Depleted Mavericks upset Thunder in OKC, 121-115, Win Season Series

The Dallas Mavericks closed out their season series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in a hostile road environment on Thursday night. These two teams have developed one of the best rivalries in the NBA in the last year, which almost reached a boiling point in their last meeting on Friday in Dallas. This game was still fresh on everyone’s mind despite 12 players being out between both teams, including Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.

With all their injuries, Dallas started Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, Kessler Edwards, PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford for their 22nd different starting lineup of the season, while OKC had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cason Wallace, Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, and Jaylin Williams as their first five.

Read more: Mavs’ Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving Snubbed from All-Star starting lineup

Kessler Edwards getting the start was a little surprising; It was even more surprising to see him as the primary defender on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is coming off a career-high 54 points Wednesday night. In the first few minutes, it didn’t look good as the Thunder got off to a quick 8-2 start, but all eight of those were from Jalen Williams. But Dallas battled back to tie it at 10 and 13 before the first timeout.

Dallas then went to a zone and tried to slow down OKC’s offense, which helped them take the lead thanks to Spencer Dinwiddie converting an and-one to give him 10 early points. But an SGA drive-and-kick to Alex Caruso in the corner gave them a 34-33 lead heading into the second quarter.

OKC continued the late run into the second quarter, outscoring the Mavs 9-2 to go up by eight and getting close to dangerous territory for the Mavs. Fortunately, Brandon Williams provided quality minutes for the short-handed MAVs and helped them chip the lead back to three.

But Daniel Gafford was kicked in the face soon after. It wasn’t malicious, as he was pushed while fighting for position, and an OKC player backpedaling couldn’t get out of the way when the back of his foot collided with Gafford’s face. OKC used it to open up a 9-point advantage, their biggest lead of the game. It forced Markieff Morris minutes as a small ball five as Maxi Kleber is on a tight minutes restriction. And yet, Olivier-Maxence Prosper gave the Mavs big minutes off the bench, and he was able to cut the lead to two before the end of the half.

OKC briefly went up by eight after back-to-back three-pointers with about a minute and a half left in the half, but Dallas hit back-to-back three-pointers of their own and the Thunder went into the half with a 62-60 lead.

Read more: Kyrie Irving’s candid take on what he expects from Mavericks-Thunder

Daniel Gafford returned in the second half as the Mavericks went on a 21-6 run, but how the Mavs got the 21 was interesting. The game had been mostly quiet in the first half, but after the Mavericks went ahead 74-68, Lu Dort tried to come through a screen by opening up the limp Gafford in the groin area, which led to Dort being pushed out of the game and a Technical foul on Jalen Williams. This play alone ended up being a five point game, a massive swing at that point in the game.

Dallas would essentially hold a ten point advantage for most of the quarter as the Mavs continued to get to the free throw line and get positive minutes from O-Max Prosper. However, a buzzer beater by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the end of the quarter brought them back under double digits, 91-83.

OKC got it to six a couple of times in the opening minutes, but the fourth quarter is Kyrie Irving’s quarter of 10.

After briefly going up by 11, Kessler Edwards hit a layup and the Thunder made two straight baskets, quickly cutting the lead to five with about eight minutes left. SGA hit two free throws after we hadn’t gotten to the line much to this point to cut the lead to three with seven minutes to go and just like that we had a ball game.

OKC started double-teaming Kyrie Irving before he even crossed half court, which let the Mavs play 4-on-3 and that would let the Mavs get open shots from behind the arc. Spencer Dinwiddie hit a three, as did Quentin Grimes as they held a two-possession lead with 4:10 to play.

Maxi Kleber’s first point of the game came at a critical juncture when he tapped off an offensive rebound to Spencer Dinwiddie and then moved to the corner where Dinwiddie found him for the wide open shot three. The next Mavs possession ended in a Tomahawk from Dinwiddie, putting them up eight in the final three minutes. Kleber then found Quentin Grimes on a superb swing pass to put them up by nine as the clock hit the two minute mark.

OKC got it down to six in the final minute, then Shai Gilgeous-Alexander buried a layup with 32.2 seconds left, cutting the Mavs’ lead to four. Quentin Grimes was buried with 28 seconds to go as the Thunder looked to extend the game, he went 1/2 to put the Mavs up by five. Dallas really put the Thunder to work on the next few possessions, forcing a late contested turnover up the middle from Jalen Williams hitting the iron, and PJ Washington essentially iced the game with two free throws. The Mavericks would beat the Thunder 121-115, giving them the season series win.

Dallas got a little lucky in the final seconds when Jalen Williams hit a three to cut the lead to four, then Spencer Dinwiddie was called for an offensive foul. OKC had a brilliant play-call to free up Alex Caruso under the basket, but he fumbled it out of bounds. The Mavericks won despite their 20 turnovers and OKC’s 15/37 shooting from three because they went to the line and converted, with Dallas going 29/36 from the charity stripe. The Mavs also shot the ball well from behind the arc, shooting 14/31.

Spencer Dinwiddie led the Mavericks with a massive 28 points and is shooting 11/14 from the floor. Kyrie Irving wasn’t too far behind with 24 points, and then there was PJ Washington, the OKC killer himself, putting up 22 points and a career-high 19 rebounds (could be stat-corrected to 20 after the game). Olivier-Maxence Prosper (14 points) and Daniel Gafford (12) were also in double figures.

Jalen Williams led all scorers with 33 points and added seven assists, four rebounds and four steals. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 31 points. Jaylin Williams (12 points) was the only other Thunder in double figures.

Dallas has an NBA Finals rematch at home against the Boston Celtics on Saturday.

Read more: 3 takeaways from Mavs’ short-handed loss to Timberwolves

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