For three quarters, P.J. Washington was having a forgettable night. Sort of like the Mavericks as a whole.
The Oklahoma City Thunder were controlling Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals and Washington had a goose-egg in the scoring department going into the fourth quarter.
Then, Washington came to life with nine points, including the two free throws with 2.5 seconds left that provided the winning points in the Mavericks’ 117-116 victory at American Airlines Center that delivered them to the Western Conference finals with a 4-2 series win over the Thunder.
“It’s a dream come true,” Washington said. “It feels great. Obviously, it was a rough game. I’m just glad we came out on top.
“I was able to hit some clutch free throws. D-Live (Dereck Lively II) got some clutch rebounds. We all did a great job to close out a tough team.”
Washington, who had three huge scoring games earlier in the series when the Thunder were daring him to shoot, was saddled with two early fouls on Saturday.
That effectively took him out of the game until the fourth quarter. But he had a pair of three-pointers, one of which came after a clutch offensive rebound that he pulled down when the Mavericks were down 105-102. His triple knotted the game.
And those were part of the 27 second-chance points the Mavericks scored in the series clincher.
“We needed every bit of it,” Washington said. “Obviously, in the first half, we didn’t play to our caliber. We were down a little. So we needed every one of them.”
Washington averaged 25.7 points in Games 2, 3 and 4 in this series. And that was on top of defending everybody from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Jalen Williams to Chet Holmgren.
Coach Jason Kidd, who joked that Washington was “well rested” after playing just 17 minutes in the first three quarters because of the foul situation, said the final Mavericks’ play of the game summed up just how valuable the 6-7 forward is and how much faith the staff and his teammates have in him.
“He didn’t have any points and then he knocked down some big shots,” Kidd said. “And made the free throws.”
Kidd also said the intentionally missed free throw after Washington made the first two when Gilgeous-Alexander fouled him in the corner with 2.5 seconds left was huge.
“It won’t go as the biggest play, but to miss the free throw in the proper way, sometimes we’ll say miss the free throw and you hit the backboard and they get to set up,” Kidd said. “We didn’t want them to set up. They had no timeouts.
“We’ve learned not to run away from the ball but to press the ball because we’ve lost a game that way. A lot of things we’ve learned along the way we were able to execute there late game.”
That was a direct reference to the clean look Cleveland’s Max Strus got against the Mavericks that swished from 60 feet to win that game in Cleveland.
Like all the Mavericks, Washington said the blood bath against the Thunder was extremely difficult. This is his first playoff action in his five-year career. And the rugged nature of the second-round series required the Mavericks to be at their best in terms of persevering.
“They’re a great team. They were No. 1 in the West for a reason,” Washington said. “A lot of great players. We tried to stay resilient. And just keep trusting each other. I think we did a great job of that the whole series and it helped us come out on top.”
That defiance was tested at halftime, when the Mavericks trailed 64-48. The Thunder were in control.
But that’s when Kyrie Irving and others said that there was no way the Mavericks were going back to Oklahoma City for a Game 7.
“Everybody said that,” Washington said. “And we kept that mentality throughout.
“We knew going into halftime we could win the game. In the first round, we were down 30 to the Clippers a couple games and came back. Just keep the same mentality of attacking and try to make the simple plays.”
It took awhile. The Mavericks chipped away, then fell back behind again by double figures before their fourth-quarter magic, which was due in large part to Washington.
“Just picked the right time,” he said. “You always got to stay ready, stay poised. You can’t let foul trouble get you out of the game. You just got to stay locked in.”
In the fourth quarter, his patience and resolve paid off.
Giving them props: The Thunder were the youngest team to make the NBA playoffs this season and, in fact, all of their rotation players in this series were 25 years or younger (although veteran TCU product Kenrich Williams did see four minutes of action Saturday).
Leading the young OKC team was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and his ill-advised foul on Washington on a corner three with only 2.5 seconds remaining should not taint the overall greatness he displayed in the series.
He scored 30 or more points in the final five games, including a career playoff-best 36 on Saturday.
His foul on Washington was reminiscent of the foul San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili committed on Dirk Nowitzki for a three-point play that forced overtime in Game 7 of the 2006 West semis against the Spurs, which the Mavs went on to win.
It’s all about the learning process for the Thunder, who no doubt have many playoff runs waiting in their future.
“We don’t sit here and try to pretend that we’ve been here 10 times,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “We understand this is our first run together. Playoffs are tough. You’re playing against the best teams with (high) stakes, over and over and over. Our guys understand that.”
Briefly: Lively had a terrific Game 6 with 12 points and 15 rebounds. The Mavericks were plus-26 when he was on the floor for 30 minutes. Lively joins Sam Perkins and Roy Tarpley as the only rookies in franchise history to have at least 10 points and 15 rebounds in a playoff game . . . Derrick Jones Jr. notched his career playoff high in points for the third game in a row. He had 22 points, breaking the 19 he had in Game 5 and the 17 he had in Game 4 . . . The Mavericks will get a day to rest from the exhausting series against the Thunder before gearing up for the Western Conference finals on Monday.
X: @ESefko
Share and comment