Hello, Win Column! Doncic's Big Night Powers Mavs Past Thunder

The Dallas Mavericks snapped their two-game losing streak with a big win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night. Luka Doncic led the way, and he got quite a bit of help from his teammates as well.

Dalton Trigg | Dec 12, 2022

After losing two consecutive games – with the most recent one being a brutal blowout at the hands of the Chicago Bulls – the Dallas Mavericks desperately needed to get things back on track at American Airlines Center against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.

The last time these two team met up, the Thunder made a historic comeback after being down 16 points with under four minutes remaining in regulation. Despite yet another furious OKC comeback attempt in the final minutes of Monday's game, Dallas ultimately came away with the 121-114 win. The Mavs improved to 14-13 on the season, and the Thunder fell to 11-16.

After taking Saturday's second night of a back-to-back off, Luka Doncic was back in action on Monday and picked up right where he left off. He led the way for Dallas with 38 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists while shooting 13-27 from the field, including 3-10 from deep. OKC guard Lu Dort always presents a tough, physical challenge for Doncic, but he wasn't able to slow down the MVP candidate ... at least not enough to get his team the victory.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who put up 38 points in his last outing against the Mavs, one-upped himself by scoring 42 points on 14-23 shooting from the field, including a perfect 13-13 from the free-throw line. With the way SGA has played this season, he's likely to find himself in the All-Star game.

Doncic got some help in the win, as Spencer Dinwiddie and Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 20 points apiece, including a combined 10 3-pointers. Reggie Bullock, who has struggled mightily shooting the ball this season, was the only other Mavericks to score in double-figures with 12 points on 3-4 shooting from deep.

Next up, the Mavs will get a day off before playing their second game of the current three-game homestand against Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night. It will be the first time the Mavs have faced the Cavs this season, as well as the first time they've faced Mitchell since their first-round playoff series against the Utah Jazz last season.

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Published Dec 12, 2022

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.