Australia’s Josh Giddey was left bleeding from the mouth from a rogue arm to the face, but his Oklahoma City Thunder made history as the youngest-ever NBA team to win a second-round playoffs game in a big win over the Dallas Mavericks.
A fourth-quarter explosion from the Thunder turned the match into a 22-point blowout as the Thunder won 117-95 to take a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference semi-finals.
It defied a bold prediction from NBA great Shaquille O’Neal pre-game, who declared: “Dallas by ten (points) tonight” – despite the legend previously predicting Oklahoma would come out on top in the series.
The Thunder, with an average age of 25, were the second-youngest team in the league this season behind only struggling San Antonio, but topped the Western Conference with their exciting brand of basketball – and are boasting plenty of confidence this playoffs campaign.
“We don’t worry about all the statistics and the stats, and how young we are,” MVP nominee Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said afterwards. “We just want to win basketball games at a high level and that’s what we focus on.
“We try to get that done every night and tonight we did so.”
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Gilgeous-Alexander had 29 points, 9 rebound and (a career playoff high) 9 assists for the Thunder, while Chet Holmgren had 19 points and 7 boards.
Jalen Williams finished with 18 points after being kept quiet for the first three quarters – where he shot 2/11 from the floor – only to explode in the fourth quarter. He scored eight-straight points and drained four-of-four shots in the term.
His 10 points in the final quarter were as many as the Dallas starters combined (4-10 FG).
Giddey, who copped a forearm to the face that left him bleeding from the mouth in the third quarter, played just 17 minutes and finished with 2 points, 2 assists and 5 rebounds.
Up by one at the half, the Mavericks kept things tight in the third quarter before the Thunder unleashed a barrage of long-range shooting in the final term. Oklahoma City finished with a franchise playoff-record 17 assists as they repeatedly unpicked the Dallas defence.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault was full of praise for his team’s elite rebounding – one of their biggest weaknesses this season – after out-rebounding the Mavericks 52 to 39.
“It was huge tonight,” he said. “Great physicality. I thought we just had great energy tonight. We got a lot of good looks in a lot of things tonight.”
Luka Doncic managed just 19 points on 6-of-19 shooting (31.6%) including just one-of-eight from deep and one made free-throw from eight attempts.
Asked about his poor shooting night, he issued a curt response: “Who cares? We lost, man.
“Just got to move on to the next one. I’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better.”
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Kyrie Irving had 20 points to lead the Mavericks, while Australian teammates Josh Green and Dante Exum had strong moments.
Green drained a pair of first-quarter three-pointers off the bench and finished with 11 points in his 25 minutes – his increased time on court coming after a host of players battled foul trouble. Exum had five points in nine minutes.
Brown leads Celtics in crushing Cavs win | 00:59
CELTICS DOMINATE
Jaylen Brown and Derrick White combined for 57 points as the Boston Celtics scored a dominant 120-95 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven NBA playoff series on Tuesday.
The No.1 seeds, chasing a record-breaking 18th NBA championship, were always in control against their fourth-seeded Eastern Conference rivals, holding a double-digit lead through the second half to close out an emphatic win at the TD Garden.
Brown led the scoring for Boston with 32 points, six rebounds and two assists while the in-form White caught the eye with a 25-point haul that included seven three-pointers.
Jayson Tatum added 18 points but had an off-night shooting-wise, making just 7-of-19 from the field.
Donovan Mitchell led the scoring for Cleveland with 33 points, with Evan Mobley adding 17 and Darius Garland 14.
Brown said the Celtics’ defence had laid the foundation for the win.
“It starts with defence, we wanted to set the tone on defence and we kept them under 100 (points),” Brown told TNT television.
“But we feel like we’ve got an answer for everything so we just play the game the right way, and see what they want to take away and then we play after that.
“You just want to make the defence convert and we’ve got some great three-point shooters; that’s kind of my job. I take it on myself to get to the paint and that opens it up for our shooters.”
Asked about White’s performance, Brown added: “If you don’t know Derrick White you better get to know him. He’s been balling, and he’s just getting started.”
Malone loses his marbles! | 00:45
Boston got off to a flying start, jumping out to an early 12-2 first quarter lead before a Cleveland rally saw them edge into a 23-21 lead after Mitchell’s running three-pointer.
But Boston responded swiftly, reclaiming the lead immediately and never allowing Cleveland to get their noses in front thereafter.
After taking a 10-point lead into halftime, Boston kept the pressure up in the second half, stretching out to a 26-point lead in the fourth quarter as they romped to a comfortable win.
Game two in the series takes place in Boston on Thursday.
Murray caught out in moment of MADNESS | 00:31