Brandon Bolts: Big Bad Mavs

The Thunder lost to the Mavericks in a brutal 2024 second round playoff series. After last night's loss, ending the season series at 3-1 in Dallas's favor, Oklahoma City won't get a chance to overcome the big bad Mavs until the postseason. As John and Brandon discussed on the latest Daily Thunder podcast, that could be as soon as a first round series this year.

The Thunder clearly hate the Mavs. Lu Dort was ejected in the first half for a really stupid low blow, and could face league discipline. The Mavericks are winning the rivalry. OKC fans are upset. But to paraphrase Rylan Stiles (SI), this sucks but doesn't really matter. - Cray Allred

Postgame Bolts

Notes from Brandon Rahbar 🦋 on the Mavs loss

• Thunder lose their first home game since November 17th... which was against the Mavs. Thunder had won 12 straight in OKC.
• Lu Dort was already Mavs fans Public Enemy #1 after the playoff series last season for the way he used his physicality against Luka Doncic. Let’s just say his standing at the top of Dallas fandom vitrol is safe and secure for the foreseeable future.
• I thought I knew every NBA rotation player. But I’ll be honest, I had to google Brandon Williams. There’s a beat writer at DailyMavs.com writing the same thing about Branden Carlson right now.
• Look, I get that in no world can a team use injuries/missing players as an excuse when they’re playing a team without Luka Doncic and Dereck Lively. But OKC came into the game missing both their 7 footers and their best shooter. And lost two of their three elite perimeter defenders mid-game due to injury and a ball buster.
• Dillon Jones had to play 12 minutes in a tight game. Why? Cause Thunder were down Chet, Hartenstein, Topic, Ajay, Dieng, Joe, Dort and Wallace.
• That said, I would’ve liked to have seen more Branden Carlson minutes. He’s played well. We know he can shoot. And he’s got size.
• Carlson only played 4 minutes but managed to hit a 3 to keep his streak alive. He’s now hit a 3 in 8 straight games.
• Spencer “PJ Washington” Dinwiddie. The Mavs’ backup point guard had his best scoring game of the season with 28 points on 11-14 shooting including 3-6 from 3. He’s now shooting 39.8 FG% and 33 3PT% on the season. I mean, come on.
• Speaking of MJ Washington... Go ahead and carve his face into the Thunder Killer Mount Rushmore. SGA’s old college teammate was at it again. 22 points, a career high 19 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 10,000 social media memes.
• Jalen Williams had one of his best games of the season against the Mavs. Great bounce back from JDub after he had his worst game of the season against the Mavs last week.
• JDub had 33 points on 11-19 shooting including 4-8 from 3. He took a season high 10 free throws. He carried the Thunder offense in the third quarter when nobody else could buy a bucket by scoring 14 of OKC’s 21 points in the period. And he added 7 assists and 4 steals.
• OKC is now 6-5 when both Chet and Hartenstein are out. OKC is 30-3 when either Chet or Hartenstein play.
• Ultimately, I still don’t think we can draw any big conclusions from the Thunder-Mavs season series. OKC lost the series 1-3. All 3 losses were without Chet/Hartenstein. 1 without SGA. Luka was out all 3 games. Other important players from both sides out most games. Some outlier performances, both good (see: Dinwiddie) and bad (see: Thunder defense). Chet/Hart change the entire OKC dynamic. Luka changes the entire Mavs dynamic. Shrug.
• I’d still favor a fully healthy Thunder over a fully healthy Mavs in a playoff series. But the Mavs obviously have had OKC’s number. I thought coming into the season that these were the two best teams in the conference and still believe that … with a surging Nuggets team looking dangerous as well.
• I’ll say it: Thunder versus Mavs is a real rivalry. In true Oklahoma/Texas fashion, the Thunder’s three biggest rivals in the present and near future are shaping up to be the three teams south of the Red River. And until Wemby gets some more talent around him, Thunder/Mavs is the biggest.
• Final thought: the Mavs need to find a way to either finish with a top 6 seed, fall out of the play-in or finish as the 7/8 seed and win their first play-in game. Because facing the Mavs in the first round would be an all-timer rotten reward for winning the #1 seed.

Bonus bolts

From the Dunc'd On newsletter: Shai "Mr. Consistent" Gilgeous-Alexander keeps doing legendary Thunder things, the latest being the timing of his first 50+ point game.

Gilgeous-Alexander is only the second player in NBA history to produce multiple 30-point-per-game seasons without dropping 50 in a game before or even during those seasons. Since Oscar Robertson thrice completed 30-point-per-game seasons before his first 50-point game, World B. Free (1979-80) and Kevin Durant (2010-11) are the only other players to finish even one 30-point-per-game season without first dropping 50 in a game... Nice to know Gilgeous-Alexander has that ability to completely take over with his scoring. Of course, this also all just a compliment in disguise. For Gilgeous-Alexander to average so much without insane peaks demonstrates amazing consistency.