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.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: B
Gilgeous-Alexander had another strong scoring outing, but it turned out to be null on the scoreboard.
In 29 minutes, Gilgeous-Alexander had 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, six rebounds and five assists. He shot 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. He was also a minus-31, which goes to show just how rough OKC had it.
The 25-year-old didn’t play in the fourth quarter as the contest was out of reach. The Mavericks focused on limiting the All-Star starter by allowing his teammates to beat them, which worked out tremendously in their favor.
Another afternoon start could also be attributed to this lopsided loss, as the Thunder have considerably lost all three of their mid-day contests this season.
“I try to tell myself no, but it’s hard to deny the facts,” Gilgeous-Alexander on OKC’s sleepy afternoon outings this season. “… We’ve had three morning games and all three we lost by double digits. It’s the fact, we got to hit it on the nose.”
Resilient on the drive 💨 pic.twitter.com/yf7mXKebMM
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) February 10, 2024
Tough work in the paint for Shai@OGandE Power Play of the Game pic.twitter.com/nZyAst3oWb
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) February 10, 2024
Josh Giddey: F
All of the underlying problems surrounding Giddey this season were fully exposed in this blowout loss. The Mavericks went the extreme route of completely ignoring the 21-year-old when OKC had the ball.
It resulted in Giddey’s glaring issues being hard to ignore as he missed corner 3-pointer after corner 3-pointer. He finished with 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting, three assists and three rebounds. He shot 3-of-9 from 3.
The Thunder have done a respectable job at hiding these weaknesses, but this loss was a real eye-opener as to how the third-year guard will likely be defended in the playoffs.
“We’ve seen it all year, so it’s nothing new for us,” Daigneault said on Dallas’ indifference towards Giddey. “We want to have a diversity of attacks against it — which includes the cutting and includes using him as a screener depending on who the five is. We thought that was effective today. And then he’s got to shoot with confidence when he has the open shots.”
Granted, most teams don’t have the offensive firepower to make Giddey’s deficiencies as notable as Dallas did, but his struggles this season continue to be a cloud that lingers over the Thunder’s season.
Chet Holmgren: C-minus
Even though Holmgren finished with a 13-point and 12-rebound double-double, it wasn’t enough to overcome Dallas’ offensive onslaught.
The Mavericks got whatever they wanted inside of the paint, as they scored 66 points on an eye-popping 75% shooting. The seven-foot center couldn’t contain Gafford, who was a consistent lob threat for the Mavericks the entire contest.
“They came out and ready to play and firing out the gates,” Holmgren said. “Luka hit a few big stepback threes to get it going and they really fed off of that from there.”
The 21-year-old only totaled 22 minutes and sat out the final entire frame. Slow starts in afternoon tips have plagued OKC all season long, which is something they’ve recently noted.
“We have to have the same preparation and mindset coming in every single game no matter what time it’s at, where it is, whatever factors are going on,” Holmgren said.
A dime to Chet ✨ #ThunderUp | @okcthunder | @BallySports 📺 pic.twitter.com/f27bEpWBnD
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) February 10, 2024
Cason Wallace: B
Wallace had a nice showing in his home state despite the loss. He finished with 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting and went 3-of-7 from 3 in 25 minutes.
The 20-year-old rookie struggled — like the rest of the roster did — when it came to defending Dallas’ two-headed monster in its starting backcourt. Doncic and Irving combined for 57 points on 61% shooting.
“They started off making a lot of shots,” Wallace said. “We couldn’t get the stops. Throughout the whole game, it just carried. We didn’t guard to the best of our abilities.”
