Thunder fall 87-78 to Mavericks

Four days before the All-Star break, the Oklahoma City Thunder fell 87-78 against the Dallas Mavericks.

Oklahoma City entered the game on a one-game losing streaking, having fallen to Denver Saturday 126-96, while Dallas had won eight of their last ten games.

The Mavericks played without star Luka Doncic, who missed the game due to lower back tightness. Both teams came out struggling shooting from the field. Especially, Oklahoma City who shot 1-of-19 from three in the first half.

Due to the poor shooting Oklahoma City would trail 49-42 heading into halftime. After the break, Dallas would go on a scoring run to expand their lead.

The scoring run would last until the fourth quarter, giving Dallas a 22-point lead at one point.

Although the Thunder managed to cut the lead to single digits, their comeback efforts were not enough as they lost 87-78.

Major Takeaways

• Season worse offense

Overall, Wednesday’s game was the Thunder’s worse shooting night of the season. They scored a season-low 78 points and in the process shot a season-low from the field. Not to mention, the Thunder had a season-low in assists as well.

“Obviously, 78 isn’t enough to win, we just didn’t have enough punch offensively to win tonight,” head coach Mark Daigneault said.

Even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who has averaged 27.4 points in his last five games, only scored 15 points tonight.

Through the rough shooting of the team, Ty Jerome had his second straight good game since coming up from the G-League. Jerome was the Thunder’s second-leading scorer tonight with 13 points off the bench.

• Oklahoma City’s defense performance

Despite season-low numbers on offense, the Thunder still had a great defensive game. While Dallas had four players in double figures in the first half, Oklahoma City clamped down defensively in the second half.

The Thunder were able to hold Dallas to their season-low of 87 points, by forcing them to shoot just 20% from three.

“I think the main thing we can take from this game is to keep playing and to stay together defensively, ” Kenrich Williams said.

Oklahoma City will look to carry over its defensive effort when they play the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday.