Stiles Points: OKC Thunder Had the Blueprint to Beat Dallas Mavericks

When the final buzzer sounded in Game 6 of the second round Series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks unabashed joy fell over the Mavericks as blue streamers flowed from the sky. Dallas has survived the “hardest series” Kyrie Irving has ever played while Oklahoma City experienced their first NBA heartbreak after playing well enough to force a Game 7 back on their home floor, only to come up just short.

In the immediate aftermath of the series, there were many overreacts and questions surrounding the Bricktown boys. Though, quickly things returned to a sense of normalcy as the Mavericks began to match their way to a Western Conference Finals win.

Since the NBA Trade Deadline, the Dallas Mavericks played at a 57-win pace, one of the best teams in basketball with two of the NBA’s brightest scoring stars in a league driven by them. For Oklahoma City to fall shy of the Mavericks in their initial playoff run - with a point differential of 0 - is nothing to be ashamed of.

In the next round, the Mavericks played a contrasting style compared to the Thunder. A Minnesota team that exchanged the plethora of perimeter defenders Oklahoma City boasts with the size the Thunder lack. No team in the NBA can match Minnesota’s big man rolodex.

Dallas was able to pick a part the Timberwolves, only dropping one game in the series due to a significant blow to their rotation losing Dereck Lively II for a game and crescendoing in a 21 point Game 5 win to close out the series on the road over the No. 3 seed.

As Luka Doncic hoisted the Western Conference MVP trophy it began clear: the Oklahoma City Thunder had the blueprint to beat Dallas but got burned.

The Thunder utilized their top-5 NBA defense to present a speed bump to Doncic, take away Irving as a scorer and dare the complimentary players to beat them. That they did, as Derrick Jones Jr. and PJ Washington had the best 3-point shooting series of their lives en route to the hard fought series win.

The Mavericks are a supremely talented team, but throwing the necessary size and bodies at Dallas on the perimeter while hoping they don’t get an atypical shooting streak from “the others” is the only way you can hope to beat the team carefully constructed at the deadline that’s proven to be one of the best in the sport.

Not many teams have the point of attack defenders to present a challenge to Doncic and Irving such as Oklahoma City - one of the only others being the Boston Celtics. The attention they allocate to the Mavericks complimentary players compared to Dallas’s star will be interesting to monitor in a storyline littered Finals.

Song of the Day: Fix You by Coldplay

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