top dog. Despite still being without Chet Holmgren, they far outscored the team that eliminated them in the Western Conference semifinals last year.
They’re now two wins away from more than $500,000 each in NBA Cup prize money, but Tuesday was also another encouraging step toward their biggest goal.