OKLAHOMA CITY – That turtle-like pace the Dallas Mavericks exhibited during their 22-point loss to the Oklahoma City
Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal playoff series was nowhere to be found on Thursday night at the Paycom Center.
Instead, the Mavs were pushing the pace so fast that had they been on the freeway, they might have gotten a speeding ticket. In the end, the faster tempo worked to perfection as the Mavs shifted into overdrive and sped their way to a 119-110 victory over the Thunder to knot this best-of-seven series at 1-1.
The series now shifts to American Airlines Center in Dallas for Games 3 and 4 starting Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and finishing up on Monday at 8:30 p.m. before it comes back to OKC on Wednesday for Game 5.
Coach Jason Kidd challenged his team to speed up the game in order to put more pressure on OKC’s defense while also allowing the Mavs more opportunities to score more points. The plan worked as this was the first time since the playoffs started that the Thunder allowed more than 95 points in a game.
And the Mavs had 99 points – after the third quarter – when they carried a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter in a game that had more than its share of chippy moments.
“We tried to get over the speed limit tonight,” Kidd said. “We’ve been under the speed limit. We were more in the school zone speed limit (in Game 1).
“We were running (Thursday), and we’ve got to continue to keep running if we want to have a chance to win this series.”
If the Mavs just win their three home games in this series, they’ll advance to the Western Conference Finals for the second time in three seasons. They marched one step closer towards achieving that goal by winning the rebound battle (44-41), by keeping their turnovers to a minimum (10), by not racking up a rash of fouls early in the game, by playing some tenacious defense, and by limiting the amount of three-pointers the Thunder are accustomed to making (10-of-30).
Meanwhile, Luka Dončić and P.J. Washington set the tone from an offensive standpoint, and Tim Hardaway Jr. and Josh Green added some explosive scoring off the bench for the Mavs. It all added up to an all-around gutsy performance for the Mavs as they took homecourt advantage away from the Thunder, who were the top seed in the Western Conference this season.
For the Mavs, this was reminiscent of the first round of the playoffs when the Mavs dropped Game 1 to the Los Angeles Clippers, but fought back to capture the second game in LA and take control of that series.
“This is a great team win,” Kidd said. “We’ve done it on the road twice. It’s just character. This is a good group.
“This group’s trust is very connected. Outside noise doesn’t distract or bother us. We’re here to play the game of basketball and try to win and try to put our best foot forward.”
Dončić, who was just 6-of-19 from the floor with only 19 points in the series opener, bounced back in a very big way Thursday. In the first quarter alone, the six-year veteran scored 16 points and was 6-of-8 from the field, including 4-of-5 from three-point land.
That marksmanship by Dončić continued throughout the game as he finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals, and was 11-of-21 from the field, including 5-of-8 from downtown.
“I think today was one of the hardest games I had to play,” said Doncic, who is still dealing with pain in his right knee. “I’m battling out there.
“I tried to do my best to help the team win. If I have a great start, then the team is going to follow me, so they follow me and (Kyrie Irving).”
Dončić found out Wednesday that he finished a disappointing third in the voting for the NBA Most Valuable Player award. And that also could have been motivation for him to prove that was a mistake by the voters, who picked Denver’s Nikola Jokic as the MVP winner and OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the runner-up.
“The results are the results,” Kidd said before the game. “You talk about three of the best players in the world with the Joker, Shai and Luka. It’s
incredible to be mentioned with those three. But Luka has no control – or the Joker or Shai – of who votes for who. That’s the media’s right.
“Does (Dončić) come out and play at a higher level? We just need him to play at the MVP level he’s been playing all season. There’s no just one game that he has to go show he should have won the MVP. He just has to play his game tonight and help us find a way to win.”
That’s precisely what Dončić did. And a lot of his teammates hopped on board for the ride, while also chipping in to help the Mavs, who also got 29 points and 11 rebounds from Washington, 17 points in 19 minutes from Hardaway, 13 points and seven boards from Daniel Gafford, and 11 points in 16 minutes from Green.
Dončić and Washington became the first pair of teammates to score at least 25 points, grab at least 10 rebounds and convert at least five three-pointers apiece in a playoff game, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Washington scored 11 of his points in the first quarter and finished the game converting 11-of-18 shots, including 7-of-11 from beyond the three-point arc.
“I felt good last night and this morning,” Washington said. “Going into the game I had confidence in my shot. I knew I was going to get open corner shots, so I just had to come in here and knock them down.”
With the faster pace on their agenda, the Mavs scored at least 30 points in each of the first three quarters, leading 36-33 after the first quarter and 68-62 at halftime.
OKC, in fact, didn’t take its first lead of the game (72-71) until less than three minutes into in the third quarter. But the Mavs quickly re-gained control and held a 112-101 lead when Dončić scored four points and Washington followed with a dunk with 4:14 left.
Hardaway then fired in the dagger when, with the 24-second shot clock about to expire, he fired in a three-pointer from the corner which increased the Mavs’ lead to 117-106 with 2:25 remaining in the game.
The frenetic pace was highlighted by the fact that the Mavs had just 19 assists in Game 1, but on Thursday they had 20 of their 30 assists – in the first half.
“I thought the guys did a great job of executing the game plan and I thought the ball was moving,” Kidd said. “I thought PJ set the tone. We played through him a little bit in the post, and then I think that sparked him. He was big for us tonight.
“We didn’t go through Luka or Kai early. We just let the ball find them. We were going through other guys, and I thought the ball was moving, the guys were moving, we were unselfish and guys were making shots.”
Irving only scored nine points, but he distributed 11 assists and picked up two steals and two blocks, while also turning up the juice on the defensive end of the court.
“Kai has been great this whole playoff run,” Kidd said. “He’s probably not labeled a defender, but here of late he’s playing defense at a high level. He’s taken the challenge.
“I thought tonight he did set the table for a lot of guys offensively. And I thought his defense was really, really good, and we’re going to need that as we go forward.”
Overall, the Mavs got what they wanted out of this trip to OKC – a split of the first two games.
“I felt like it was a must-win game for us, and in those games I feel like we play our best,” Washington said. “We got out in transition, we didn’t foul and we rebounded well and we played great team ball.”
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