OKLAHOMA CITY – Well, at least the Mavericks are in familiar territory.
They trail the Western Conference semifinals 1-0 after the youthful energy of the Oklahoma City Thunder showed itself on Tuesday night and the Mavericks’ shooting didn’t. They proceeded to lose the opener of this best-of-seven set 117-95 at Paycom Center.
Not to worry. The Mavericks have been here before.
A lot.
They haven’t won Game 1 of a playoff series in their last two postseason runs. They went down 1-0 in 2022 against Utah, Phoenix and Golden State. And of course, they lost the opener to the Clippers in Los Angeles in the first round this year.
“It’s a series. No one wins the series by winning one game,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board and see what we can do better. But for overall, we got to give a better effort on both sides. Not just the defensive end, but we got to be better on the offensive end.”
The team that takes Game 1 goes on to win the series 75 percent of the time, going 460-151, including 6-2 in the first round this season.
However, the Mavericks only need to look at their first round series to know that Game 1 success guarantees nothing.
They were down 0-1 to the Clippers, then won four of the next five, which is reason for optimism going into Thursday’s Game 2.
But the Thunder are a different animal from the Clippers as they showed in limiting the Mavericks to 39.3 percent shooting. In the second half, they made just 34 percent of their shots (14-of-41). OKC also won the rebounding battle 52-39.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the superstar matchup on this night with 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
He was able to outshine Luka Dončić, who had 19 points and nine assists, but didn’t look like his usual self, hitting just 1-of-8 three-pointers and going 6-of-19 from the field overall. Kyrie Irving led the Mavericks with 20 points.
But this was not an offensive masterpiece for anybody wearing a Mavericks’ jersey.
And the Mavericks know they can play better.
“Our effort needs to be better through the whole game,” Dončić said. “That third quarter, we got to (within) one and I think we relaxed a little bit. We just got to have the effort for 48 minutes.”
Asked about his poor shooting night, he said: “Who cares? We lost. We just got to move on to the next one. I got to be better. We got to be better. They’re a great defensive team, a great offensive team. So it’s not going to be easy at all. We got to play very good basketball, focused basketball for 48 minutes.”
Still, it wasn’t until the third quarter that the game slipped away from the Mavericks.
After leading by as much as 12 points in the first half, the Thunder saw that advantage evaporate and the Mavericks got within 66-65 with 7:22 left in the third quarter.
However, four different Thunder players hit three-pointers in the ensuing three minutes and they pulled in front 80-69.
The Mavericks had to call a timeout, but it didn’t stop the bleeding. They would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
“We just have to adjust to the team we’re playing against,” Irving said. “Game 1 is done. We didn’t play as well as we would have liked. We failed on a lot of our coverages. And we didn’t come in with the attitude that was necessary to get this W.
“We have to put a complete game together against this young OKC team because they have endless amount of energy, they’re never going to stop attacking. They have the confidence. So I feel like they had the momentum on their side.”
That momentum was fed by a raucous sellout crowd that brought the noise and the energy from start to finish. The Thunder seemed to feed off of that in the second half.
“They made shots,” Kidd said. “They came out and made 11 from three (in the second half). So we got to be better taking the three out. They shot the ball well. Give them credit. They played well tonight.”
When Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace drilled consecutive three-pointers, the Thunder lead was 111-89 with 5:14 to play.
It didn’t help that the Thunder paraded to the free-throw line 22 times in the first half. Gilgeous-Alexander had 11 free-throw tries before halftime.
“We thought we did a really good job (early), but then he started getting to the free-throw line there in the second (quarter),” Kidd said. “He understands how to get to the free-throw line. That’s why he’s one of the (candidates) if not the MVP of this league. He’s not just going to settle. So we have to do a better job of keeping him off the free-throw line because once he gets going at the line, it’s hard to stop him.”
It was a game that started with promise for the Mavericks.
They got a lift at the start of the second quarter as Tim Hardaway Jr. made his return to action after missing the final four games of the first-round series against the Clippers.
Kidd ran the first play of the quarter for Hardaway, who converted a layup after slithering into the paint. But it was the Thunder who would dominate the second half, particularly from long range and on the boards, where they had a 25-15 edge in second-chance points.
The Mavericks were expecting a boisterous Paycom Center and that’s what they got from the sellout crowd, which was clad in blue and white T-shirts that were alternated by sections.
And it was loud, not surprisingly.
The Mavericks have been a good road team all season and they put themselves in position to put pressure on the Thunder in the second half. But they couldn’t make shots and OKC did.
“At the end of the day, one team has to get to four wins, right?” Dončić said. “Obviously, we would have liked to have Game 1, but we just got to watch film and move on to the next one. There’s a new game in two days.”
And, if history holds, the Mavericks will be just fine. They have acquitted themselves well on the road all season.
X: @ESefko
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