Text: Lao Kan Kanqiu
Editor|Lao Kan Kanqiu
On May 19, Beijing time, the second round of the NBA playoffs ushered in the focus of the West, and the Dallas Mavericks sat at home to face the Oklahoma City Thunder. At present, the score of the two teams is 3-2, and the Mavericks have a slight advantage and hold the match point. In the battle of Tianwang Mountain, the Thunder team continued the strong form of the G4 battle, establishing a 6-point lead at the beginning, but the Mavericks soon woke up, completed the comeback and won the key battle by 12 points. Now, with only one win away from returning to the Western Conference Finals, Doncic, who has already hit two triple-doubles in a row, said before the game: "Even though we are 3-2 up, it doesn't mean anything, we will play with the same mentality!" ”
For the Thunder, which is the first in the West, this game is a battle of life and death, and if you win, you can successfully bring the game back to your home court and enter the tie-break battle. As the leader of the team, Alexander emphasized the mentality of the game in an interview with the media, saying: "We are not going to change our mentality, we need to respond, we have to win this game! ”
Before the game, the American media ESPN gave a winning rate prediction: the Mavericks have a winning rate of 57.6%, and the Thunder has a winning rate of 42.4%. In terms of injuries, the Mavericks' Kleber and Prosper continue to be sidelined, and Kidd continues to use the usual starting five: Doncic, Irving, Jones Jr., PJ Washington, and Gafford . The Thunder are fully available for the starting lineup: Alexander, Isaiah Joe, Dort, Jalen Williams, Holmgren.
At the beginning of the first quarter, Alexander grabbed the ball and passed to Jay to complete the two-handed dunk, giving the Thunder the first place, Doncic made two fouls and hit both free throws, and Dort made a basket to open Washington and play 2+1. Then Doncic made two consecutive mistakes, Jewell quickly completed the dunk, Dort faced Doncic's pounce and played 3+1, the Mavericks chose to challenge, the referee reviewed the video, canceled Doncic's foul, and then Alexander then assisted Dort to hit a three-point shot, and the Thunder played a perfect start of 16-6. Doncic faced the defense in the same position, hit two difficult three-pointers in a row, and was suspected of being fouled but did not blow. Hardy came off the bench and assisted Lively to complete the empty dunk, the Mavericks responded with a wave of 15-6, Alexander hit a three-point shot in the bottom corner to stabilize the morale of the army, and then shook off the defensive mid-range shot, and with Jayway's midfield ultra-long three-point whistle shot, the first quarter ended, and the Thunder led by 7 points at 30-23.
Back in the second quarter, after Doncic lost the ball, he continued to complain about the penalty and received a technical foul, and then when Alexander was holding the ball for almost 24 seconds, the referee blew for Doncic's foul, and the latter frantically waved his hand to signal a challenge, and Kidd only had one challenge left without promise. Then Alexander broke through to the basket and was whistled for a foul, PJ Washington has 3 fouls on his back, helpless to get off the court, and then turned over and hit a jump shot, as well as a free throw, the Thunder has led to 11 points, this wave of continuous blowing penalties completely caused the dissatisfaction of the fans on the spot, crazy scolding the referee, it is indeed a bit ugly, as a comparison, the Mavericks have 11 turnovers, allowing the Thunder to score 23 points.
This is not over, when Dort grabbed the position, he picked the vulnerable position of Lively's crotch, and the referee did not upgrade after looking back. Immediately after Doncic wanted to make Alexander offensive foul, but was blocked by the referee, Kidd chose to challenge again but failed, and then the same plot, Doncic was blown for an offensive foul again, and was blown for two fouls in a row, today's referee is really stealing the show. Ironically, Doncic followed up with a single run of Joe and was blown away to five turnovers, which gave the Thunder a 24-6 offensive surge that put the Mavericks up by as many as 16 points at halftime, 48-64.
Halftime data, on the Mavericks' side, Doncic was 5 of 6, 3 of 4 three-pointers, got 15 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, but had 5 turnovers; Irving was 2-of-5 from the field and finished with just four points and one rebound, with a plus/minus of -19. On the Thunder's side, Alexander shot 8-of-13 and scored 21 points, 4 assists and 2 blocks. It is worth mentioning that in the first half, the Thunder made 6 of 9 free throws, the Mavericks made 7 of 11 free throws, and the number of fouls was tied at 10-10, while the turnover ratio was 11-3, and the Thunder scored 23 points with turnovers, and the Mavericks did play ugly.
Yibian fought again, Jones Jr. hit two three-pointers in a row, scored 8 points in a row to chase the difference to 11 points, Jeweri scored 7 points in a row, and then assisted Holmgren to complete the empty dunk, Irving shook off Chet and hit the board easily, Doncic played 2+1 to the limit, and then pushed Dort and was blown an offensive foul, the home fans were completely boiling, and the referee was angry. Then Irving and Doncic hit back-to-back three-pointers to narrow the gap to four points, and the Thunder did not score in a field battle for four consecutive minutes, scoring only one point from the free throw. Alexander made consecutive free throws, then chased down a three-pointer to complete the third quarter, and the Thunder led by seven points at 90-83.
In the fourth quarter, Holmgren caused Doncic's fourth personal foul, Lively grabbed the rebound in the frontcourt, Irving received the ball and hit a three-point shot against the defense, and then Doncic missed, or Lively jumped high to complete the dunk, the Mavericks have erased the 17-point difference, Chet dunked violently, Jay Wei made a layup, and the Thunder regained a 4-point lead. Washington scored a three-pointer, Doncic also had a step-back jumper, and the Mavericks completed the comeback. Jayway hit a key three-pointer, and Irving hit a magic three-pointer twice. Washington scored three points again, Alexander scored 4 points in a row, Washington's key three points were fouled, and the last free throw was deliberately missed, and the Thunder had no timeout but to swallow it!
In the end, the Mavericks completed a 17-point reversal and won 117-116, which was exactly the same as the plot of the Clippers' first round, solving the opponent in six games and successfully advancing to the Western Conference finals. Whoever paid attention to Irving's behavior after the game saw him take the initiative to hug Alexander and give the latter encouragement, obviously, Irving also recognized the performance of the Thunder rising star in the playoffs.
In terms of statistics, on the Mavericks' side, Doncic shot 9 of 15, scored 29 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, but had as many as 7 turnovers; Irving contributed 22 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 turnovers; Gafford had 10 points and seven rebounds; PJ Washington 9 points and 5 rebounds; Jones Jr. 22 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist; Josh Green had 6 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist. On the Thunder's side, Alexander shot 14 of 25 and scored 36 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 blocks; Jalen Williams contributed 22 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists; Holmgren 21 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals; Josh Giddey 2 points and 4 rebounds; Dort 11 points and 3 rebounds; Joe scored 11 points.