The athleticism of the Thunder proves to be the biggest separator in a Game 1 victory over the Mavericks.
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Jason Kidd subbed out his stars in surrender Tuesday, as Dallas trailed by 22 points with more than five minutes left in a 117-95 loss at Oklahoma City in Game 1 of the conference semifinals.
Kidd falls to 0-5 in Game 1s as the Mavericks coach.
“There’s no being pleased in a playoff series,” Thunder Kia Rookie of the Year runner-up Chet Holmgren said. “The series isn’t over.”
Kidd’s history indicates as much, considering Dallas bounced back to win three of the previous four series that his team trailed 1-0. This current opponent feels different than what the Mavs have seen.
The Thunder are young, hungry and deep. Stingy, too.
OKC has yet to allow an opponent this postseason to score more than 95 points. Dallas’ scoring output for Game 1 represents a postseason low.
Here are five takeaways from the series opener:
1. Kia MVP finalists clash head-to-head
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander slid into Paycom Center draped in a peanut butter-colored leather outfit complete with matching gloves. The 25-year-old dressed for success and then achieved it.
He scored all 29 of his points over the first three quarters, and he’s now led or tied for OKC’s team-high in scoring all five games this postseason.
With some downtime on Wednesday, Gilgeous-Alexander might even take in the announcement of the Kia NBA MVP Award.
“Sure, why not if I’m at home doing nothing,” he said. “I’m excited to see who wins.”
The clack from fans’ plastic clappers rattled feverishly when Gilgeous-Alexander hit Doncic in the first half with a turnaround fadeaway near the end of the first quarter. The play gave the crowd of 18,203 exactly what it came to see between these fierce competitors.
Gilgeous-Alexander evened the overall series between the guards to four games apiece with a Game 1 performance showcasing his size and stop-start repertoire supercharged by a spin move that keeps opponents guessing.
Lu Dort deserves credit, too. He just won’t be screened. Dort hounded Doncic most of the night, receiving assistance on that endeavor down the stretch from Cason Wallace.
Game 1 marked Doncic’s 35th career playoff game and just the third time he’s finished with fewer than 20 points.
2. Thunder lock down Doncic and Irving early
Coach Mark Diagneault mentioned before the game that his team’s efforts to stop Doncic and Irving were “not gonna be perfect,” adding the Thunder needed “to not flinch” when the Mavs duo heated up.
Oklahoma City kept Doncic and Irving on ice early, limiting the stars to a combined 6-of-16 shooting in the first half with seven turnovers while scoring 11 points off Dallas’ 10 total giveaways. In 74 games together all-time, Game 1 marked the third time both Doncic and Irving were limited to 20 points or fewer.
Dallas is 0-3 in those circumstances.
Doncic and Irving scored 18 of the Mavs’ 53 points in the first half. They finished combining for 12 assists and nine turnovers.
That must’ve been a pleasant surprise for the home team given the damage Doncic and Irving inflicted in the opening round. The Dallas guards combined for 338 points in the first round, the most by a duo playing its first postseason series together in NBA history.
That accounted for 52.6% of Dallas’ total points in that round, the highest share of scoring from any Mavs duo in a playoff series.
3. OKC stays opportunistic
If you watched the track meet OKC ran on New Orleans in the first round, you likely expected coming into Game 1 that points off turnovers would be critical in this series.
The Thunder demonstrated what’s been the club’s edge so far this postseason by outscoring the visitors 22-12 in points off 16 turnovers. That leaves OKC at plus-52 in that category for the entire playoffs.
Remember, the Thunder outscored the Pelicans 79-37 in points off turnovers in the first round and 71-39 in fast break points. Dallas surrendered 11 points off its 10 turnovers in the first half as OKC seized a 12-point lead in the second quarter that was reduced to nine by intermission.
Led by Holmgren (two steals), OKC notched six steals in the first half. Dort finished with a team-high three steals, including one in the second half that led to a transition dunk from Jalen Williams.
The Thunder have won the last four games by a combined 83 points.
The team’s plus-15.8 differential per game in Round 1 ranked as the second-best in franchise history, only behind its 2016 series against Dallas in which it finished with a plus 18.2 differential.
4. J-Dub still shining on the big stage
We watched Jalen Williams’ streak of 19-plus points, five-plus rebounds, four-plus assists and one-plus steals in four consecutive games come to an end in Game 1 (he missed that by a point and a steal).
Williams likely doesn’t mind after putting on such a show in the fourth quarter.
Williams racked up 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, for a team that started the game shooting 5-for-16 from deep in the first half before turning it on in the second half to hit 11 of 19.
Williams scored 10 straight points over 96 seconds in the final frame and finished the night with a block and only one turnover in 35 minutes while also guarding one of the NBA’s most lethal backcourts.
As for the streak that Williams saw end, it ranked as the most consecutive playoff games with that stat line in NBA history. Hall of Famer Mitch Richmond maintained it for three games in 1989 while Willie Anderson accomplished the feat with the San Antonio Spurs in two straight postseason outings.
5. Holmgren, Thunder dominate paint
Holmgren finished the opening round as the first rookie since Tim Duncan in 1998 to complete a playoff series of at least four games averaging at least 15 points, eight rebounds and two blocks per game.
It appears he’s on the way to posting similar numbers in this series.
Holmgren finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals in Game 1, logging a putback dunk and catching a lob early from Josh Giddey for a jam that got OKC’s crowd pumped early.
With Giddey and the rest of the Thunder controlling the paint, OKC tallied a season-high 25 second-chance points and outrebounded the Mavericks 52-39. Oklahoma City improved to 8-0 this season when it outrebounds an opponent by 10 or more.
That’s not bad for a squad that finished the first round with a rebound differential of minus-2.5 and the regular season at minus-2.6
The Thunder also bested Dallas in points in the paint 40-32.
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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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