OKLAHOMA CITY – Each section of the Paycom Center covered in alternating blue and white gift jerseys, a relentless crowd reached a fever pitch midway through the third quarter Tuesday night. The top-seeded Thunder broke out in the second half of their second-round clash with the Mavericks, launching a flurry of 3-pointers from around the white-painted arc en route to a 117-95 Game 1 victory over Dallas.
The pattern should be expected at this point. OKC led the entire NBA in outside shooting (38.9%) during the regular season, a key part of the Thunder’s rise to the top of the Western Conference standings, even though Oklahoma City boasted the youngest group in claim first place in NBA history.
Opponents have been waiting for OKC’s inexperience to rear its ugly head at some point during these playoffs. And there was Dallas’ star-studded defense, Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, leading a 12-4 run to open the second half, cutting the host’s lead to single digits. But the Thunder, those pesky Thunder, stood their ground. The ball bounced around the perimeter, whether after drives and kicks or dizzying ball movement. OKC scored six 3-pointers in the third after calling a timeout to quell Dallas’ quick explosion. The Thunder would finish 16 of 35 from deep, thanks to a playoff franchise record 29 assists.
“It’s a muscle we’ve developed right now,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneualt said. “We have had to endure many of those situations during the course of the season. I think a lot of this comes from respect for the opponent. “We know this is a heavyweight matchup.”
Oklahoma City continued to throw punches. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made a couple of step-backs from distance, part of his game-high 29 points midway through that stretch of the third quarter. Isaiah Joe, only 24 years old, once waived by Philadelphia, delivered when asked with two triples. Rookie guard Cason Wallace, just 20 years old, was making money from the corners. Sophomore guard Jalen Williams struggled mightily and then racked up 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, most of it during a critical stretch with SGA resting on the bench.
“I thought our pace in the second half was really good,” Daigneault said. “Really smart attacks, a good mix of aggression, really taking advantage of what the defense gave us.”
The Mavericks simply couldn’t keep up. A faster pace benefited Dallas against Los Angeles in their first-round matchup, allowing Irving and Doncic to slip around screens and through cracks in the Clippers’ defense to score or throw passes to waiting shooters.
Doncic seemed a step slow, almost limping, needing a break in the post under the basket when a timeout was called not even six full minutes into the first quarter. He has been battling a knee injury since he collided with Los Angeles forward Terance Mann, and it was a game-time decision entering the Mavericks’ fourth outing against the Clippers. Even with three days of rest after Dallas’ series-clinching win on Friday, Doncic didn’t have the foundation to lurch into his own stepbacks that Gilgeous-Alexander accomplished with ease. When Doncic hit his first and only 3-pointer of the game in his usual office, he raised his palms in obvious relief. Doncic would finish just 1-of-8 from beyond the arc, scoring 19 points on a dismal 6-of-19 from the field.
“Who cares? We lost,” Doncic said. “We just have to move on to the next one. I have to be better. We have to be better. We are known for the problems we had in Game 1.” Dallas is now 0 -5 in Game 1 under head coach Jason Kidd, fresh off a new contract extension “But we have to stay focused,” Doncic continued “They are a great team, a great defensive team and a great offensive team. , so it won’t be easy at all.”
Perhaps it was his lack of a true threat to take any shot off the dribble that helped OKC’s tactical defense. But the Thunder were nothing short of impressive, chasing Doncic over screens and forcing him under the arc. An expert in the pick-and-roll, where the additions of rookie center Dereck Lively and the subsequent acquisition of Daniel Gafford, at the trade deadline, have added a necessary aerial dimension to Doncic’s preferred action, he did not connect a single only lob pass in this Game 1. His first attempt at an alley-oop was lifted so high above the endless arms of Chet Holmgren that it was too high and too far for Lively to finish it, and the ball bounced too high in the iron.
Maybe it was Holmgren’s incredible reach, his bony hands blinding Doncic’s vision as OKC’s standout rookie center shielded himself to restrict any lane of travel. “I’m just trying to do everything I can to make it as difficult as possible,” Holmgren said. “It sounds like I’m trying to simplify it, but I’m really not. That’s all. “Be as active as you can.” Maybe it was the Thunder’s swarming rotations, where Williams stood tall against Gafford, or Josh Giddey was already in the paint ready to touch any roller, idle like a safety hawking in the middle of a football field. There always seemed to be a Thunder player there to free the ball, each time a big Dallas player foolishly stuffed it below the waist. . Oklahoma City had eight full days at its disposal to refine every element of its defensive front. “I thought our week of preparation beat us tonight,” Daigneault said, “but now we have to win the next gap.”
The Thunder also combated their opponents’ physical advantage for a stretch by pairing Holmgren with the other Jaylin Williams, Arkansas’ big man. “We like that look against this team in certain situations. We wanted to take a look at everything tonight,” Daigneault said. “We were too small there late. “We played with different lineups.”
Whatever combination OKC made, the defense seemed to work. Dallas only scored 5 points in 13 possessions ended by a rolling man, two of those points came from a lob from Derrick Jones Jr. to Gafford, not from Doncic or Irving, and the others came from Gafford’s trips to the foul line .
The Mavericks will need Tim Hardaway Jr., once a strong Sixth Man of the Year candidate, to find his form on the outside. He missed all four of his 3-point attempts while Maxi Kleiber, arguably Dallas’ most impactful floor spacer, is out with a shoulder injury. Josh Green came off the bench to hit his first two 3-pointers, but then went just 1-for-6 the rest of the game. Every time Doncic found Green open on the weak side and his shot resonated off the iron, you could see the Slovenian superstar’s optimism waning. Kidd knocked down the Mavericks’ starters 22 with 5:14 left.
“When you have a great rim protector in Chet, he’s going to make things difficult,” Irving said. “We had a lot of opportunities where we had Chet away from the basket and hit our bigs in the pocket, but we didn’t have as much success as we needed to.”
If they can’t achieve greater results on Thursday, forget about the lightning, these Thunder are ready to strike for the second time and continue clouding the West’s upper echelon for years to come.
