West Heavyweight's Collide in NBA Cup Quarterfinal

Daniel Waddleton

Dec 11, 2024

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AS FAR AS I'm concerned, the two best teams in the Western Conference squared off Tuesday night in a NBA Cup knockout game, with a trip to Las Vegas on the line.

The Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder matchup wasn’t just compelling because of the heighten stakes of the Cup, or even the lingering tension from Dallas eliminating Oklahoma City in last season's thrilling playoff series. You're starting to get the feeling these two have some real animosity towards one another.

Tim MacMahon, an NBA writer for ESPN, highlighted this animosity on Twitter last week when the matchup was finalized. He noted that after a November 18th win in Oklahoma City, the Mavericks seemingly went out of their way to mock the Thunder.

Nipsey Hussle’s “Last Time That I Checc’d” blared from visitors’ weight room after Mavs’ Nov. 17 W in OKC — a reminder that Dallas went through OKC en route to West title last year. - Tim MacMahon via Twitter.

The Thunder didn’t forget. In fact, after last night's game, MacMahon sent out another tweet writing, “Guess what song played on the arena speakers a couple of minutes after the final buzzer in OKC.”.

If a real rivalry is starting to brew between these two teams, it’s likely to only intensify moving forward. Both squads are poised to sit atop the Western Conference for years to come, vying for the same ultimate prize year in and year out.

And last night, the Thunder made a statement. After Dallas stringing together wins in recent matchups, Oklahoma City delivered a massive counterpunch, making it clear this rivalry is going to be far from one-sided.

The Thunder knocked off the Mavericks with a 118-104 victory, and that score honestly feels misleading. Oklahoma City seemed to have complete control for most of the night, and a late surge by Dallas was the only reason the benches didn't clear earlier then they did.

Superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was nothing short of brilliant, hanging 39 points on Dallas with an efficient 15-23 shooting performance. He single-handedly outscored Dallas’ star duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

You can attribute much of Doncic and Irving’s struggles to a relentless defensive effort by OKC. The Thunder's defense, which we talked about in the preseason as having the potential to be the best in the league, fully lived up to that billing last night.

They held Dallas to just 104 points—their lowest scoring output since October—and forced 19 turnovers, converting those into 36 points. Their point-of-attack defense was suffocating, and even without a traditional center on the floor for stretches of the game, OKC managed to still protect the rim effectively thanks to their incredible defensive versatility.

It’s also worth highlighting the impact of two key offseason acquisitions by OKC, Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso. Both were brought in to address weaknesses exposed during their playoff series loss to Dallas, and both played pivotal roles in last night’s victory.

That'll set the stage for us—now let’s take a deeper dive into what unfolded last night and explore what it could mean for both squads as they move forward.

DALLAS ACTUALLY GOT off to a strong start to open the night. They played with pace, executed their offense with purpose, and looked energized. Within the first two minutes, they had jumped out to an 8-0 lead. But from that point on, OKC gnawed at the bone, grinding Dallas down possession by possession until the Mavericks were a shell of the team that started the game.

OKC’s gameplan was clear: hard blitz Luka Doncic anytime an on-ball screen came his way. Against mortal defenses, this approach typically backfires, as Luka’s unique combination of height, court vision, and playmaking brilliance allows him to pick apart defenses with ease. However, OKC’s defense is special—it felt like they had eight players on the floor at all times.

Here are a couple of examples of OKC’s defense on these possessions, where they are flying around to contest shooters, rotating seamlessly, and using their versatility to have guards pick up on Dallas bigs without it becoming a disadvantage. Just look at that back side rotation on the last clip, phew!

It wasn’t just trapping and rotating where OKC thrived defensively last night. Lu Dort and Cason Wallace both deserve gold stars for their individual efforts against Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

In this early sequence, Wallace picks up Doncic off a miss—a situation he likely saw as a chance to attack with Dort out of the picture. Instead, Wallace not only blocks his jumper but then stays with him on the ensuing drive, forcing a tough miss.

