DALLAS — Stationed in the corner, Josh Giddey received the ball and shot a corner 3-point attempt with ample space. This same sequence transpired often as Dallas welcomed the attempts. Several of his looks resulted in a resounding ‘clank’ with the mic’d rims.
The Oklahoma City Thunder never looked comfortable in their 146-111 blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks. OKC trailed the entire way in its worst defeat of the season.
“They shot it well early, but that’s where some of the transition — like straight-up fastbreak plays — really hurt you,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said on the loss. “Because when you’re giving up easy ones and they’re making shots, then that’s how the 47 (points) can happen in the first quarter… They were clearly the better team today.”
The Mavericks quickly built a 20-7 lead in the opening minutes. Multiple timeouts didn’t solve the issue as OKC trailed, 47-30, following the first quarter.
The Thunder managed to eat into the deficit with a 32-point second frame. At halftime, OKC miraculously only trailed by nine points to Dallas, 71-62.
But any hopes of a comeback were quickly evaporated in the third quarter though, as the Mavericks scored 39 points to enter the final frame leading by 21 points. After three quarters, Dallas’ high-octane offense totaled 110 points.
It wasn’t OKC’s best day on offense as it shot 39% from the field and went 17-of-47 (36.2%). Only four Thunder players scored double-digit points and none of the starters exceeded 29 minutes in this blowout loss.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 25 points but didn’t see action in the final frame as the outcome was already decided. Chet Holmgren had 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks welcomed their new additions with one of their best offensive outings of the season. Everything was clicking for Dallas as it eerily looked like Lob City with highlight dunk after highlight dunk.
Overall, the Mavericks shot a ridiculous 58% from the field and went a red-hot 15-of-38 (39.5%) from 3. They also went 25-of-33 from the free-throw line. Dallas made it look easy as OKC had no answer to stopping it.
The Mavericks’ star duo led the way for them in the lopsided contest. Luke Doncic finished with 32 points, nine assists and eight rebounds; Kyrie Irving totaled 25 points, eight assists and six rebounds.
The newest members of the Mavericks also had excellent first impressions. Off the bench, Daniel Gafford had 19 points and nine rebounds while P.J. Washington tallied 14 points and five rebounds.
“They were just the better team tonight, from start to finish,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Just chalk it up to that. They played better, played harder, more sense of urgency. They deserved to win.”
After a rare three-day break, the Thunder looked out of sorts in this one-sided affair. OKC will need to quickly move on from this loss and prepare to play the Sacramento Kings on the second day of this road-and-home back-to-back.
“They just had a little more juice today,” Daigneault said. “Which is a bit uncharacteristic for us, we’re over 50 games in here and we’ve had only a handful of games where you can say that about us.
“We can’t overreact to it. We certainly have to learn from it. We don’t want to be happy with it or content with it or numb to it either. We also need to be able to put in perspective.”
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.