'I’m gonna learn from it': Thunder rallies late but falls short of 22-point comeback in loss at Mavericks
DALLAS — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander caught the Mavericks flat-footed.
The Mavs, comfortably ahead by five points with nine seconds left, watched Gilgeous-Alexander race down the sideline, flip a pass to Ty Jerome, and then set a screen to free Jerome for a quick-trigger 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left.
What had been a 22-point Dallas lead dwindled to two points. And it stayed at two points after Mavericks guard Josh Green clanked a pair of free throws.
The Thunder was set up for magic on a Monday night in Dallas.
Josh Giddey, the Thunder’s designated inbounder, took the ball out with 2.6 seconds left.
Jerome was covered.
Gilgeous-Alexander was covered.
Mike Muscala was also covered, but too late for Giddey to realize.
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Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. jumped the cross-court pass like a cornerback reading an end zone fade. Hardaway ripped the ball from Muscala without the Thunder even getting a shot off.
The surging Mavericks escaped with a 104-102 victory.
“I probably should’ve just waited for Shai to pop back,” said Giddey, breaking down the inbounds play. “In those types of situations, it’s easy to look back and say you should have done this, you should have done that.
“During the heat of the moment, it’s going fast out there. But I’m gonna learn from it. If I’m gonna be trusted in those late-game situations to have the ball and make the play, I’ve gotta be better than that.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said it was the same play that freed Gilgeous-Alexander for a clutch 3-pointer against the Pelicans, before Devonte’ Graham’s 61-foot buzzer beater.
“(The Mavericks) defended it well,” Daigneault said.
Final play aside, Daigneault was happy with the Thunder’s late-game execution.
“I thought we did a great job of putting ourselves in a spot where we could take a crack at it,” he said.
Here are four more takeaways from the game:
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Interior struggles
Giddey had an easy layup look in the third quarter, but Kristaps Porzingis swatted it.
“No!” the Mavs public address announcer shouted.
Muscala was Porzingis’ victim in the fourth quarter.
“No!” the Dallas PA man shouted again.
Porzingis and the Mavericks repeatedly denied the Thunder at the rim, and when Dallas wasn’t sharp defensively, OKC still missed some easy ones.
The 7-foot-3 Porzingis defended like Rudy Gobert on Monday night. Porzingis tallied 13 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
The Thunder drives to the bucket far more than any other team, but OKC didn’t finish well when it got there.
OKC shot 14-of-27 (52%) at the rim. The league average is 65%.
Giddey was just 1-of-5 at the rim.
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SGA steps up
Gilgeous-Alexander finally had enough.
He jammed one on Porzingis’ head late in the fourth quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander then brought the Thunder within two points on a scoop shot with 26 seconds left.
Gilgeous-Alexander had a poor first half, but he was tremendous in the second half.
The Thunder star finished with 34 points, six rebounds and five assists. He was 11-of-18 from the field and 11-of-12 from the foul line.
And that was the Mavericks trying to deny him the ball.
“For him to score a pretty efficient 34 when he’s getting guarded like that to me is an indicator that he’s learning to find his cracks in the areas of the game when it’s hard to load up on him,” Daigneault said.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points on 4-of-5 shooting in a pivotal third quarter.
Dallas’ 11-point lead at halftime swelled to 22 points midway through the third quarter.
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Then the game flipped. The Thunder went from pummelee to pummeler.
OKC went on a 22-2 run late in the third quarter.
What had looked like a rout was a five-point game heading into the fourth.
Lu Dort led the Thunder in the first half, but unlike Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort was quiet after halftime. He scored two points and fouled out with 2:05 left.
Rookie Tre Mann subbed in for Dort, and rookie Aaron Wiggins took over the Luka Doncic assignment.
Wiggins went 0-of-2 from the free throw line with a minute left in a four-point game.
Doncic had a triple-double with 20 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds, but Dort and the Thunder didn’t make it easy. Doncic shot 4-of-17 from the floor. He missed all six of his 3-point attempts.
Mavericks forward Dorian Finney-Smith had 17 points and 10 rebounds on 4-of-7 3-point shooting.
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Bazley starts
Darius Bazley, a revelation off the bench, was back in the Thunder’s starting lineup for the first time in a month.
Could he stick there?
“If he gets 17 points or more tonight, it’s gonna be for the rest of time,” a very sarcastic Daigneault said before the game.
“No, it’s fluid. Changing context and putting guys in different situations is good for their development and it’s good for evaluation of what they’re capable of.”
Daigneault said the decision was matchup driven. Daigneault liked how Bazley matched up with Porzingis. Bazley would have started last Thursday in Brooklyn had Kevin Durant (rest) been available, Daigneault said.
Before Monday, Bazley had started 27 games, and come off the bench in 10 games.
As a starter: 27.4 minutes, 8.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.1 blocks, 37.3 FG%
As a reserve: 23.5 minutes, 11.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 49.4 FG%
Maybe playing more center minutes off the bench sparked Bazley. Maybe he enjoyed matching up against reserves. Maybe it was just the change of scenery that helped.
“He had started a long stretch of games prior to being moved to the bench, and I was interested to see how he responded to that,” Daigneault said, “and I’m interested to see how he responds to this.”
But there’s bad news for Bazley. He didn’t score 17 points. He scored two points on 1-of-8 shooting.
And Porzingis, though not all against Bazley, scored the Mavericks’ first seven points.
One game won’t cost Bazley another chance to start, but as Daigneault said, the Thunder’s frontcourt rotation is going to be fluid.
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Hitting the road
Dallas was the first stop of a four-game road trip for the Thunder — the longest trip of the season thus far.
The Thunder plays at San Antonio on Wednesday, at Charlotte on Friday and at Cleveland on Saturday.
“I love it,” Mann said. “It’s basketball. We got 82 games. In college, my season would’ve been over already. I’m just lovin everything — traveling, seeing different cities, seeing different hotels. It’s been cool so far.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Thunder vs. Mavericks: OKC rallies, falls short to Luka Doncic, Dallas
