The Oklahoma City Thunder is facing something it hasn’t in a long time.
Behind a dominant performance from Luka Doncic, Dallas won game five, in OKC, 104-92. OKC’s once potent offense is seemingly a distant memory, with the team shooting only 25% from three. The win puts Dallas up 3-2 in the series and forces the young Thunder to do something it has never had to — play in a true must-win game.
OKC got off to a strong start. Behind threes from Isaiah Joe and Chet Holmgren, the Thunder took an 8-2 lead in the early going, but as it has all series, Dallas came roaring back. Derrick Jones Jr. starred for the Mavericks in the opening 12, scoring eight points in the first six minutes, and snatching the lead back for Dallas. Jones’ total sat at ten points after the first, with Dallas leading 24-22 and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggling to find space to get a shot off, and Dallas held him to only four points.
Early on, the series appeared to be sticking to the trends that had developed over the first four games. Dallas’ role players showed up and did their jobs at an elite level. Whether it be Jones’ scoring and defense, Daniel Gafford’s defensive dominance at the rim, or Dereck Lively’s activity, it seemed like the Mavericks supporting cast was up to the challenge. OKC on the other hand continued to see its role guys struggle. Lu Dort brought it on both ends in the early going, but Aaron Wiggins, Jaylin Williams, and Joe struggled to thrive in their roles.
Dallas opened it up in the early second quarter, exploiting OKC’s inadequate lob defense. When Luka Doncic completed a near-full court alley-oop to Lively, OKC was forced into a timeout, with the deficit teetering on becoming double digits. Dallas expanded the lead following the timeout, with role players continuing to be the difference. The Mavericks centers continued to eat on lobs from Doncic, and Jones extended his surprising play into the second quarter, hitting another three and remaining flawless from the field, eventually bringing his total to 15 points.
OKC’s role players continued to wilt, and the offense struggled to generate good looks. The open looks they did get didn’t fall, and Dallas seemed to not be able to miss. By the end of the half, OKC was at 39% from the field, and Dallas was at 56%, but yet, Dallas led by only ten at the half. A late splurge from OKC allowed it to grab a little bit of momentum, but there was work to do in the second half
The shooting woes bled into the third quarter. Outside of Gilgeous-Alexander, no one on OKC was able to get anything going, and the strong play of Dallas continued. Dallas was able to extend the lead to as many as 15 in the third frame, but OKC finally began to get something going at the end of the quarter. Cason Wallace finally was able to remove the invisible barrier that sat atop the rim from three-point range, and even a little bit of spacing allowed Gilgeous-Alexander to wiggle loose. The spacing never really came. Gilgeous-Alexander was able to keep OKC afloat, but Dallas was able to exploit OKC’s size with lobs, and got two ridiculous threes from Doncic and Kyrie Irving, allowing it to take a 12-point lead into the final quarter.
Hope was still fluttering around in the air of the Paycom Center to begin the final quarter. OKC had come back from so many double-digit deficits this season that anything seemed possible. Doncic quickly grabbed that hope out of the air, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it.
Doncic went nuclear in the final quarter, making multiple heavily contested threes, hitting open teammates on multiple occasions, and getting to the free-throw line. It was one of those nights for Doncic, who shot well above 50% from the field.
On OKC’s side, the disappointing play of Jalen Williams continued. The player who so often carried the Thunder on his back was nowhere to be found, and while his eventual ascent to stardom is a certainty, this series, and this game, has to have left a sour taste in Williams’, and OKC fans’ mouths.
An 8-0 run at least made the game interesting, but Doncic, like Thanos, always felt inevitable. OKC hung around, even restoring the feeling of hope a few times, but it never truly felt real as it has so many times this season. Every time that OKC would do something to fuel the Thunder crowd, Dallas would extinguish it.
Doncic and Dallas’ group of role players closed out the game, putting OKC on the brink of elimination with the series going back to Dallas.
The game was a disappointment for everyone on OKC outside of Gilgeous-Alexander. Besides Gilgeous-Alexander, no one in the starting lineup scored more than 13 points or shot above 50% from the floor.
OKC is still alive, but if it is unable to survive this round, the roster outside of Gilgeous-Alexander has to look in the mirror. For supposed co-stars, Holmgren and Williams have faded out of relevance far too often against Dallas. We all know how bright the future is in OKC, but right now, OKC’s young stars other than Gilgeous-Alexander have faded in the moment, and undeniably so.
