After Dallas’ 126-119 loss to the Thunder on Thursday night, it’s pretty easy to understand why the Mavericks can’t take Oklahoma City’s young roster lightly. Make no mistake, Dallas has its share of advantages against the Thunder when the Mavericks are fully healthy, but as we saw last night, the Thunder are extremely consistent and have an entourage of perimeter shooting and defense who support players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.
Dallas was without Luka Doncic last night, while the The young superstar is suffering from a hamstring injury. The fact that Dallas has stayed within striking distance of the Thunder without Doncic is commendable, on offense but unfortunately there are no moral victories at this point in the season. Gilgeous-Alexander was relentless when matching up against Dallas defenders last night, as he is one of the only players in the league whose pace rivals Doncic’s on offense.
The Mavericks had a front-row seat to see how multifaceted Oklahoma City’s roster is in last night’s game, as almost everyone in their main rotation can shoot, play and defend behind Gilgeous-Alexander. Oklahoma City will be a tough matchup for everyone in the Western Conference in the first round, especially considering Jalen Williams and Holmgren have already moved up to numbers two and three.
As we saw in Dallas’ only victory in three games against the Thunder This season, the Mavericks have the ability to give Oklahoma City problems with their physicality on the interior. Dallas destroyed the Thunder in the paint in Dallas’ first game after the trade deadline in which PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford both played. So it wouldn’t be surprising if Dallas made a competitive playoff series against the Thunder, especially if Doncic was healthy and Washington didn’t shoot as unusually poorly from the field as they did last night.
However, last night there was definitely a queue for Dallas to move out of the eighth seed to avoid playing the number one seed Thunder in the first round because the Thunder are too deep and consistent in all areas to be the idealistic first round. game for Dallas.
