The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas Mavericks meet on Sunday night for the first time since the Mavs got the best of the Thunder in last season’s Western Conference Semifinals. Since then, it feels like OKC has gotten better while Dallas has gotten marginally worse, but they meet under unique circumstances tonight as the Thunder is playing without any of their top 3 big men. The Mavericks are also playing in the second game of a back-to-back after defeating the San Antonio Spurs 110-93 last night.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic were both top 3 in MVP voting a year ago, and while neither is pushing to the forefront of that conversation so far this season, they are both still two of the NBA’s premier talents. SGA is averaging 27.9 points per game with 49.2/30.7/89.4 shooting splits, while Luka is averaging 28.2 points per game with 42.5/32.1/79.3 shooting splits. Doncic is listed as out tonight with a knee contusion, so the Mavs will rely on Kyrie Irving, who has had a solid season with averages of 24.9 points, 5.0 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game.
OKC is going to rely on their backcourt to force turnovers in order to score some points in transition, while Dallas is going to try to feed the ball inside and punish the Thunder with their size. The key for the Thunder in this one is to force the Mavericks into tough shots while picking high quality ones for themselves. If they can shoot even a marginally better percentage from the field—particularly from downtown—then I like OKC’s chances to win this one.
Game Details
Tip-Off: 6 PM CT
Location: Paycom Center (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Television: FanDuel TV
Radio: WWLS 98.1FM OKC The Sports Animal
Twitter: Follow @ZacharyLowNBA for live tweets and discussion during the game
Game Notes: Oklahoma City Thunder Official Game Notes, Dallas Mavericks Official Game Notes
Projected Starters
Thunder
- PG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
- SG: Cason Wallace
- SF: Isaiah Joe
- PF: Luguentz Dort
- C: Jalen Williams
Suns
- PG: Kyrie Irving
- SG: Quentin Grimes
- SF: Klay Thompson
- PF: P.J. Washington
- C: Dereck Lively
Thunder
- Alex Caruso (right hip soreness) is OUT.
- Alex Ducas (G League — two-way) is OUT.
- Isaiah Hartenstein (fractured left hand) is OUT.
- Chet Holmgren (fractured right iliac wing) is OUT.
- Nikola Topic (left ACL surgery recovery) is OUT.
- Jaylin Williams (strained right hamstring) is OUT.
Mavericks
- Luka Doncic (right knee contusion) is OUT.
- Dante Exum (right wrist surgery) is OUT.
- Jazian Gortman (G League — two-way) is OUT.
Head-to-Head
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder are 30-26 against the Mavericks in the regular season (17-11 at home, 13-15 on the road) and 11-9 in the playoffs (5-5 at home, 6-4 on the road).
- Since arriving in Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder have won the season series against the Mavericks 5 times, lost 7 times, and tied 3 times.
- The Thunder went 3-1 against the Mavericks last season (2-0 at home, 1-1 on the road) in the regular season before losing to Dallas 4-2 in the Western Conference Semifinals (1-2 at home, 1-2 on the road).