The Mavericks beat the Thunder 110-119 at the Paycom Center to tie the tie and steal the court factor from the team that was in first position in the Western Conference. The best team in the regular season also fell, the Celtics, who lost at TD Garden 94-118 against the Cavaliers. Both ties have been tied (1-1).
The Thunder succumbed to Doncic’s Mavs. The Slovenian scored 29 points, going 5 of 8 from three-point range, 10 rebounds and 7 assists, all without fully recovering from his knee problems. “It’s part of my DNA to have to play with pain. I will only miss a game if I can’t walk,” declared the former Real Madrid player.
In Dallas, to make up for Irving’s bad game, with only 9 points, two secondary players appeared, Tim Hardaway, with 17 points, and P.J. Washington, which reached 29 points, with an extraordinary 7 of 11 from the three-point line.
For the Thunder, only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, second in this season’s MVP, and Jalen Williams showed up. The Canadian point guard was close to the triple-double, with 33 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists. For his part, the American guard reached twenty points, insufficient for Oklahoma, as they missed a more decisive version of Holmgren. The runner-up for Rookie of the Year, behind Wembanyama, only scored 11 points.
The big surprise of the night took place in Boston, with the Cavaliers’ victory at TD Garden. J.B.’s pupils Bickerstaff tied the tie after giving the Celtics a 64-40 run in the final 24 minutes.
Despite being, surely, the most unequal Conference semifinal of the four, Cleveland surprised the best team of the regular season, just as the Miami Heat did in the first round. Donovan Mitchell, with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists, confirmed his great performance in these playoffs. De Spida is, after Jalen Brunson, the player with the most points in the title playoffs.
Caris LeVert and Evan Mobley, both with 21 points, perfectly complemented Mitchell to win where few teams had done so. The Celtics, erratic from the triple (8 of 35), could not survive the Cavs’ attacks, despite Jayson Tatum’s 25 points and Jaylen Brown’s 19.
