Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 13 of his 23 points in the third quarter, helping the Oklahoma City Thunder stay undefeated with a 101-94 road win over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday.
The Thunder led by 22 in the fourth quarter but the Mavericks got within one in the final minute before Oklahoma City steadied late offensively.
The Mavericks trailed 91-69 with little more than 10 minutes remaining before starting their push.
Oklahoma City went more than 5:30 without scoring as Dallas reeled off a 15-0 run during that stretch to cut the deficit to four with just over three minutes remaining.
The Mavericks cut the deficit to one on D’Angelo Russell’s floater with 55 seconds remaining.
But the Thunder got a driving layup from Isaiah Hartenstein to stretch the lead to three, then after a fruitless possession for Dallas, Gilgeous-Alexander went to the free-throw line for the first time in the game with 21 seconds left and drained both to stretch the lead to five and nearly put the game away.
Gilgeous-Alexander made 10 of 22 shots from the field with eight assists, including one on Hartenstein’s late basket.
Oklahoma City was just 5-of-21 shooting from the floor in the fourth and shot 46.7% for the game.
The Thunder’s Chet Holmgren had 16 points and 12 rebounds while Ajay Mitchell, continuing his strong play off the bench, added 17 points. Aaron Wiggins scored 11.
Dallas was 8 of 19 in the final quarter and finished shooting 37.5% from the floor.
Anthony Davis (10 of 16 from the floor led the Mavericks with 26 points and 11 rebounds. P.J. Washington added 15 points, and Max Christie, making his first start of the season, scored 14.
With the Mavericks on the second night of their first back-to-back of the season, rookie Cooper Flagg finished just 1 of 9 from the floor for a season-low two points. The night before in a win over Toronto, the 2025 No. 1 overall pick scored a season-high 22 points.
In Monday’s loss, Flagg injured his left shoulder on the opening possession but told reporters postgame that he felt he would be available to play Wednesday against the visiting Indiana Pacers.
–Field Level Media
