With the chance to advance to the Western Conference Finals on the line, the Dallas Mavericks pulled through with a 117-116 victory in Game 6 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder aggressively blitzed Doncic early, even when Holmgren was involved in the action. This disrupted Dallas' offense early, resulting in turnovers and empty possessions proving problematic. The momentum was all in the Thunder's favor, leading 14-3 at one point, with P.J. Washington getting into foul trouble shortly after.
It wasn't just the superstars who got it going offensively for the Mavericks. Josh Green even attacked a closeout using a spin move into a jump shot. Dallas suddenly cut the deficit to only trailing 18-16 midway through the period. Shortly after Doncic was called for a technical foul, Holmgren picked up a third personal foul, putting him in foul trouble with a significant amount of time left before halftime. With frequent foul calls going against Dallas and Doncic not getting the calls he felt he deserved, there was a clear impact the officiating crew had on the team's execution.
Another stretch of frequent turnovers put the Thunder right back into the lead, including a charge call against Doncic, Irving getting a pass stolen, and Doncic being called for a travel. It wasn't until Hardy threw a lob to Gafford by attacking Joe off the catch that Dallas ended a scoring drought. However, Gafford fumbling the ball in the paint led to Joe hitting a transition 3-pointer.
Dallas continued to cut into the Thunder's advantage, making it a four-point game after Irving pulled up in transition from mid-range and knocked it down. Oklahoma City responded to close out the period, maintaining a comfortable edge despite some possible momentum-swinging plays from the Mavericks that didn't prove to spark momentum. Gilgeous-Alexander scored repeatedly to have the Thunder ahead by 12 points late in the frame. A 5-0 run by Dallas made it 90-83 before the buzzer.
Dallas left Williams open coming out of a timeout, giving up a go-ahead 3-pointer almost immediately. It was a truly hard-fought game with Irving responded with a make from beyond the arc of his own. Gilgeous-Alexander responded with a short-range jumper, but came up empty on his next attempt before Washington drilled a tie-breaking catch-and-shoot look from deep.
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