The Dallas Mavericks (3-2) won their third game of the young season on Wednesday, in jaw-dropping fashion over the Oklahoma City Thunder (4-1), 120-96. Cooper Flagg led a balanced Dallas effort with 26 points and eight rebounds. Ajay Mitchell had a game-high 29 in defeat for the Thunder<\/p>\n
The opening quarter was a back-and-forth affair between the teams, with neither getting a firm advantage. Flagg came out gunning, scoring 12 in the period, with Kyrie Irving chipping in a pair of 3-pointers. Dallas shot the ball well early, and it allowed the Mavericks to keep pace when the Thunder kept scoring from inside the arc. A late Flagg floater followed by another Irving three gave Dallas a 33-30 lead heading into the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Hot shooting from Dallas continued, growing the lead to double digits just four minutes into the frame. The Thunder attempted multiple pushes to eat into the Dallas lead, only to be rebuffed by timely shot-making from Max Christie, Zaccharie Risacher and, yes, even Caleb Martin. A personal 5-0 run from Ajay Mitchell cut the Mavericks\u2019 lead in half with just over three minutes remaining. Following a Dusty May timeout, the teams traded baskets for the rest of the half, and Dallas went into the half up 65-59.<\/p>\n
Cold shooting welcomed fans after halftime, with neither time connecting on an actual field goal for the first several possessions of the half . Steadily, Dallas built up a 15-point lead by the 7:30 mark by out-working the Thunder on the offensive glass. Over the next 90 seconds, the Thunder responded with a 7-0 run powered by Mitchell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, forcing a Mavericks timeout. Dallas settled in, and Flagg helped the Mavs close out the quarter on a 16-10 run. Dallas took to the final frame, up 94-81.<\/p>\n
With Flagg on the bench, Marcus Sasser and Risacher took it upon themselves to drive the Thunder into the ground. Martin\u2019s second 3-ball of the game put Dallas up 17 points early in the fourth, forcing an Oklahoma City timeout. Dallas pushed the lead up 113-93 before the Thunder threw in the towel. The rest of the game was about making it out alive and uninjured.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re real, and they\u2019re spectacular <\/p>\n
Maybe this subheader will bite me in the ass later. Right now, I don\u2019t care. The Dallas Mavericks are 3-2 and just beat the crap out of the 2025 NBA Champs and 2026 Western Conference finalists. Yeah, the Thunder are injured. So are the Mavericks.<\/p>\n
This rocks and I don\u2019t know how else to say it. There might be darker days ahead but the last time the Mavericks were ABOVE .5o0 was March 5th, 2024. That\u2019s a long-ass time.<\/p>\n
So right now your mission is simple: enjoy this win. Enjoy the moment. Revel in it with those you enjoy fandom with. Then tell your friends. People left the Mavericks church some time ago. They had good reason to. But joy should be shared and spread and sought. We have it. There will be more. Tell your friends. Let\u2019s go Mavs.<\/p>\n
Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving were good. A combined 41 points, seven rebounds, and 12 assists. Very good if you\u2019re feeling generous. But were they great?<\/p>\n
Not really. And that\u2019s just win. Dallas won by 24 anyway.<\/p>\n
Dallas shot under 50% and shot 36% from three. They didn\u2019t win this game on outlier areas. They won because they pushed harder, defended better, and never stopped as a team. If you didn\u2019t watch this game, you missed a play from every person on the roster who saw minutes that came from sheer grit. The every-game Risacher play that leaves me laughing (this time, a block of SGA in transition that was so rude, I loved it). The gaul of Walter Clayton Jr. to attack in transition. I could keep going.<\/p>\n
These guys are feeling it right now.<\/p>\n
Living in the hustle stats<\/p>\n
Dallas nearly tied points in the paint, losing 44-42 after getting killed in the first half (26-14). They won fast-break points 17-0. The Mavericks won second-chance points 18-7.<\/p>\n
That is how you win a big game on national television. They controlled and dominated the effort and came away with a big early-season win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks (3-2) won their third game of the young season on Wednesday, in jaw-dropping fashion over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[57083,323150,99],"class_list":["post-898517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-mavericks-game-coverage","tag-mavericks-scores","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}