With Oklahoma City focusing on Dallas’ superstars, P.J. Washington led the Mavericks with 27 points.
DALLAS – The name P.J. Washington lacks the marquee luster of superstars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, but sometimes anonymity steps to the forefront to make the difference.
Twice, actually.
Fresh off a career postseason-high 29 points in Game 2, Washington conjured an encore showing Saturday for Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals. The trade-deadline acquisition gave Oklahoma City all it could handle in reeling off a team-high 27 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 105-101 triumph.
Dallas leads the series 2-1 going into Monday’s Game 4 (9:30 ET, TNT).
“There are some guys that when they play you…” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said, before pausing to rethink his response. “When [Washington] was in Charlotte, it felt like every shot went in.”
Welcome to postseason Déjà vu, coach.
Here are five takeaways from the matchup:
1. P.J. Washington ‘can’t be stopped’
Two pre-teens staked out spots down the hall from the postgame interview room waiting on players to pass. As Washington exited, both giddily jumped up and down.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” one said. “P.J., P.J., PJ.”
In the most physical matchup of this series, Washington set the tone with a cutting dunk over Chet Holmgren off a Kyrie Irving assist to start the game. Washington poured in 11 points in the opening quarter on 5-for-7 shooting and finished the first half with a team-high 19 points.
The game-defining stretch arrived in the third quarter. Washington knocked down two 3-pointers, tallied a dunk and pulled down two boards during a Dallas 16-0 run that turned a 10-point deficit into a 6-point advantage for the home team.
“P.J. Washington can’t be stopped,” the broadcast announcer said after the forward drilled a 23-footer off a Luka Doncic assist to put Dallas ahead 71-65 with 4:30 remaining in the third quarter.
Geared up to slow down Doncic and Irving, OKC continues to leave Washington wide open in the corners. It’s a situation the Thunder need to remedy.
“It’s open shots,” Washington said. “So, for me, just take them with confidence. I’ve been working on them. I’ve been waiting to get here my whole career. I’m enjoying every second of it.”
It shows.
Dallas is 4-2 this postseason when Washington scores 20 points or more.
P.J. Washington drops 27 points and Dallas fends off OKC in Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
2. Dallas dominates the paint
Even though the Mavericks outrebounded OKC by just seven total boards, the home team destroyed the visitors on the offensive glass 15-6.
That helped Dallas take 10 more field goal attempts than the Thunder, while outscoring them 16-9 on second-chance points. The Mavericks also seized a 52-38 scoring edge in the paint, as they shot 51% and attempted seven more shots from that area.
Dallas entered this series with the overall size advantage. It certainly helps that the Mavericks’ roster features a tank at guard in the 6-foot-7 Doncic, who finished with 15 boards to go with his 22 points.
“I think whoever wins the rebounding game is gonna win a lot of these games,” Washington said. “We know we have an advantage in size. But it’s about who wants it more. We have to be that team every night.”
Holmgren led OKC with eight rebounds, but he can’t do it alone against a Mavs team featuring five players that pulled down at least five boards.
OKC entered Game 3 ranked 12th among the 16 playoff teams in offensive rebounds per game (9.0), while Dallas stood at fourth (11.9).
So far in these playoffs, teams winning the overall battle on the glass own a record of 42-11.
3. Second-half Kyrie is real
We saw more evidence in Game 3 as Irving racked up 14 of his 22 points in the second half. Washington and Doncic provided the opening-half spark for Dallas, scoring 19 and 14 points, respectively.
Irving carried the Mavs home.
The 32-year-old shot 2-for-6 in the third quarter, before turning on the burners to cook in the final frame. Irving connected on all four of his fourth-quarter attempts for eight points and finished with a team-high seven assists.
“One of my coaches just came up to me and said I waited too long,” Irving said.
So far, in the second half of home games throughout the playoffs, Irving averages 21.3 points, shooting 61.5% from the field, 52% from 3-point range and 80% from the free-throw line.
In the fourth quarter alone this postseason, he’s hitting 53.2% from the floor and 52.6% from deep while averaging 8.1 points.
Irving, Doncic and Washington combined for 67.6% of Dallas’ scoring in Game 3, marking the first time since 2007 that three Mavs starters produced at least 22 points apiece in the same game.
Kyrie Irving’s array of skills, unpredictability too much for Thunder
4. Josh Giddey remained in the starting lineup
Giddey remained in the starting lineup for Game 3 despite a couple of rough showings to start this series. The guard registered a minus-20 over a season-low 11 minutes in Game 2, and he played just 17 minutes in Game 1.
Still, OKC coach Mark Daigneault showed faith in the 21-year-old for Game 3 by leaving him among the starters. Giddey played 13 minutes in Game 3, finishing at minus-1, second-best among the Thunder starters.
Giddey scored nine points on 4-for-8 shooting, but three reserves – Aaron Wiggins, Cason Wallace, and Isaiah Joe – logged more minutes than the Australian, who has started in every game of his career.
It’s unlikely Daigneault would remove Giddey from the starting lineup. But it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see the guard’s minutes diminished even more.
Giddey hasn’t proven effective enough as a shot-maker to stay on the floor. Assigning him different roles on that end within the system hasn’t worked. Defensively, he’s been a liability, too. That’s the fate of most tasked with staying in front of Doncic and Irving.
OKC now owns a record of 0-3 when it surrenders 100 points or more in these playoffs.
5. Luka Doncic: ‘We didn’t do anything yet.’
Doncic absorbed a pounding from Oklahoma City defensive maven Lu Dort in the most physical contest of the series and was later asked whether he believed the Western Conference was wide open enough for the Mavs to win it.
“If you’re here, you’ve got to believe and I believe we can,” the NBA scoring champion said. “But it’s going to be hard. We didn’t do anything yet. We won two games and we need to win four. We’re just gonna keep going.”
It’s just a one-game advantage for Dallas, but the Mavs own the momentum going into Monday’s Game 4. They’ve lost only once at home throughout this postseason, and Dallas has won 10 of its last 12 at American Airlines Center.
OKC, meanwhile, is coming off consecutive losses after starting the playoffs 5-0. The Thunder are now 0-2 when they allow 100 points or more, and the club is 17-9 (regular season and playoffs) coming off a defeat.
On the bright side, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander produced his second straight 30-10-5 game with 31 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals and four blocks. The performance marked the first time in the playoffs or regular season he put together back-to-back 30-10-5 outings.
SGA and Holmgren each logged four blocks or more in Game 3, marking the first time that feat had been accomplished since Steven Adams and Serge Ibaka did it in 2014.
“It’s extremely competitive,” Holmgren said of this series. “Both teams really want it.”
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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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