Thunder not playing like the Thunder will never work and it didn't in Game 2
Good thing Oklahoma City's allowed to find itself before taking the court in Dallas
This is the way Oklahoma City loses.
Fortunately, it’s hard to repeat.
For instance, remember all those big shots Jalen Williams hit?
The defense Lu Dort played?
When Isaiah Joe got loose and got hot?
When Aaron Wiggins did Aaron Wiggins things?
Chet Homgren, blocking shots on one end, hitting from inside and out on the other?
Remember that?
Of course you don’t.
It didn’t happen.
That was the story inside Paycom Center Thursday night, where Dallas stopped OKC 119-110, evening the Mavericks’ and Thunder’s best-of-7 Western Conference semifinal series at one game each.
In fact, Jaylin Williams was more memorable than Jalen Williams — J-Will, not J-Dub — especially in the first quarter, when the big man helped get OKC back in the game, turning almost 6 minutes of court time into eight points, two 3-pointers included.
Jalen Williams finished with 20 points but were any of his seven field goals memorable?
Nope.
Dort?
He was plus 1 over 32:44 foul-plagued minutes on the court, which is strong when your team loses. Nor did he horribly frustrate anybody defensively, which is his game.
Joe, meanwhile, never got hot at all. The boxscore says he hit 3 of 5 shots and a 3-pointer, but I can’t remember them.
Can you?
Ditto for Wiggins, who was so good in Game 1 and wasn’t particularly bad Thursday, making 3 of 6 shots and finishing a mere minus 1 for over his 20:08 on the court, and though it seemed like he was, like so many others were, because nobody stepped up to provide even a second wave for a team that specializes in second, third and fourth waves, sometimes five, when it steps on the court.
Chet Holmgren?
Ineffective.
His most memorable shot came with 5:27 remaining, a 3-point try 3 or 4 seconds after the Thunder crossed half court; not at all the shot OKC needed at the time, and very similar to the last attempt before it, a way-too-early-in-the-shot-clock 3-point flail from Jalen Williams that wasn’t remotely close, just like Holmgren’s.
Typically, this is a team that knows where the game is, knows what the moment demands, knows when it needs a basket and doesn’t put up way-too-quick and utterly-out-of-rhythm attempts just because a sight-line can be found to the basket.
Yet Thursday, it did.
The only guy, big surprise, who absolutely showed up, was the guy who always shows up.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was terrific, canning 13 of 24 shots, 6 of 6 at the free-throw line, knocking down 33 points, dishing eight assists and pulling down 12 rebounds, team highs all.
He could have used some help.
Indeed, all the no-showing led to a Thunder offense that “choppy” doesn’t do justice.
OKC fell behind 13-2 five possessions into the game which is really hard to do without a turnover, but it happened.
Then, after scoring on six straight trips to make it a two-point game, the Thunder endured six straight empties, handing the Mavs back a 10-point edge.
After taking a one-point edge in the second quarter, another six straight empties gave Dallas yet another 10-point edge.
After grabbing a two-point lead in the third quarter, 9 of 10 empty possessions led to, you guessed it, another double-digit Mav lead.
OKC could not change the channel.
If you’re a Thunder fan, you hope to never again see Luka Doncic, who with all the threads and gear on under his uniform appears to play in overalls, and Kyrie Irving get so much help from their underlings and you may well not.
P.J. Washington finished with 29 points and hit 7 of 11 3-pointers. Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 17 that felt like 29 and even Daniel Gafford and Josh Green combined for 24.
That’s five Mavs in double figures for a team that often places just two.
Doncic finished with 29 points and Irving with only nine but 11 assists, yet the Thunder would have been better off had both had netted 30, yet allow no other Mav to take off.
It’s not like the Thunder were exposed. Not at all. Instead, they were not close to themselves and it’s a mystery why they weren’t.
Dallas began red hot, but given every time OKC reset the game, mostly without breaking a sweat, that shouldn’t be it.
“We’ve been a team that’s grown through everything,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We’ve grown through a lot of success this year. We have to grow through taking a punch.”
You don’t think the punch landed because they’re all such newbies, do you?
That would be the fear.
Because the Thunder are a better team than the Mavs, pure and simple, but this is the playoffs.
Maybe it’s just hard to win 11 straight games, because that’s what Thursday night’s would have been.
Much easier to win 3 of 5.
Good chance, they do.