It is not a whole rematch of their elimination in final 12 months’s NBA playoffs, however the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder obtained the higher of the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
The Thunder superior to the NBA Cup semifinals by choking the Dallas Mavericks in a recreation House victory 118-104. They’ll face the winner of the quarterfinal between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
The victory started and ended with a quite depressing day on the fitness center for Mavericks star Luka Dončić, which has change into a recurring story for the Thunder, house owners of the league’s finest defensive score.
The five-time All-Star completed the sport with 16 factors on 5-of-15 capturing. At halftime, he had simply two factors on 1-of-7 capturing with 4 turnovers. He made his numbers extra respectable within the fourth quarter, however Dallas by no means obtained inside eight factors of OKC.
With the failures of their principal offensive engine, the Mavericks gave up an excessive amount of floor to the Thunder. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had one in all his finest video games of the season with 39 factors on 15-of-23 capturing with eight rebounds, 5 assists and three steals, utterly outperforming his celebrity counterpart.
“Total, [Gilgeous-Alexander] is a good scorer, he includes his teammates and it’s typically troublesome to cease him”, Dončić mentioned after the match. “Assume that sooner or later you are going to need to ship two, three gamers. It is wonderful to play towards a man like that, the fights are enjoyable.”
The Thunder entered the quarterfinals because the West’s prime seed as a result of their efficiency in 4 group video games and have been the highest canine within the convention. Regardless that they’re nonetheless lacking Chet Holmgren, they largely dominated the crew that eradicated them within the Western Convention semifinals final 12 months.
They’re now two wins shy of greater than $500,000 for every participant in NBA Cup prize cash, however Tuesday was additionally one other encouraging step towards their largest objective.
