DALLAS – As back and forth as the first half was on Sunday night, with both offenses thriving in their drastically different ways, the second half was all about massive, sweeping runs and scoreless droughts.
In a heartbreaking 105-103 loss on the road to the Mavericks to start a rare road-home back-to-back against the same team, the Thunder was completely disruptive defensively to start the game, registering seven points off of six Mavericks turnovers – including five Thunder steals – in the first 6:15 of action. The result was a 10-0 run to take a nine-point lead, but Dallas charged back with a 12-2 burst thanks to 5 first quarter offensive rebounds.
“They were crashing offensively. They were crashing the boards hard,” said Paul George. “They packed the paint and they made an emphasis to be there and be ready to slow us down.”
Dennis Schröder scored 8 straight points for the Thunder in the second quarter, which was a back-and-forth affair marked by excellent playmaking from the opposing reserve point guard JJ Barea. After 24 minutes had expired, the Thunder led by two, thanks in part to the season-high 31 fast break points it scored, including 19 in the first half.
Coming out of halftime, the Thunder didn’t score for the first four-and-a-half minutes to start the third quarter. Unable to get anything easy at the rim, the Thunder relied on jump shots in the half court that just didn’t drop very often all night. On the other end the Mavericks splashed in 4 of its 14 made three-pointers in the game, including some extremely difficult ones off the dribble and fading to one side or the other. Suddenly, the Thunder’s deficit was 11 heading into the fourth quarter after surrendering a 27-14 third period to Dallas.
“There were some times where we did a great job defensively, and obviously there were some other times we broke down,” said Head Coach Billy Donovan. “They’ve got a very, very skilled team—the guys have a good feel of how to play, and when you break down you leave yourself vulnerable to the three-point line.”
That all changed when an all-bench unit of Schröder, Raymond Felton, Hamidou Diallo, Patrick Patterson and Nerlens Noel flipped the script completely to start the final frame. Holding Dallas without a field goal for the first four minutes, the Thunder did a much better job pressuring Barea on the perimeter and limiting Dallas’ easy scoring chances. With Schröder playing hyper-aggressively downhill to the rim, the Thunder was able to get back into the game with a 17-4 burst.
“We made some shots, the defense was being aggressive just trying to get stops,” said Felton.
“They brought us back and kept us in the game,” said Westbrook.
The run was accentuated by a quintessential Thunder sequence. Noel blocked a driving layup attempt, Russell Westbrook dove into the first row to save the ball, Diallo tip-toed and spun on the sideline to receive a bang-bang outlet pass and then pushed the ball in transition, lofting an alley-oop to Patterson who flushed the ball home with two hands. The Thunder had regained the lead.
Mavericks and Thunder starters began trickling back into the game at that point, and Dallas put the pressure back on the Thunder. Paul George, who scored 36 points on 12-for-24 shooting, took over for the Thunder at the same time, however, raining in his team’s final 13 points of the game, including 11 during an 11-2 flurry that gave the Thunder a 101-95 lead with 1:58 to go.
From there, however, things fell apart. The Mavericks surged ahead on a 10-2 run to close the game not through beautiful offensive sets or high-level shot making. Instead it was because the Thunder put Dallas on the free throw line 8 times in the final two minutes, with the Mavericks making six. George and Westbrook each turned the ball over once in the closing stretch and missed a pair of jumpers that could have quelled the run.
“A back and forth game,” said George. “The fact of the matter was they had the last points to win the game.”
Finally, after a scramble play that led to a Dennis Smith Jr. go-ahead driving layup and one free throw from DeAndre Jordan, the Thunder had a chance with 1.7 seconds to go. Schröder inbounded the ball on the side, with Jordan towering in front of him. George was covered tightly, but Westbrook sprung free in the corner. To that point the Thunder was 9-for-37 from three-point range on the night, and on a night when shots wouldn’t drop it stood to reason that Westbrook’s three from the corner would just barely roll off the rim as well.
“I just got to do a better job,” said Westbrook of his 4-for-22 shooting night. “I just gotta get focused in and locked back in on what I need to do. I gotta help my guys out.”
“Russ can shoot the ball. We’ll take those,” George said.
It was a tough loss, as Dallas scored 10 of the game’s final 12 points, but one the Thunder will have to both recover and learn from very quickly. These two teams meet again in less than 24 hours.
“It’s pretty glaring. The stat sheet shows what we need to get better and what we need to do going into tomorrow,” said George. “We lost twice here. They play well at home. So do we. They gotta come to us now.”
Highlights: Thunder at Mavs - 12/30/18