As for Dort, his physicality wore Doncic down all night, especially off the ball. In the first clip he’s draped all over Doncic, refusing to give him any space. The relentless pressure forces a turnover here, as it leads to an illegal screen.

In the second clip early in the third quarter, Dort isn’t even in the TV frame while he's following Doncic around on his hip, then denying him the ball on a handoff attempt when they re-appear. The disruption forces Quentin Grimes to reset at the top of the key, where he turns it over from the on-ball pressure of Wallace.

Welcome to the rivalry Isaiah Hartenstein. Offensive rebounding was a key advantage for Dallas in their playoff series last year and nearly nonexistent for Oklahoma City. With Hartenstein now in the mix, OKC has turned that deficiency into another weapon in their offensive arsenal—one more element opposing teams will have to account for. We saw this early and often tonight.

Turnovers after completing defensive stops were a recurring nightmare for Dallas all night—swiped defensive rebounds, errant kick-ahead passes (shown above), and stolen outlet passes to guards. Even when Dallas managed to get stops, those possessions often turned right back into points for OKC.

Jason Timpf, a Twitter analyst, shared a stat from Synergy Sports that perfectly captures this issue that Dallas was having: “The Thunder scored 36 points off turnovers last night, but had just eight fast-break points and only 14 total points in transition.”

OKC's other offseason addition—Alex Caruso—got in on this fun, but he wasn't alone.

At the conclusion of the first quarter the score was 32-24 in favor of OKC, and something in the second quarter caught my attention.

This Thunder team is clearly loaded and doesn’t have many glaring weaknesses left to address. However, one area they could improve is by acquiring an offensive organizer for their second unit. Jalen Williams is one of my favorite players in the league, but in this early stage of his career, I feel he’s slightly overtaxed as the primary initiator for that group.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished the night as a +22, and while much of that is a testament to his offensive brilliance, I believe some of that was also the offense bogging down a bit when he wasn’t on the floor.

During the six minutes of non-SGA basketball in the second quarter, Dallas managed to chip away at the lead. OKC only scored twice in the half court—a tough midrange jumper from Williams and a drive-and-kick from Williams to Wallace for a corner triple.

Now when Chet Holmgren returns, the Thunder could potentially stagger his and Hartenstein’s minutes, ensuring the second unit always features either a hyper-skilled offensive center like Holmgren or an offensive rebounding presence like Hartenstein. Even with that adjustment though, the unit will still lack a true organizer or traditional playmaker.

I’d love to see OKC explore the trade market using some of their war chest of draft capital to acquire a guard like Collin Sexton or Dennis Schroder. Both point guards have seen a ton of experience the past two seasons as primary creators on their teams, and to slot either of them into those non-SGA minutes I think could be a huge bonus.

Neither would drastically alter the Thunder’s defensive identity either, as both are competitive defenders who can hold their own. This type of addition around the edges could be the difference between OKC being a top-echelon contender and becoming a bona fide championship favorite.

Also in this second-quarter stretch, Irving handled a bulk of the offensive possessions with Luka Doncic off the floor. The Thunder took a different approach to defending Irving in ball screen situations, opting for a slight drop coverage. They trusted Caruso and others to navigate the screens and funnel Irving toward Hartenstein.

Here are two excellent defensive possessions from OKC during this stretch:

Shoutout Naji Marshall, who has been a really nice addition to this Dallas team especially on defense, but gave them a scoring punch last night when both Doncic and Irving were being so heavily keyed on. The Dallas stars needed a release valve and he was able to supply that, scoring 14 points in the first half and helped keep the team's head above water when it was looking dangerous.

OKC felt like they were the better team in the first half, but the Mavericks ability to hit a collection of open three’s when they were made available was enough to keep the score close. It was 57-54 heading into the halftime break.

The second half is where the Thunder’s relentless defensive intensity truly began to wear Dallas down on both ends of the court.

After a Daniel Gafford layup cut the score to 59-56 with about 10 minutes left in the third, OKC responded with a dominant 13-3 run over the next four minutes. During this stretch, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander started to take over, attacking whoever was on the floor—be it Gafford or Lively—in two-man actions with Hartenstein. He repeatedly found his spots and drained mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper.

