Game 25: Dallas Mavericks (16-8) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (18-5) | 8:30pm CST

[KillerLeft]

I wonder if the Mavs are going to look back at this game and think "we just had one bad 3rd quarter"

Mavs outscored the Thunder by 5 and 3 in the 2nd and 4th quarters. They were outscored by 8 in the 1st quarter. Dead even 3 out of 4 quarters.

The 3rd quarter was a disaster. They only scored 19 points and got outscored by 14. Slow defensive rotations. Thunder hitting anything and everything. Just as bad as it could be.

Coming out flat at the start of long breaks has been a big issue for this team. And I wonder how much starting with Gafford in the 3rd could be blamed for that.

Even still, how much do you think the Mavs chalk up this loss to a bad 3rd quarter and some different rotations?

I mean, it's only one game, and the sky isn't falling, but I don't believe this line of thinking adequately encompasses the severity of what this game might have shown us. 

Just like the playoff series last year, SGA was forced to make some tough shots, but they're shots he can make (clearly), and he ALSO got a lot of good, easier shots. Meanwhile, Dort, with the help he received from the rest of their defense, was able to (once again) make Luka's life a living hell for basically the entire game. I have seldom seen ball pressure (not just on Luka, but on the whole team, the whole time) this aggressive, and I'm not sure I've EVER seen ball pressure like that go for an entire game without the other team figuring out how to exploit it. 

The most obvious solution when your main offensive engine is wearing a defender inside of his shorts is to simply make the defense pay by getting AROUND that defender to force other defenders to help, but for whatever reason, evidence is growing that Luka can't do that in this matchup. I'm getting a touch worried about that.