Dallas Mavericks Held Thunder to Worst Offensive Performance of the Season in Game 5

The Thunder have struggled to make shots due to Dallas' improved defense, bottoming out in Game 5

May 15, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) drives to the basket as Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) defends / Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports

The Dallas Mavericks came away with a 104-92 Game 5 victory over the OKC Thunder Wednesday night, pushing the Mavs ahead 3-2 in the series. With superstar offensive talents like Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, many expected them to carry the load on the offensive end, but Dallas' defense is the reason they've taken a lead and largely been the better team outside of Game 1.

OKC scored 92 points in Game 5, their lowest scoring output of the season. They were also held to just 10 free throw attempts, their third-lowest total of the season, and shot just 25% from three, one of their eight-lowest shooting nights of the season and their lowest of the playoffs. They only failed to score more than 101 points six times in the regular season and they've already been at 101 points or below five times in the playoffs, three of those coming against Dallas.

READ MORE: Luka Doncic Leads Dallas Mavericks to Decisive Game 5 Win: 3 Game-Changing Plays

Jason Kidd said to the media following Game 5 "...taking away the three, we saw them (OKC) shoot a lot more threes tonight to try to give Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) and Jalen (Williams) space to drive and I thought we did a good job of trying to close out but they got some good looks."

According to NBA.com, Lu Dort and Cason Wallace each had more than 70% of their looks open in Game 5 (closest defender 4-6 feet away), but each shot poorly in this game. More than half of Chet Holmgren's and Jalen Williams' looks were tightly contested shedding some light on Dallas' gameplan.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is going to get his points and he's had a good series, averaging 31.4 PPG, but Dallas has made it difficult to score for everyone else. The rest of OKC's normal starting lineup (Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, and Josh Giddey) are all averaging below their regular season averages for points, FG%, and 3PT%. Williams scored 20 points in Game 2 and that's the only time all series someone not named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 20+ points for the Thunder. The offense with the original starting lineup was so stagnant for OKC that they inserted Isaiah Joe in place of Giddey for Game 5, which helped initially, but their bench rotation couldn't keep up in the second quarter.

Derrick Jones Jr. and P.J. Washington have been spectacular on the perimeter for Dallas, while rookie Dereck Lively II has been impressive down low. According to the NBA's box score, players guarded by Jones or Lively shot just 8/25 (32%) from the field in Game 5, with 3 forced turnovers and 2 blocks. The impact Lively is making on the defensive end as a rookie cannot be understated, he's become a massive deterrent for the Mavs. This entire sequence by him and the rest of Dallas is as good as it gets at this level.

One easy way to see a huge reason why OKC's been struggling on offense: watch Dereck Lively throughout this possession.

Dallas' closeouts, rotations, and peel switches on the perimeter are good, but OKC can't get anything because they're not moving Lively away from the rim. pic.twitter.com/sqC2Adt7X3

— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) May 16, 2024

Dallas has trusted Jones to make SGA work for his shots and he has. 39.1% of SGA's shots have been tightly contested in this second round, while 84.3% of his shot attempts have come after he's dribbled three or more times. He's really having to work for his shots and they're not always great looks, even if he's been making those pull-up midrange shots. The key is to defend without fouling him, something the Mavericks were better at in Games 4 and 5, with him just attempting 6 free throws in each of those games, well below his average of 9.7 FTA per game over the last two seasons.

They've also seen the defensive buy-in from Doncic and Irving. While Doncic will likely never be a premier defender, it's hard to move or score through him when he's trying on that end of the floor. Seeing the two superstars' buy-in and effort permeates the rest of the team.

Dallas' improved defense is no surprise to the Mavericks fanbase, as they were the best defense in the NBA over the final 20 games of the regular season, but the rest of the NBA is finding out just how much of an impact the trade deadline deals for Washington and Daniel Gafford have made on this team.

For Dallas to close this series out in Game 6, and keep Kyrie Irving's perfect record in closeout games intact, their defense will likely have to be tremendous once again. Keep SGA off the free-throw line, make life tough for Jalen Williams, and dare everyone else to beat them. That's been the plan so far and it has Dallas on the brink of their second Western Conference Semifinals appearance in the last three seasons.

Game 6 will be Saturday from the American Airlines Center at 7 p.m. CST.

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