Here’s a nice quick hitter from the third: SGA gets the switch onto Lively, and after the ball swings around and back to him, Cason Wallace sets a ghost screen. Knowing Doncic is likely to show on the side of the apparent screen with Lively at the point of attack, Wallace pops into space for a clean look at a three.

I mean how good is SGA? Look at this drive—the impressive bend around Lively with incredible body control, and the finish high off the glass to avoid the block. Simply brilliant.

Late in this quarter, Luka seemed a bit disengaged, likely worn down by the game’s physicality. The Mavericks were in man-to-man defense, but Quinten Grimes was in heavy gap help to prevent SGA's drive. The set begins with Dort clearing out Dinwiddie by running the baseline, then Caruso curled into the paint and out to occupy Lively, and Williams cut down to Doncic right before Joe made his move, assuming he’d want to pass his man to the next defender. By the time Grimes realized he’d been passed off to Joe, the sharpshooter was already catching the ball wide open on the other wing for a three.

The funniest part of that play? Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd had a hot mic, and the telecast picked up him telling Grimes that he didn't do anything wrong and it was actually Joe’s defender who blew the assignment—because, despite appearance, they were still in man-to-man defense.

Mark Daigneault made an adjustment in the second half, pulling Hartenstein in the third quarter so he could start the fourth with the second unit during SGA’s rest.

While it didn’t completely solve the issues, as they were still outscored in those minutes, the offense did show some improvement compared to the start of the second. They ran a few dribble handoff actions with Williams and Hartenstein which looked good.

Late in this game, I think Dallas ran into some interesting offensive stuff to build on in this matchup going forward.

In future iterations of this matchup, I think Dallas might adjust by trying to get Doncic off the ball more often. This would allow him to catch the ball with Dort slightly off-balance, mitigating Dort’s low center of gravity, which is so effective in isolation defense. It would also help Doncic avoid calling for as many on-ball screens that OKC is consistently blitzing and giving the defense behind the screen a chance to load up.

Another wrinkle could be using Doncic as a screener for Irving off the ball. In this clip, the Thunder avoid switching Dort off Doncic, and Irving is able to curl downhill off the screen. While he misses the shot, his drive collapses the defense, leading to an offensive rebound and an eventual inside-out three.

Or maybe even have an elite shooter like Klay Thompson set the on-ball screens. Late in the game, Thompson sets a seemingly spontaneous screen for Doncic, and for one of the only times all night the Thunder switched instead of trapping. Likely not wanting to leave Klay open on a pop, this gives Doncic a rare chance to drive downhill and create a good look for Marshall.

Can we give one final shoutout to OKC's defense? This defensive possession popped off the screen in the fourth as I was watching the film.

Mavericks set this up like it's going to be a stagger screen for Spencer Dinwiddie, but as he comes off that first screen Gafford looks to create confusion by slipping the second screen.

The three Thunder defenders involved with the action are on a string of who's switching where, and Caruso not only picks up Gafford rolling, but is able to negate the size advantage and knock the ball away for a forced turnover.

A late shooting surge by Dallas was never going to be enough given how the game had gone all night. Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams combined to score 10 of OKC’s final 13 points, which capped off a 118-104 victory and punching the Thunder’s ticket to Vegas.

Looking ahead, I expect Dallas to make some major adjustments in their next matchup. I think there will ultimately be better ways Jason Kidd can scheme against the blitz heavy pick and roll defense the Thunder play against Doncic, some of which I suggested above.

Tonight, however, it also just felt like OKC simply wanted it more. The Mavericks seemed a bit lethargic at times, potentially due to the bug reportedly going around their locker room, which kept starting forward P.J. Washington out of the lineup.

Overall, I still believe these are the two best teams in the Western Conference. If we don’t get to see them clash in another playoff series this May, it would feel like we have been robbed. Mavericks fans shouldn’t be overly concerned about this loss—it’s one game in December—but Thunder fans have every reason to be excited about the way their team looked tonight.