An injured and bloody Luka Dončić and the Dallas Mavericks are back in it.
The Mavericks, after a blowout loss, 117-95, to open the series, vaulted past the Oklahoma City Thunder 119-110 on Thursday night at the Paycom Center. The win squared the series at 1, as the teams head to Dallas for Game 3 on Saturday afternoon. The Mavericks handed the Thunder their first loss in this year’s playoffs.
“They have great players,” Doncic said. “They have great chemistry, great team. And it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be a fight till the end. So, just much respect to Oklahoma (City), but it’s big time we won this game.”
Dončić was just shy of a triple-double and P.J. Washington erupted with a playoff-career high 29 points, including seven triples, to push the Mavericks to the win. Their 119 points was the most the Thunder have surrendered this postseason after the top seed in the Western Conference dismantled the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round and sent them to ‘Cancun’.
“I thought P.J. set the tone,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “We played through him a little bit in the post and I think that sparked him. He was big for us tonight.”
Doncic had a noticeable limp around the court, often grimacing as he played through a sprained right knee and a bloodied left knee.
“I think that was one of the hardest games I’ve had to play,” Doncic said. “I’m battling out there trying to do my best to help the team win.”
Dončić and the Mavericks came out on fire in the first quarter, and he went on triple-double watch right away. Dončić put up 16 points and hit four of the Mavericks’ eight 3-pointers in the opening period to give them the lead. He was responsible for 24 of the Mavericks’ 36 points in the frame. The Mavericks’ lead was trimmed to four points when the clock hit zero after Thunder center Chet Holmgren pulled off a ridiculous buzzer-beater off a full-court inbounds pass.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhile the Mavericks nearly pulled away before halftime and mounted a 15-point lead, Oklahoma City went on a 15-4 surge to make it a one possession game. Despite giving up 68 points in the first 24 minutes of action, the Thunder entered the locker room feeling good about themselves, only down by six, 68-62, at the break.
Aaron Wiggins provided a much-needed scoring punch for the Thunder to kick off the second half. After starting the third quarter in place of Josh Giddey, Wiggins spearheaded the Thunder on a 13-4 burst and he gave them their first lead of the night on a clutch floater in the lane.
However, that was as big of a lead as the Thunder would enjoy. The Mavericks, with Dončić on the bench getting a rest, used an 18-4 extended run that included 10 straight points from Tim Hardaway Jr., who had only played in three playoff games so far, to take a double-digit lead again.
Though the Thunder kept it close throughout the fourth quarter, the Mavericks kept them at arm’s length the rest of the way. Dončić seemed to have a response for everything, and the Thunder had a rough stretch where they made just 1 of 11 field-goal attempts in the waning moments, allowing the Mavericks to pull away.
“We’ve got a really good opponent that played really well tonight,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We tried to scrap back into it. I thought our effort was really good tonight. I thought we tried to gear it up a couple different times. I thought where we left something to be desired was execution.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led both team with 33 points, 12 boards and eight assists in the loss. He shot 13-of-24 from the field. Jalen Williams had 20 points, and Holmgren finished with 11 points and six rebounds. The Thunder, who swept the Pelicans in the first round, had not allowed more than 95 points in a game in the postseason until Thursday night.
Dončić led Dallas with 29 points, 10 rebounds and seven dimes. Washington pulled down 11 rebounds and four assists to go with his 29 points while shooting 7-of-11 from downtown. Hardaway added 17 points off the bench after shooting 6-of-9 from the field. Kyrie Irving had 11 assists and nine points, but he shot just 2-of-8 from the floor.
The Mavericks are dealing with significant health issues. Dončić has been suffering from a leg injury and tweaked an ankle briefly on Thursday, while Daniel Gafford played through a wrist injury. Yet they pulled off a much-needed road win early in the series. If they are going to reach a second Western Conference finals in three years, that was critical before returning to ‘Big D’.
