What sunk Thunder vs Mavericks in Game 3 loss? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needs some help

DALLAS — With just over a minute to play, the ball was in the necessary hands.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s surgically qualified palms had done so much to that point. They'd been steady in these moments for the length of a season. On Saturday, they’d been the answer, a lifeline without many others.

Perhaps they were the only ones qualified to perform the incision needed, a cut into the Mavericks’ three-point deficit in the Thunder’s eventual 105-101 Game 3 loss that gave Dallas a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

With two dribbles past half court and Mavs center Dereck Lively II across from him, SGA took one hard dribble before lunging backward. It was the shot — Gilgeous-Alexander’s patented stepback that isn’t often revealed but tends to arrive on time.

But the Thunder star missed, Kyrie Irving played hero with a floater with some love of the rim, and OKC’s window was shut. Gilgeous-Alexander, a master of stepbacks and changing pace, was forced to be OKC’s walking counter until there wasn’t any juice left.

Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 31 points in 42 minutes Saturday, was present for Dallas’ backbreaking 16-0 run. He watched Jalen Williams head to the locker room with an apparent ankle injury while the Thunder was on the ropes. He watched the team dribble and probe into dead zones, surrounded by crowds and forced to throw unfamiliar turnovers. Possessions were long and empty.

SGA hovered near 30 points before he even had two teammates in double figures. Before being looked at, Williams was being uncharacteristically tossed away from the rim. Rookie Chet Holmgren, a victim of Dallas’ constant switching, took just two 3-pointers and nine shots Saturday.

As OKC’s offense hummed and as it sank — the Thunder made its first five shots to open the third quarter and went just 7 for 20 in the fourth quarter — Gilgeous-Alexander was present. There wasn’t much he missed after sitting for just 1:20 of the second half.

And as the young Thunder cried out for a run, some semblance of a response, it left SGA with a scoring load that even Mr. Olympia couldn’t shoulder.

“Not any more than usual, to be honest,” SGA said, asked if he felt a different sense of responsibility to take over the game. “No matter what’s going on, I just try to be aggressive. Try to make the right play for myself and my teammates.”

SGA got to his spots, lifting for pull-up jumpers along the baseline and key. He whisked his way to the rim, even if it risked a couple black eyes and a tight Dallas defense folding on him. He dribbled until the shots were there, even if he hadn’t sensed he was.

Through the first two games of the series, 58.3% of his shots came on seven or more dribbles. In the regular season, those shots only accounted for 44.8% of his shot diet. In the first round, it made up even less.

And so Gilgeous-Alexander scored and probed until nothing remained. He aimed for the same shots that’d help him lift the Thunder offense Saturday before making just one of his six attempts in the fourth quarter. They were mostly shots he depended on all season, the steady looks of precise hands.

Hands that hoped to carry the Thunder to the finish as they often have, but came just short. For much of Saturday, Gilgeous-Alexander was the response. Until he couldn’t be.

More: Mussatto: OKC Thunder now in big trouble in NBA playoffs thanks to Mavericks' 16-0 run

PJ Washington goes nuclear (again)

Gilgeous-Alexander’s reaction was a reflex, an adlib before the question could fully be asked. He heard PJ Washington’s name, and he instantly thought aloud.

“Mm mm mm,” Gilgeous-Alexander muttered, shaking his head. “PJ Washington.”

His reaction was rooted in disbelief. Gilgeous-Alexander likely knew what his former Kentucky teammate was capable of. But maybe he hadn’t expected his Game 2 eruption to trickle down, or for the Mavericks forward to grip the series by the collar the way he has.

Washington, who scored 27 points and was 5 for 9 from deep going into the final quarter, has been a thorn in the Thunder’s side. The check engine light that comes on after you’ve already paid all your bills. The sucker punch that flies from behind. A hardly expected, surely unappreciated outcome.

“He’s hooping,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’ve gotta turn that water off if we want to win the series, for sure.”

OKC’s defense has long funneled opposing offenses into the corners. It’s dared role players to bask in big moments. Honed in on other-worldly shotmakers like Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, has continued funneling shots there and mostly into Washington’s hands. Williams noted that Washington is simply connecting on the shots he’s getting.

The lethal corner 3s, the post-ups that come from running early offense through him, the rim takes that emerge after OKC later tries to drive him away from the 3-point line. His scoring opened the night for Dallas. With seemingly inevitable 3s during the Mavs’ major third-quarter run, he also ended the night.

Mark Daigneault wasn’t surprised by PJ Washington Jr.’s eruption in Game 2 in the slightest. Before Saturday’s game, he noted a sensation he gets from certain players, a perpetual feeling that specific role players kill the Thunder when they meet. Washington is one of them.

“When he was in Charlotte, it felt like every shot went in,” Daigneault said before OKC’s Game 3 loss.

Now he’s in Dallas, and the feeling travels.

More: How OKC Thunder's Mark Daigneault ascended from UConn manager to NBA Coach of the Year

Dallas rehashes rebounding woes

As Dallas piled on during its 16-0 run, OKC’s old Achilles heel began to ache.

The team’s size and the tradeoffs that come with it have long been accepted. Daigneault bats away any questions about them by saying that OKC surely doesn’t hope to concede any rebounds. That effort is still necessary to offset what they lack in size. And since the All-Star break, OKC has mostly provided that.

But as the Mavs delivered a deadly four-minute sequence, one possession stood above all. Sandwiched between the six and five-minute mark, Dallas grabbed three offensive rebounds, forcing OKC to defend it for eternity. The sequence only ended with Lively II being fouled.

Five of OKC’s six offensive rebounds came in the fourth quarter. At one point, as the Mavericks snagged one demoralizing board after another, they led the offensive rebound count 14-1.

The effort, the misfortune, the swing in qualities that hadn’t killed the Thunder but were now drowning them — all contributed to the hole OKC never climbed out of.

"I can't see the whole floor from my point of view, so I can't break down why they got each rebound," Holmgren said. But when there's a 14-1 advantage, that means they're crashing more, they're crashing harder. ... In a game. that's as close as it was today, those second opportunities are extremely important for us to limit and also to get for ourselves."

More: What makes Thunder's Lu Dort impossible to screen? Mavericks must 'brace for the hit'

OKC Thunder vs Dallas Mavericks playoff series schedule

• Game 1: OKC 117, Dallas 95

• Game 2: Dallas 119, OKC 110

• Game 3: Dallas 105, OKC 101

• Game 4: 8:30 p.m. Monday in Dallas (TNT)

• Game 5: 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, in OKC (TNT)

• Game 6 (if necessary): 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 18, in Dallas (ESPN)

• Game 7 (if necessary): 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 20, in OKC (TNT)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC Thunder can't match Mavs in Game 3 loss