OKLAHOMA CITY — With every section of the Paycom Center draped in alternating blue and white T-shirts, a relentless crowd reached fever pitch midway through Tuesday night’s third quarter. The top-seeded Thunder erupted in the second half of their second-round matchup with the Mavericks, blasting a flurry of 3-pointers all around the white-painted arc en route to a 117-95 win in the first game against Dallas.
The model should be expected at this point. OKC led the entire NBA in outside shooting (38.9%) throughout the regular season, a key part of the Thunder’s rise to the top of the Western Conference standings – despite Oklahoma City making the youngest group to ever earn the top seed in NBA history.
Rivals expected OKC’s inexperience to show at some point during these playoffs. And there was Dallas’ star-studded backcourt, Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, going on a 12-4 run to open the second half, cutting the host’s advantage to single digits. But the Thunder, the damn Thunder, held on. The ball was ringing around the perimeter, whether after drive-and-kicks or after dizzying ball movement. OKC made six 3-pointers in the third after calling a timeout to quell Dallas’ quick burst. The Thunder would finish 16 of 35 from deep, thanks to a franchise playoff record 29 assists.
“It’s a muscle we’ve developed at this point,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneualt said. “We had to endure a lot of these situations during the season. I think a lot of it comes from respect for the opponent. We know this is a heavyweight clash.
Oklahoma City just kept hitting. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made two step-backs from distance, part of his game-high 29 points, midway through that third-quarter stretch. Isaiah Joe, barely 24 years old and once waived by Philadelphia, delivered when called upon with his two triples. Rookie guard Cason Wallace, only 20 years old, was corner money. Sophomore guard Jalen Williams struggled mightily, then compiled 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter — most of it during a critical stretch with Gilgeous-Alexander resting on the bench.
“I just thought our pace in the second half was really good,” Daigneault said. “Really smart attacks, good mix of aggression, really taking what the defense gave us.”
The Mavericks just couldn’t keep up. A faster pace benefited Dallas against the Los Angeles Clippers in their first-round matchup, allowing Irving and Dončić to slip around screens and through crevices in the Clippers’ defense to score or throw passes to the shooters waiting.
Dončić looked a slow step, almost hobbled, needing to rest on the post under the basket when a timeout was called just six full minutes into the first quarter. He’s been dealing with a knee injury since crashing into Los Angeles swingman Terance Mann and was a game-time decision in the Mavericks’ fourth outing against the Clippers. Even with three days off following Dallas’ decisive win on Friday, Dončić lacked the foundation required to launch into his own stepbacks which Gilgeous-Alexander handled with ease. When Dončić scored his first and only triple of the match in his usual office, he raised his palms in obvious relief. Dončić would finish just 1 of 8 from beyond the arc, scoring 19 points on 6 of 19 shooting 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 struggling in the first game. Dallas has now an 0-5 record in the first game under head coach Jason Kidd, fresh off a new contract extension. “But we have to focus,” Dončić continued. “It’s a great one. team, a great defensive team, a great offensive team, so it’s not going to be easy at all.”
Perhaps it was his lack of real threat to go for any shot off the dribble that helped OKC’s tactical defense. But the Thunder were nothing short of impressive, chasing Dončić above screens and forcing him below the arc. Like a savant of the pick-and-roll, where the additions of rookie center Dereck Lively and trade deadline acquisition Daniel Gafford added a necessary aerial dimension to Dončić’s preferred action, he didn’t managed to connect on a single lobbed pass Tuesday. Her first alley-oop attempt was thrown so high over Chet Holmgren’s endless arms that it was too high and too far for Lively to finish and the ball flew high off the iron.
Perhaps it was Holmgren’s incredible reach, his bony hands blinding Dončić’s vision as OKC’s standout rookie center set up to restrict driving lanes. “I just try to do everything I can to make it as difficult as possible,” Holmgren said. “It seems like I’m trying to make things stupid for you, but I’m really not. That’s all it is. Just be as active as possible.
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, idling like a safety peddler in the middle of a football field. There always seemed to be a Thunder player there to free the ball whenever a Dallas big stupidly put it under his waist. Oklahoma City had a full eight days to perfect every element of its defensive front. “I thought our week of preparation won us tonight,” Daigneault said, “but now we have to win the next gap.”
The Thunder also combatted their opponents’ physical advantage for a period by pairing Holmgren with Arkansas big man Jaylin Williams. “We like that look against this team in certain situations. We wanted to look at everything tonight,” said Daigneault. “We went there late as a kid. We played different formations.
Whatever combination OKC chose, the defense seemed to work. Dallas scored just five points on 13 possessions that ended with a roll man, two of those points coming from a Derrick Jones Jr. lob to Gafford — not Dončić or Irving — and the others coming from Gafford’s trips to the foul line.
The Mavericks will need Tim Hardaway Jr., once a strong candidate for Sixth Man of the Year, to return to form on the outside. He missed all four of his 3-point attempts while Maxi Kleber, arguably Dallas’ highest-scoring floor spacer, was sidelined with a shoulder injury. Josh Green came off the bench to hit his first two triples, but then was just 1 of 6 for the rest of the game. Every time Dončić found Green open on the weak side and his shot slammed off the iron, you could see the Slovenian superstar’s optimism wane. Kidd pulled the Mavericks’ starters down 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 we hit our bigs in the pocket, but we just weren’t as successful as we should have been.”
If the Mavs fail to put up better results on Thursday, these Thunder are poised to strike a second time and continue to reside in the upper echelon of the West for years to come.
News Source : sports.yahoo.com
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