The Mavericks won the Thunder's home win over Kings Mountain to take the lead in the series 3-2.
Although the Thunder took the initiative to change lineup in this game, taking Giddey as the starter and Isaiah Joe as up. But that didn't change the Mavericks' defensive strategy, as Alexander still contracted with all his might when he broke through, or let go of the rest of the Thunder. The Thunder's defensive strategy is similar, wrapping Doncic and putting enough defensive pressure on the duo.
It can be seen from the opening Doncic that they sent too many defensive resources to Doncic Jr. in the opening game, and the baseline positions were all open opportunities. Although the Thunder have taken such a good look at Doncic, the latter handed in a triple-double of 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists today.
It was Doncic's most efficient playoff year, shooting 13-of-37 from the field and 3-of-13 from three-point range in his last two games. So far in the playoffs, Doncic's three-point shooting rate is still less than 30%. But with a player of Doncic's level, you can never let your guard down against him.
Although the Thunder spent a huge amount of defensive resources on Doncic, Doncic still got such statistics, and it's hard to say that the Thunder's defense went wrong, just like you can say that Jokic blew up Gobert, but you can't say that Gobert's defense is too vegetable.
Alexander also played impeccable today, shooting 12-of-21 from the field, 2-of-3 from three-point range, with 30 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists. It's still similar to G4's script, when Alexander was behind by double digits, he picked up the Thunder and desperately chased the points, he scored 14 points in a single quarter in the third quarter, and the rest of the Thunder scored a total of 9 points.
When Alexander hit a 2+1 in the third quarter to narrow the gap to single digits, Doncic turned around and hit a three-pointer. Compared with Doncic's weakness in the last game, Doncic is obviously able to match Alexander today.
Doncic has more helpers than Alexander. Irving was still in poor offensive form today, scoring 12 points on 11-point shooting. But Jones Jr. scored 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field, including 3-of-3 three-pointers. Washington was silent for the first three quarters of the day, but Jones stepped up again.
The Thunder's defensive strategy makes it difficult to accept that Doncic and role players explode at the same time, which is why they have been behind in both games. It's just that in the last game, Alexander, who was super god in the last quarter, was pressed down by Doncic and Washington in the last quarter of the Thunder's scoring momentum today.
With the exception of Alexander's 30 points, the Thunder scored the most with just 12 points. No.2 star Jalen Williams is still struggling, and when Alexander needs to control the ball for a long time, he doesn't have much presence on the court, and he can't play without the ball.
And when Alexander went off the court, Jalen, who had the ball in his hand, couldn't play like Alexander. The same defensive pressure is placed on Jalen, which can show the gap between the average star and the supergiant.
Chet has never been able to play an advantage on the inside, and his confrontation ability is still a little worse, so he can only float outside as a space point. However, Chet's three-point shooting percentage throughout the playoffs was 27.9 percent, and he shot 5-of-20 from three-point range in five games against the Mavericks, a typical pseudo-space point.
The biggest problem of the Thunder team is that there are too many pseudo-three-point shooters, the regular season Thunder three-point shooting rate of 38.9% is the first in the league, the 49.9% shooting rate is second in the league, and the average points per game are third in the league.
But in the playoffs, they dropped 3.8 percentage points from the field and 1.8 percentage points from three-point range. G1 The Thunder made 16-of-35 three-pointers (45.7 percent shooting) and in the next four games, the Thunder made just 30 percent three-pointers. They were 10-of-40 from three-point range today, their worst since the playoffs began.
Dort's three-point shooting rate is close to 40%, but today he is 2-of-8 from the field and 3-of-10 from the field; Jalen is shooting 42.2 percent from three-point range, but 0-of-5 from three-point range in the last two games; Isaiah Joe is shooting 41.4 percent from three-point range and is 2-of-11 from three-point range in his last two games.
The Thunder have too many pseudo-three-point shooters, and the Mavericks catch this to the death, which is to test your three-point accuracy. In the third quarter today, there were even five people who contracted the basket and completely ignored the outside shooters, and the result was that they really couldn't shoot.
The Thunder's lack of offense other than Alexander actually appeared in the first game of the playoffs against the Pelicans. It's just that the Pelicans' poor offense at the last moment of that game was more serious, and after losing that game, they were quickly swept away.
The Thunder played too easily in the first round, while the opponent Mavericks escaped in a life-and-death battle with the Clippers, and the intensity of the game encountered by the two sides was completely different. Compared to the Clippers, I think the Thunder are a better defensive team.
Now the Thunder have been driven to the edge of the cliff, and one more loss will end the season, and the gold content of the first place in the West will also be gone. The way to save yourself is simple, throw those threes that Alexander passes, and that's it.