So far, it’s been tough sledding for the Oklahoma City Thunder defense in its second-round series with the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks have such a significant size advantage that, at times, they’ve resorted to almost bullying an undersized Thunder front line.
During Saturday afternoon’s Game 3, we saw the likely end stage of the Thunder’s struggles here. Since they don’t have the personnel to match Dallas in the post and on the glass, they started intentionally fouling the Mavericks’ worst free-throw shooters instead of trying to play actual defense at the end of the game.
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This put usual 71-percent shooter Dereck Lively II in the Thunder’s crosshairs. It came to a point where he started literally playing tag with Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren so the Mavericks could try to run normal offense.
The results are hilarious:
Chet trying to intentionally foul Lively so he simply just runs away 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/PySxubHNu4
— Jo (@MavsStan41) May 11, 2024
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a high-level NBA player turn an intentional foul strategy into a de facto game of tag.
But I guess I can see why Dallas has a 2-1 series lead now.
Bless the Thunder for essentially waving the white flag on defense, and bless Lively for having the self-awareness to hilariously run away like this. Both factors have given us a terrific gift.