OKC Thunder season on the brink after loss vs Mavericks in Game 5 of West semifinals
Jalen Williams figured he’d get side eyes. That his diagnosis wouldn’t be the consensus. Less than an hour removed from the Thunder’s 104-92 Game 5 loss, which thrust it into the brink of elimination, Williams plopped down and provided subtitles that didn’t match what many watched.
“It’s probably gonna sound crazy because we didn’t shoot it well,” Williams said, “but I thought our offense was really good.”
Williams’ sentiment followed an uncharacteristic night on loop. Coach Mark Daigneault played a card he’d saved for a special occasion, swapping Josh Giddey for Isaiah Joe in Wednesday’s starting lineup. In the end, it didn’t resurrect the Oklahoma City offense.
The Thunder and Mavericks ended Wednesday with different definitions of efficiency.
Dallas watched its role players elevate, its stars deliver, its lineups make OKC pay for its defensive preference; The Mavericks made 40% of its 35 3-point attempts, plenty of which the Thunder allowed by design as it has all series. Dallas missed just two of its 16 attempts at the rim.
OKC finished Game 4 shooting 7 for 27 from 3. On Wednesday, it was 7 for 26 from deep less than six minutes into the third quarter. It made just 10 of a series-high 40 3-point attempts in Game 5 — most of which the Thunder played into.
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“The thing I was encouraged by offensively was I thought we looked like ourselves again stylistically,” Daigneault said. “There was times in Games 2, 3, 4 where it felt like we were in a headlock offensively and we’re just jammed up against their defense.
“I wasn’t, like, bursting with joy with 92 points. But I do think we’re on the right track in terms of how we’re attacking and now we just gotta continue to get better and trust that good shots will fall.”
With Dallas’ rim protection, spearheaded by frightening levels of lurk by rookie Dereck Lively II (a plus-22), OKC was continuously pushed from its spots. Shown heartbreak just before the rim, bumped out of driving lanes and into a dystopia. It watched possessions swing into Lu Dort’s hands, with Dallas intentionally rotating swifter elsewhere.
Against more intimate closeouts, Dort seemingly hesitated less than anyone. He tied with Joe for a team-high 8 3-point attempts. Only on one did he show reluctance, a first-quarter pump fake to send the nearby help defender back to the next shooter.
Dort shot two fourth-quarter airballs, one of them a transition 3 with Kyrie Irving’s arm fully extended into Dort’s bubble. On the shots he declined, Dort drove with conviction into Dallas’ lair and into broken possessions.
For a third straight game, the Thunder’s most reliable form of offense was to give the ball to its superstar and make room. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 30 points on 22 shots, perhaps the only keyholder to the rim. But the drive-and-kicks that made life easier throughout the regular season didn’t bear the same results.
The Thunder carried its identity into the postseason. That it was the best 3-point shooting team in the league this season. That its size and fluidity worked wonders and won 57 games. And, while not nearly as easy, OKC has missed many of the looks that got it here.
Williams repeated himself like a broken vinyl until he stopped. Before proceeding, he wanted to know what the team shot from 3. Informed of the number, he resigned. His face said “what are you gonna do?”
“There you go,” he said aloud.
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Luka & the lob
Ten heads turned toward the chuck. Only two could possibly be involved in the play.
The lob pass to Lively, effortless enough that Luka Doncic’s form looked more like a touch pass than a three-quarter court heave, was awe-inducing. No three-step drop, no overhead outlet a la Kevin Love. A destined drop off from puppeteer to powerful receiver.
Doncic’s influence in this series hadn’t been nearly as strong as it was Wednesday.
But his jog-turned-trudge still induces fear. So much so that defenders like Dort and Cason Wallace are prepared to tip-toe out of their shoes with every other Doncic fake or pivot. So much so that help defenders leap and a rim protector as savvy as Chet Holmgren leaves his post.
Then Doncic wreaks havoc.
He found Lively and Daniel Gafford for a handful of alley-oops. The situation didn’t matter. Send two defenders at Doncic? Lob. Force him to the sideline? Look up. His vision is directed toward the sideline? Look the other way.
Doncic was so into the reads, so connected with his lob threats, that his hail mary to Lively felt directed by strings.
Those were just a handful of the assists. The Mavericks star shot 12 of 22, adding 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists total. He hit head-shaking shots. He threw hook passes to Derrick Jones Jr., who stole PJ Washington’s powers and continued Dallas’ reign of vindictive role players by scoring 19 points. Doncic expectedly kept Dort on his toes. He also kept his high-flying teammates in the air.
No one quite had the grip over the game’s momentum like Doncic did. There was no attainable anecdote for him.
“(Luka’s) going to find ways to counter that,” Holmgren said. “When he counters that, we’re going to try and counter that ourselves. It’s like a continuous cat-and-mouse thing.”
More: OKC Thunder fans brought out best in Luka Doncic, who has Mavs on verge of West finals
SGA’s co-stars struggle once more
Daigneault and Williams talked about it Wednesday morning, and each thought the same thing. Williams was getting to his spots throughout the Thunder’s second-round series, just not converting.
Williams is one of OKC’s top three scoring options. For the length of the regular season, he turned in unfathomable fourth quarters and pullups that looked like trick shots. Under the postseason microscope, he’s seen his strengths either stripped from him or limited.
He was 6 for 13 on Wednesday with 12 points. In the spots the Thunder needed — and had — a necessary secondary creator next to Gilgeous-Alexander during the regular season, Williams thrived. But this series has been different.
He’s battled internally. With his spots, with his shots, with his decision making. His live dribble reads aren’t coming with as much ease, and Dallas’ defense has played further into his jersey to challenge his handle.
When he finds comfort, Dallas shifts. Williams and Holmgren, two of OKC’s top three scoring options, have come to realize what the microscope of a competitive playoff series brings. It’s often left Gilgeous-Alexander with an impossible load.
Williams especially finds himself in the balance.
“I think (I’m) sometimes getting caught up in trying to create for others the whole game,” Williams said. “It’s a balance that I’m still trying to figure out. Especially when there’s adjustments made the whole thing, it’s like a touch-and-go kind of thing.
“I think sometimes I should probably force a little more. But I’m big on playing within the team, like we've been doing all year.”
Holmgren has stumbled into a similar wall. With 2:09 remaining and the Thunder down 11, Holmgren found one of his rare clean looks from deep. One he had time to settle into. So he thought.
Jones Jr. started at the restricted area when Holmgren caught it. The 7-footer bent his knees and loaded. And loaded. And loaded. Then Jones Jr.’s hand was flashing before him, stripping him of an open shot. Holmgren dropped to 1 of 5 from 3.
Aside from him being picky with which looks he likes, nothing about the Western Conference semifinals has invited the offensive version of Holmgren from the regular season. Dallas has closed out differently. It’s snuffed out windows to pick-and-pop. His opportunities, comparatively rare, have sometimes made the basketball feel like a boulder in his bony hands.
“I feel like I’ve prepared to the highest level that I can,” Holmgren said. And it didn’t start just before the series.”
OKC was minus-10 in the 5:32 it played without SGA Wednesday. Holmgren and Williams scored a combined 25 points on 24 shots.
Each will have time to understand the pace at which the playoffs invite change. That their minds need to act quicker than the Mavericks’. As of now, it’s easier said than done.
More: How OKC Thunder's Mark Daigneault ascended from UConn manager to NBA Coach of the Year
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: OKC 100, Dallas 96
Game 5: Dallas 104, OKC 92
Game 6: 7 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: Thunder falls to Luka Doncic, Mavericks in Game 5 of West semifinals
