The last time the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder met, the former eliminated the latter in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Now, one day short of six months since that game, the Mavericks and Thunder will square off Sunday in Oklahoma City.
“The playoffs is over,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of the matchup. “We used that to learn more about our system, learn more about our players as we headed into the summer. Now it’s a new season.”
The Thunder have had plenty of success so far this season even as they’ve been shorthanded. Injuries to big men Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein have forced Oklahoma City to go small, but it’s worked. They sit atop the Western Conference with an 11-2 record.
Dallas coach Jason Kidd has a center issue as well, as Dereck Lively II has started the past two games on the interior after Daniel Gafford started the season’s first 11.
“They’ve both played well as starters, they’ve both played well off the bench,” Kidd said. “So we’ll see how D-Live handles these next couple games as the starter and we’ll figure out who’s going to start after that. … If it was the ’80s, we would play them at the same time but unfortunately it’s not the ’80s so only one can play and right now D-Live is the starter.”
Sunday’s game is the second night of a back-to-back for the Mavericks, who beat the San Antonio Spurs 110-93 on Saturday to snap a four-game losing streak.
Oklahoma City, which closes out a season-long six-game homestand Sunday, leads the NBA in drives per game with 62, but is second-to-last in free-throw attempts per game at 19.6.
Officiating has been a point of frustration for Daigneault.
“I’m, like, lighting them up tonight,” Daigneault said Friday after his team attempted 18 free throws in a 99-83 win over the Phoenix Suns. “Not because of one call tonight, but there’s a cumulative frustration we have at this point because our guys are working too hard.”
Phoenix attempted 40 free throws in that Thunder win.
“It’s capping us offensively,” Daigneault said. “And the guys want to improve, you know? And they’re asking how we can improve, and it’s like there’s only so much we can improve on if we’re not getting to the line.”
On Saturday, Daigneault was asked again about the low free-throw numbers, and he called back to his remarks the day before.
“The numbers are the numbers,” Daigneault said. “And I was just laying out the numbers, really, in the context of how do we improve offensively with that type of free-throw rate? … I’m not going to get into assumptions or anything like that, you know. I’m going to just stay to the facts and the facts are the facts.”
In addition to being without Holmgren for the fourth consecutive game after suffering a pelvic fracture that’s going to keep him out at least two months, the Thunder will also be without guard Alex Caruso for the third consecutive game. Caruso has a right hip strain.
