For the second time in three seasons, the Dallas Mavericks are back in the Western Conference finals after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder 117-116 in Game 6 in Dallas on Saturday night.
Now, the Mavericks await the winner of the Timberwolves-Nuggets series. Game 1 of the Western Conference finals will begin on Wednesday for Dallas on the road.
After trailing by 16 at halftime, Dallas rallied back in the second half to complete a 17-point comeback win, the largest comeback in team history in the postseason.
This was a great game, which included a lot of twists and turns in the final three minutes. The teams went back and forth, exchanging haymakers. Every time it appeared Dallas had gotten control, OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had a playoff career-high 36 points, made a play and assisted on the alley-oop jam by Chet Holmgren, which gave OKC a 116-115 lead with 20.4 seconds to go.
However, Gilgeous-Alexander fouled P.J. Washington on a three-point shot, and Washington, who scored all nine of his points in the fourth quarter, made two free throws and purposely missed the third one, and Jalen Williams missed a long-distance shot at the buzzer, and the Mavs got it done.
Washington and Derrick Jones Jr. was huge down the stretch, and Jason Kidd said the team trusted each other throughout the series.
“I thought the maturity and trust for the group was high,” Kidd said. “Different guys stepped up at different points in the series. In tonight’s game it wasn’t Luka(Doncic) or Kai [Kyrie Irving] making the game winner, it was the trust that Luka had for P.J.(Washington). P.J. made his free throws, and we found a way to win. But, for the coaching staff, they did an incredible job of getting these guys ready to play and the players trusted the game plan and executed the game plan. And we found a way to win the series.”
Kyrie Irving, who scored 22 points and moved to 14-0 in closeout games in his career, said the Mavs responded to adversity the way they always have this season; they found a way to get it done.
“I think it was fun once the game ended,” he said. “So many high emotions going out there. Being down 17 in a closeout game isn’t a position you want to be in, but that’s where we found ourselves. We had to respond the way we’ve been responding all season, just playing hard on the basketball on the defensive end, getting out in transition, and just trusting that our pace will get us back in the pace. [It] definitely feels good to get the series done.”
For the third consecutive game, Luka Doncic recorded 29 points (9-15 FG, 4-6 3FG, 7-7 FT), 10 rebounds, 10 assists and two steals for his seventh career triple-double in the playoffs. Like Irving, he’s happy to win the series.
“We won the series,” Doncic said. “That’s what matters in the end. We didn’t have home [court] advantage, which is great. [It’s] great that we won. Struggles are going to come. You have to stay positive and keep hooping.”
Dallas is a resilient group that keeps finding ways to get the job done. They didn’t want to play a Game 7, and it showed.
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