In the semi-finals g3 of Mavericks and Thunder that ended in the early morning, the Mavericks won at home and took a 2-1 lead in the series.
This set of duels reached the third game, and both sides basically started playing on the bright side. The three stars on the court, Alexander, Doncic and Irving, were all double-teamed. Especially the Thunder's defense of Doncic can be described as "crazy".
As soon as Doncic gets the ball, the Thunder will pile up as many defensive players as possible on the strong side, completely leaving Jones and Washington on the weak side. The Mavericks have a similar strategy, surrounding Alexander and letting go of players like Gidi and Dort who are unable to shoot well.
The Thunder gave Doncic enough physical confrontation. It can be said that Doncic's knees have been having problems in this series. In the last game, blood bleeds from his knees more than once, but Doncic always stayed on the court and persisted.
In today’s tragic duel, Doncic was injured many times. He was hit in the face by Alexander’s elbow while defending; he fell to his waist after fighting for the ball with Dort in the air, and then won the ball; Dort Te directly raised his foot and kicked Doncic while grabbing the screen. This action was really big.
The Thunder did not give Doncic any time to breathe on the court. In this game, Doncic made 7 of 17 shots, 1 of 4 three-pointers, and scored 22 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. In such a fierce confrontation, Doncic did not give up at all. He grabbed the ball several times in the final quarter and played very "blue-collar".
With Doncic as a "sandbag", Irving will definitely face a relatively better defensive environment, and Irving once again saved the team in the final quarter. Irving made 10 of 17 shots in the game and 4 of 4 in the final quarter to score 22 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.
Irving still scored 8 points in the first half and 14 points in the second half. Facing the Thunder's close-fitting defense, Irving was able to respond with difficult goals. The breakthrough throw that killed the suspense of the game in the last minute. Jaylen interfered with his hands and blocked it with his lower body. In fact, it was a foul but the referee did not call it. Irving directly passed Jaylen and succeeded in the throw. The left hand of God reappeared in the world. .
In fact, there were very few "one-on-five" moments for Irving. Most of the time, Irving played extremely reasonably. In the last quarter, after Doncic took the initiative to give up the stage, Irving started his performance. Sometimes you even think that it would be better if Irving played more alone. But after coming to the Mavericks, reasonableness became Irving's label on the court.
Today's Lone Ranger is not playing "Lone Ranger" at all. Irving and Doncic both took 17 shots, and PJ Washington took the most shots on the team. He scored 27 points on 11 of 23 and 5 of 12 three-pointers, the highest score on the team for the second consecutive game.
Eastern Europe was very resolute in feeding Washington the ball today. As long as they saw Washington empty, they would pass it over. Even though Washington's three-pointer today was far less magical than the last game, he was still allowed to keep shooting, and Washington himself worked hard and became the role player that determines the outcome of the game.
Facing Washington's 27 points, the Thunder felt a bit out of their depth, and even used the trick of cutting Lively in the final quarter. Lively's free throw shooting is indeed not very good, just reaching 50%. But today, with 8 of 12 free throws, the Thunder's strategy failed again.
Alexander scored 31 points again today, 10 of 23. He also shot 2 of 3 on the three-pointers that were left open, which is pretty good. No matter how much ball rights Alexander takes on in this game, it doesn't mean much. The key is whether the other players who were left open can respond like Washington.
This kind of merciless hand-to-hand combat will undoubtedly continue until the end of the series. How long Doncic's knee can hold up is also a question. Fortunately, Doncic now knows how to reduce pressure on himself and no longer blindly takes care of everything.
The Thunder are the top seed and the Mavericks are the fifth seed, but now, the Mavericks have become the more advantageous side in this matchup.
The 32-year-old Irving is responsible for the last glory of the older generation of stars and is still moving forward.
