On May 16th, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs continued, and today the Thunder sat at home to usher in the challenge of the Mavericks, before the game, the two sides played a 2-2 draw, who can win Tianwang Mountain is equivalent to one foot into the division finals, the Thunder must want to defend the home court, and the Mavericks will go all out, a vicious battle is inevitable, then let's talk about the game process, and then talk about the players' play.
Contest Recap:
At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, Doncic scored two points to take the lead for the Mavericks, Holmgren teamed up with Alexander to play a wave of 8-0 climax response, Jones Jr. and Doncic Irving played a wave of 9-0 climax response, Jay and Dort combined for 5 points, Jones and Doncic hit three points in response, the two sides fell into a tug-of-war after that, and at the end of the quarter, Alexander broke through to help the Thunder chase down to only 2 points to end the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Irving broke through and hit to help the Mavericks expand their lead, Dort and Kidd combined to cut 5 points in response, and then the game entered the rhythm of the Mavericks, Hardaway and Doncic combined to cut 5 points, Irving and Doncic combined to cut 5 points, the Mavericks directly extended the lead to double digits, Alexander broke through the kill, Jones and Gafford combined 5 points to help the team lead by 15 points, but at the end of the quarter, Isaiah Joe and Alexander combined to cut 5 points, helping the Thunder chase down to 10 points to end the first half.
Yibian replayed Alexander hit a three-point shot to help the team narrow the disadvantage to single digits, Irving broke through the kill, Alexander responded from mid-range, Gafford and Washington scored 4 points in a row, Alexander broke through the kill, Doncic responded with three points, Carson Wallace hit a three-point response, Irving responded with a three-point response, although the Thunder played a good comeback in this quarter, but relying on the play of Doncic and Irving, the Mavericks also maintained a double-digit lead, and the Mavericks led by 12 points in the third quarter.
Hardaway Jr. threw and hit in the final quarter, Jay broke through the kill, Doncic scored 5 points in a row to help the team directly extend the lead to 18 points, and then Alexander played, although the Thunder still didn't want to give up, but the difference was too big after all, and they also failed to play a decent counterattack, and finally the team lost to the Mavericks 92-104, losing the match point at home.
Doncic and Irving are on fire
After chatting about the game process, let's talk about the players' play, Doncic finally swept away the slump in the past few games, and began to exert his strength on the offensive end, he shot 12 of 22 in this game, and got 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in 5 of 11 three-point points.
Although Irving still doesn't have many offensive scenes in this game, his aggressiveness is better than the past two games, the past two games Irving has been passing, of course, he played like this because the opponent frequently pinched him, resulting in him having to pass, Doncic played well in this game, and the opponent also reduced the pinching of Irving, he got 12 points and 4 assists on 5 of 11 shots in this game, but Washington, who has played well in the past three games, did not play well on the offensive end of this game, He finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists on 4-of-9 shooting from the field.
However, Jones replaced Washington's role in this campaign, he shot 7 of 7 from the field, 3 of 3 from three-point range and got 17 points and 1 rebound, the Mavericks' starters were indeed more dominant in the face of the Thunder starters, but their bench was really at a loss, the team abandoned Exum and reused Hardy, to be honest, this Hardy is not as good as Exum, he got 2 points and 1 rebound on 1 of 5 shots in this game, and he was blind to hold the ball, which delayed the team's offensive rhythm too much.
Alexander was beaten short
In this game, the Mavericks changed their defensive plan for Alexander, and they also limited Alexander very well in this game, the Mavericks' goal for defending Alexander in this game was very clear, after the blocking, the center and the guard chased Alexander, and did not go to defend the center who pulled to the outside, Alexander broke through and someone helped to defend, and Alexander was not good at three points, which also allowed the opponent to limit his play in the fourth quarter, he scored 6 points in the last quarter of this game, and shot 12 of 22 in the game, He was 2-of-3 from three-point range and finished with 30 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists.
can still play such a performance in the case of being caught by the opponent, Alexander is also good enough, but he can't do three points, and the opponent will only let one person defend him on the three-point line, and he will not be caught like Doncic when he reaches the three-point line, Alexander also failed to tear the opponent's defense well, and the Mavericks used excellent rotation to limit the chances of other players in the Thunder to get empty spots.
Because of the excellent rotation done by the Mavericks, other players also failed to get too many opportunities to make easy shots, this game Jayway shot 6 of 13, 0 of 3 three-pointers got 12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, Holmgren got 13 points and 3 rebounds on 4 of 9 shots, Dort got 12 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, and Giddey scored 11 points.
Speaking of which, what do you want to say about the current Thunder and the Lone Ranger? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.