OKLAHOMA CITY – There’s something about playing on the other side of the Red River that agrees with the Mavericks, no matter how many players they might be missing.
For the second time this season, they went into Paycom Center and took down the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder, beating them 121-115 Thursday night as the Mavericks dug out a win against odds that were stacked against them because of their injury situation.
P.J. Washington, Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddie did a ton of heavy lifting. Maybe two tons. Then Maxi Kleber came through with some strong clutch plays in the final minutes as the Mavericks improved to 3-1 against the Thunder this season, including 2-1 in OKC.
The rest of the league is 1-19 on the Thunder’s home court.
“The energy and effort on a back-to-back was at a high,” coach Jason Kidd said. “The guys played hard. They executed the game plan.
“I thought this was a character win, maybe the best win of the season – shorthanded, next-man-up mentality.”
And the kind of win that the Mavericks had to have, given that they had lost five of their last six games. The only team they’ve beaten in that stretch is OKC, twice now.
“To go against this team four times and come out 3-1, that’s where I feel like we laid our hat on,” Irving said. “So we know we can play with the best. Now we got to build on that consistency. The last few games, we have not been as consistent as we’d like. (It was a) gutsy win.”
So is there any reason why the Mavericks seem to match up well with the Thunder?
“We just know each other extremely well and I think we compliment each other really well as competitors, across the board,” Irving said. “We’ve just been figuring each other out. I look at the tendencies of our team and their team and when we come in this building, we know what to expect. We played here in the playoffs. We’ve gone to six games with them, so the competition is going to be high.”
There was no doubt about that on Thursday.
The Mavericks took a 110-102 lead with 3:9 to play when Kleber got an offensive rebound, then freed himself up for a three-pointer from the corner. Kleber also assisted on a three-pointer by Quentin Grimes with two minutes left that made it 115-106.
The Mavericks held on from there to improve to 24-21. The Thunder fell to 36-8, easily the best record in the Western Conference.
Dinwiddie led the Mavs with 28 points, Irving had 24 and Washington had 22 points and a huge night on the boards with 19 rebounds. The Mavs felt he should have had 20, but a late OKC miss was determined to be a team rebound rather than Washington’s.
And there was no mistaking Kleber’s fingerprints on the win at the end, even though he finished with just three points and four assists.
The Mavericks won the rebounding department 43-33, a rarity these days. They also shot the ball well, 52.7 percent overall and 45.2 percent from three-point range.
The Mavericks had lost five of their last six, but the only two wins in this stretch have been against the Thunder.
The Mavericks are in damage-control mode, knowing full well that they won’t be this shorthanded all season.
“Right now, we talk about next-man-up, but it’s almost holding down the fort,” Dinwiddie said. “You look at our injury report, it’s insane. You can make a starting five out of the injury report alone. That’s tough, but that’s part of the season we’re having.
“As long as we stay in striking distance, we’re going to have basically the best trade-deadline acquisition anybody can have when you bring the MVP back. Maybe earlier. Looking forward to that.”
That would be Luka Dončić, who now has missed more games this season (23) than he has played (22). He remains sidelined with a left calf strain. The Mavericks also were without Naji Marshall (illness), Klay Thompson (ankle), Dereck Lively II (ankle), Dwight Powell (hip), Dante Exum (wrist) and Jaden Hardy (ankle).
The Thunder played without centers Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.
After a brilliant third quarter, the Mavericks kept things rolling into the fourth when they had a 99-88 lead. But they had to figure the Thunder were going to bring a big push down the stretch. And they did.
Jalen Williams’ three-pointer with 7:36 to go capped a 6-0 run and closed the gap to 99-94. The Thunder trimmed it to 102-100, but the Mavericks got a triple from Quentin Grimes and a bucket from Dinwiddie to make it 107-102 with 4:10 left. From there, it was going to be a struggle for both sides.
The Mavericks were able to hang with the Thunder throughout the first half and they were down by just 62-60 at the break.
But the headline out of the first 24 minutes was Gafford getting inadvertently kicked in the head with 5:16 to go in the second quarter. He was motionless on the floor, face down for more than a minute and finally sat up with some help from Mavs’ staffers.
He retired to the locker room and sat out the rest of the first half.
But when he returned for the third quarter, Gafford clearly had an agenda. And that was to show he was unfazed by the rugged hit. Gafford was involved in several early buckets in the third quarter when the Mavericks blew out to an 81-68 lead. In the period, Gafford had six points, three rebounds and a steal and was exactly what the Mavericks needed in support of Irving and Washington.
Those two continued to slice and dice the Thunder’s notoriously tough defense. And Washington seemed to grab every rebound.
The Mavericks held onto that lead for dear life and were up 91-83 going into the fourth quarter, a lead that expanded to 99-88 with under nine minutes left.
X: @ESefko
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