At the conclusion of the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder blew out the Dallas Mavericks 135-86, even though the Mavericks were without eight players from their rotation, including Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic, two of their stars.

The Thunder played at full strength without any injuries, while the Mavs started young players Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Jaden Hardy. This win gave Oklahoma City the Western Conference’s top seed. As the fifth seed, Dallas was already guaranteed to face the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round.

“Oklahoma is a number one seed. They had a heck of a year. We couldn’t shoot the ball straight, but there’s a lot, some positives in this,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “The biggest thing is we came out healthy, and now, uh, we closed the door on our season.”

Apr 14, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2)

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With 22 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists, Brandon Williams was the Mavs’ leading scorer. Without Doncic and Irving, he had to step up offensively and get the team oriented for this game. The Dallas Cowboys have Williams’ signature on their Exhibit 10 contract.

“Yeah, I like the way he ran the group, not just scoring, but being able to get us organized,” Kidd said of Williams. “I thought he did a really good job with that tonight. He took advantage of his speed, being able to get to the rim. We ran a couple plays just to see how he handled being able to read the receivers and then being able to score for himself. So I thought he did a really good job this afternoon.”

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Although he got off to a fast start, Prosper’s shooting cooled down and he ended up with 15 points and 8 rebounds (despite shooting only 2-6 from beyond the arc). Dallas wanted him to take on more offensive responsibility, so they gave him screening duties and pushed him to be aggressive on the perimeter.

“Maybe fatigue caught up to him, but overall, there was a lot of positive to get us to score,” Kidd said of Prosper. “But I think just showing his abilities to shoot the three, to put the ball on the floor. We wanted him to run some pick-and-rolls to see how he handled that. And decision-making. I thought he did an incredible job here in the last two games.

The performance was not up to par. With no typical shooting alternatives, the Mavs shot just 33.0% from the field and 20.5% from deep, resulting in a very inefficient performance. The Huskies kept Hardy to nine points, four boards, and three assists on 4-for-14 shooting and 1-4 from beyond the arc. With a combined shooting percentage of 2–17 from the field and 1–10 from beyond the arc, Tim Hardaway Jr. scored three points in 20 minutes while Josh Green was capped at four. How much of a role each of them plays in the postseason rotation is still up in the air.

“We’ll let you guys speculate. That’s what you guys will do,” Kidd said. “We’ll play everyone who’s healthy and see if we put us in a position to win. Everybody will be on deck. So it’s good for Hardy and Josh to get minutes and Timmy. We’ll see as we get closer to what that rotation looks like.”

With only one of the Thunder’s starters reaching 20 minutes played, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still totaled 15 points and six assists. Chet Holmgren added 13 points and nine rebounds. Oklahoma City had five double-figure scorers overall and shot 55.1% from the floor and 41.2% from the perimeter.

After trailing 11-0 to start, Dallas went on a 14-8 run, with Prosper and Williams playing essential roles in the Mavs’ offensive attack to make it 19-14. Prosper scored nine of the Mavs’ initial 11 points, using two made corner 3-pointers and a highlight-reel-worthy dunk against contact with Holmgren protecting the rim.

The lack of a clear-cut top offensive threat limited the offense, often with guards snaking into the gap to encounter Holmgren in drop coverage, then deciding not to finish at the rim or pull up in short range. That changed to an extent after Williams checked into the game, with him aggressively attacking the rim and getting to short-range spots, but Oklahoma City tightened up defensively overall.

“J Kidd and Jared Dudley told me to play my game and my game is to get in the paint and make a decision,” Williams said. “They have to trust in me and vice versa, to go in there and make the right play and make the right decision. I think that’s the main thing right there. So just get in the paint and make the right play.”

By the end of the first quarter, the Thunder’s lead had grown to 17 points, thanks in large part to Gileous-Alexander and the rest of the plug-and-play lineup. The first quarter ended with Oklahoma City up 39-22 after a 20-8 run by Dallas, who had trouble scoring in the half-court and whose small defense couldn’t contain Gilgeous-Alexander or Holmgren.

The Thunder jumped out to a 70-31 advantage after a 31-9 second-quarter run. As the Thunder kept pounding the Mavs, Gilgeous-Alexander found success by pulling help from the interior defense and utilizing his short-range touch and distributing abilities.

Gordon Hayward’s two free throws with 2 minutes and 39 seconds remaining in the first half gave the Thunder a 40-point lead, while the Mavs’ total for the half remained at 34. The halftime score was 82–41 for Oklahoma City. After taking a commanding 55-point lead into halftime, the Thunder decided to rest their players due to their commanding lead.

Despite failing to mount a comeback, Dallas kept using the game to get experience for their younger players. Expected to play significant minutes this game, Prosper finished with a team-high 37 minutes. Alex Fudge had 18 minutes of action in his Mavs debut.

Game 1 of the first-round series between the Mavs and the Clippers has not yet been scheduled. At the latest, it will be on April 21, and at the very least, it will be on April 20.