Daniel Gafford miffed at shots that he missed

OKLAHOMA CITY – Daniel Gafford prides himself on being as close to perfection as humanly possible.

After all, the Dallas Mavericks’ center led the NBA in field goal shooting this season at 74 percent. And at one stage this season, Gafford converted 33 consecutive shots – two shy of the NBA record established by the great Wilt Chamberlain.

So, when Gafford glanced at the stat sheet from Tuesday’s 117-95 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center, he was none too pleased to see that he was just 5-of-12 from the field. Those seven missed shots are the most field goals Gafford has missed in any game this season — including the preseason, regular season, the in-season tournament and the postseason.

And that didn’t sit too well with Gafford.

“I want to be better for sure when it comes to shot efficiency,” Gafford said. “I just want to make sure I just finish anything around the rim, and tonight I didn’t really do that.

“(There was) a lot of stuff that was rolling in and out, there’s a lot of stuff that I felt like I shouldn’t have taken. But like I said, I just have to slow the game down for myself.”

When Game 1 of this best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series was still a game in the third quarter, Gafford missed two shots near the rim during a four-possession span. The ball on those two shots danced on the rim and rolled off, and that irked Gafford to end.

“Y’all know me — I don’t make any excuses,” he said. “I’ve got to finish those. Put the ball in the hole.

“Just a bad roll. Usually people be like, ‘Uh, somebody is living right today.’ Just around the basket it just wasn’t the case for me, in all honesty. But I just got to be better in that area.”

Gafford wound up with 19 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks while collecting his seventh double-double since joining the Mavs in a trade with the Washington Wizards on Feb. 8. But he also said it’s imperative that the Mavs be better rebounders against OKC, who won the rebounding battle, 52-39, including 16-11 on the offensive boards.

“It’s just effort at the end of the day on that one,” Gafford said. “They got at least three guys flying in trying to grab boards, so we just have to make sure we put bodies on guys that are trying to fly in, and pay attention to the personnel and just take that next step into really just keeping guys out of there.

“That’s on me. That’s pretty much on everybody at the end of the day. But for sure it’s on me for the most part. We’ve got to control the boards when we’re playing against a team like this, because they’re young, they’re scrappy, and they’ve got a lot of energy, so they’re going to always come in.”

Backup center Derrick Lively II agrees with Gafford’s assessment of what went down around the basket.

“Really, just being able to make sure we’re boxing out and getting our positioning right,” Lively said. “If someone is shooting on the right wing, we’re getting our better position on the left-hand side of the wing, because if they shot it long we’ve got to be able to rebound.

“At the same time, it comes down to us being vigilant. They sent two or three people crashing the offensive boards every time. We’ve got to be able to put bodies on them so we can get out in transition.”

The Mavs also didn’t get as many of the lob-dunks which they’re known for. Gafford, in fact, found himself with the ball about 10 feet from the basket on numerous occasions, and he said he rushed things too often and that he didn’t exercise more patience.

“In all honesty, guys were telling me to take at least one more dribble to be able to put myself in position to (get closer to the rim),” Gafford said. “I have to take my time, because at the end of the day if I take my time with it, those shots most definitely would be dunks. It won’t be no roll offs.”

The Mavs shot just 39.3 percent from the field and missed 23 of their attempts from behind the three-point line. And according to Gafford, they also missed a golden opportunity to steal homecourt advantage away from the Thunder, who will also host Game 2 on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.

“We got great looks left and right,” Gafford said. “The shots just didn’t fall. The game goes on when it comes to that. You just have to keep playing defense.

“I kind of got frustrated when I missed all those shots, because at the end of the day I just want to be better when it comes to the offensive side of the ball.”

YOUNG PRESTI WAS RIGHT ON TARGET: In 1994, a 16-year old kid name Sam Presti wrote a letter to a Boston newspaper, imploring the Celtics to draft Jason Kidd if they had the chance.

“He was right,” Kidd said. “We all know Sam is smart. At 16, he should have been the GM.”

The Mavs wound up using the second overall pick in ’94 to draft Kidd. And today, Presti is the accomplished general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“It’s just amazing at that age what he saw and what Boston should do,” Kidd said. “And I agree with him. They should have.

“But it’s amazing what he’s built here in Oklahoma. Not just this team, but the teams that have come before this. He has an eye for talent and he’s done that at a high level.”

Presti was hired as OKC’s general manager in 2007. At the time, he was just 29 years old, making him the second-youngest person in the NBA to hold the general manager position.

BRIEFLY: The Mavs and Thunder have a bit history of playing each other in the playoffs. Since the Supersonics left Seattle and moved to Oklahoma City in time for the 2008-09 season — and changed their nickname to the Thunder — this is just the fourth time the Mavs and Thunder have met in the playoffs. In 2011, the Mavs defeated OKC in five games in the Western Conference Finals, then went on to beat the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. The very next season the Thunder swept the Mavs in the opening round of the playoffs, then went on to lose to the Heat in five games in the NBA Finals. In 2016, OKC defeated the Mavs in five games in the first round of the playoffs. But before the Thunder packed their bags and left Seattle, the Sonics played two playoff series against the Mavs. In fact, the very first postseason series in Mavs history was against the Sonics. Back when the first round of the playoffs were a best-of-five series, in 1984 the Mavs took five games to beat the Sonics in the opening round of postseason play. And in 1987, the Mavs lost to the Sonics in the first round three games to one . . . This is the first time since 2003 that the Dallas Stars and Mavs have both reached the conference semifinals in the same season in their respective sport. But for fans of both teams, there’s a little bit of angst occurring this week. Not only did both the Mavs and Stars tip off on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., they both also tip off on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. in Game 2 of their series . . . How tough was the Mavs’ defense in the first round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Clippers? During the Mavs’ 96-93 victory in Game 2 of that series, the Clippers shot 36.8 percent from the field. It was their worst shooting performance of the season. And in the Mavs’ 123-93 win in Game 5, the Clippers converted just 37.9 percent of their field goals. That was their fourth worst shooting game of the season. . .A lot of teams don’t play a traditional center who muscles for position down in the blocks. That trend has gone on for years, but coach Jason Kidd believes things will change. “There’s trends in every sport and I truly believe the center will come back,” Kidd said. “I think there’s one down in San Antonio (in Victor Wembanyama. “I think Victor’s going to bring the center back, but he might be the future point guard because of the way he can handle and the way he moves. I hope he doesn’t think I’m being disrespectful for calling him a center. He might be the new-age point guard. But he could be the new center, too.”

X: @DwainPrice