Thunder lose to Mavericks, Luka Doncic

It’s worth wondering if Oklahoma City Thunder fans are going to start seeing more of this.

The Thunder have remained competitive even with lack of on-paper talent and injuries to starters for a few reasons. They hustle more and play harder than you. Every rotation player has at least one NBA-level skill, which is different than many rebuilding rosters. They are versatile enough that even without their main players, they typically can find enough creation on offense and smart rotation on defense.

But finally, in the 127-106 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, it looked different. The lineups didn’t have the same complexity and skill sets. The roster as a whole doesn’t have much acquaintance with the NBA, but even so, this group was less experienced.

“We’re learning those things, and we have really, really good moments where it’s really, really tight and then we have moments where we slip, and that’s where we’re most vulnerable,” head coach Mark Daigneault said.

“We’re not vulnerable with energy, we’re not vulnerable with competitiveness, we’re not vulnerable with team-orientation. All those things are tight with this group, that’s why it’s so enjoyable to coach this team. But where we are vulnerable is just in those details, and it shows up on both ends of the floor.

The Mavericks went on a run to pull ahead midway through the second quarter when the Thunder had Theo Maledon, Ty Jerome, Josh Hall, Kenrich Williams and Moses Brown on the court. It’s not hard to see why this group would struggle together, especially against an offense like Dallas’.

Jerome is a point guard, but he’s had more success this year than as a rookie because he hasn’t had to play much of a creator role. Hall entered the night with a grand total of 72 NBA minutes played. He and Brown have still not had time to learn NBA defense and rotations, meaning Williams was the only markedly good defender on the court.  They were picked apart by the Mavericks and, during this stretch in particular, Tim Hardaway Jr.

We’ll see more of these types of rotations as the Thunder explore the roster.

Oklahoma City doesn’t need to evaluate Brown anymore the way it does players like Hall, Svi Mykhailiuk and Tony Bradley. They’ve seen enough, and signed the center to a contract for up to four years. But they’ll still get him as much court time as possible to improve, particularly on the defensive end, where his ability to read and react to the opposing big is still developing.

Brown, Hall and Aleksej Pokusevski, all of whom were on the OKC Blue G League roster a month ago, will likely see time on the Thunder court together. That is not a design that should win often. That’s written with hesitation, because the Thunder have proved that mindset wrong time and time again this season — what should be competitive vs. what is competitive — but with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Darius Bazley and Al Horford all out for the foreseeable future, the circumstances have changed.

After trailing by nine points at the end of the first quarter, the Thunder cut the deficit to a 47-46 Dallas lead with 5:51 to play in the half. Over the next 18 minutes, the Mavericks outscored Oklahoma City 53-37 to take a lead that stood.

To be frank, at this point in the season, more important than the score will be how the individual players performed. In this game, the focus was on Hall, Mykhailiuk and Bradley.

Bradley appeared in a Thunder jersey for the first time since the George Hill trade with the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks. His first basket was early in the second quarter, and then he scored four more points before anyone else on the floor could get a bucket as he launched a solo 6-0 run with one of the baskets coming off an offense rebound.

Beyond that stretch he struggled to score, though, finishing with eight points and five rebounds in 14 minutes.

The newest Thunder member finished the game with eight points and five rebounds in 14 minutes.

After the game, Daigneault mentioned that Bradley hasn’t yet had time to learn the playbook or team terminology.

“Everything he does well, he deserves credit for. And everything he’s done poorly is a position we’ve put him in,” Daigneault said. “This is his starting point, he’ll just continue to learn … He’s a good player and will hit his stride.”

From Bradley: “Different things I’m still trying to learn and pick up, kind of on the fly. As I continue to play more, it’ll get more comfortable.”

Hall returned from a left knee injury on Saturday and scored four points over 20 minutes in his first game in almost two months. On Monday, he reached double-digits for the first time in his career, finishing with 10 on 3-for-6 shooting in 22 minutes.

He wasn’t great, but it was a step forward for the 20-year-old undrafted rookie who didn’t get a traditional NBA summer with Summer League or fall build-up with the Thunder.

“With the lack of those touchpoints, you have to understand how early this is in his trajectory,” Daigneault said. “This is like square zero for him, and he’ll gain the experiences. We’ll keep working with him. We have a lot of confidence in him as a person and in his game, but it’s gonna take time.”

Mykhailiuk started in place of Dort, his first start as a member of the Thunder.

It came on a night in which he would be the primary defender of one of the best offensive threats in the league, Luka Doncic.

The third-year Mavericks star finished with 25 points on 9-for-17 shooting in 28 minutes. When Mykhailiuk was asked about his defensive performance, he sounded very unsatisfied, pausing for several seconds before answering.

“For us, I feel like it was not to let him get comfortable on the court and just trying to get the ball out of his hands,” Mykhailiuk said. “He’s a great players, so it’s tough to do, especially in this situation. It is what it is.

Even while defending Doncic, Mykhailiuk was one of the better Thunder players on Monday. He shot 7-for-10 from the field, a line that included a couple nice step-back looks, and he impressed Daigneault beyond his shooting ability.

“With a guy that shoots it as well as he does, the tendency is to sometimes slip into a belief that you have a shooter on your hands, but when you unpack his game, he’s a way more complete player than that,” Daigneault said.

His 16 points were second on the Thunder to only Pokusevski, who finished with 21.

The rookie had a good night offensively, scoring from a variety of spots around the court. He made five of his seven attempts from inside the arc, though only three of his 10 from 3.

He is now averaging 11.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game since coming back from the G League.

“With his size and his abilities, with his skills, it’s going to be tough to not play him and he’ll be tough to guard,” Mykhailiuk said.

Without Gilgeous-Alexander or Dort on the floor, OKC will be starved for playmaking. Expect Pokusevski’s role to continue to increase.

The Thunder will get a day off before their next game. Daigneault emphasized that losses like 21-point defeat to the Mavericks cannot affect the team’s mindset.

“We can’t allow this outcome to impact our process tomorrow, because otherwise you stagnate, and that’s the last thing we want to do,” he said.

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