After being acquired in trades prior to Thursday’s deadline, Kyrie Irving scored 25 points, while Daniel Gafford finished with 19 points and nine rebounds in his Dallas debut with P.J. Washington.
When youngster Dereck Lively II returns from a broken nose, Gafford will be asked to step up and show intensity right away. He was a Wizards player from Washington.
Washington, who finished with 14 points, was a native of Charlotte, and only minutes after they entered the game in the first quarter, both rookies scored alley-oop dunks off of assists from Doncic.
“Playing with guys like Luka, Kyrie, all the other guys that were on the floor, it just felt like I was already part of the mold,” said Gafford, who was 7 of 11 while playing just 17 minutes.
Doncic, who sat the fourth quarter, had nine assists and eight rebounds as Dallas improved to 4-0 with Doncic and Irving in the lineup since Irving’s return from a sprained thumb.
“The pace was high,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “We didn’t have to run anybody’s minutes up. And that was something that we talked about this afternoon. A lot, a lot of good stuff.”
The Thunder, who acquired Gordon Hayward from the Hornets at the deadline, are anticipated to play the 2017 All-Star before the All-Star break next week, despite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring 25 points for the Thunder.
With Doncic scoring 18 points in the first quarter of the Mavs’ highest-scoring quarter in team history, the Thunder gave up the most points in a quarter (2023–24) and were behind 47–30.
“They shot it well early, but that’s where some of the transition, like straight up fast break plays really hurt you,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Because when you’re giving up easy ones and they’re making shots, then that’s how the 47 can happen in the first quarter.”
Oklahoma City, which trailed Minnesota by a half-game for the best record in the Western Conference, fell down by 22 points late in the first quarter and pulled as close as four points halfway through the second.
After Irving missed a 3-pointer, Gafford rebounded and was fouled on the put-back, putting the Mavericks back in front. The last seconds of the third quarter saw Dallas take a 110-89 lead thanks to his free throw. Leading the Mavs in offensive rebounds was Gafford with four.
Kidd stated, “What we’ve observed when playing against Gafford is that he gets every offensive rebound.” And I assumed he took care of that for us. And that will be necessary for us.
After the Mavs finished one point shy of their season high, Irving finished with eight assists, including the 4,000th of his career in the second quarter.