DALLAS — As the ball last touched PJ Washington’s shoe, Chet Holmgren and the rest of his teammates let out a giant sigh of relief. A lengthy review helped seal the final result. A couple of consecutive timeouts allowed OKC to settle down as it once stared down a possible letdown.

The Oklahoma City Thunder escaped with a 101-94 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Once holding a 22-point lead, the latter slowly chipped away. 15 straight points and a late 25-4 run turned it into a nail-biter in the final moments.

“We never want to take a win for granted. We set a high bar for ourselves with the success of the team the last couple of years, but we never take a win for granted,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “It’s hard to win a game, especially on the road against a quality team. We earned the win tonight. Thought we did a good job extending the lead in the third, putting ourselves in position and I thought the situations down the stretch were very well executed.”

Early on, the Thunder had everything going their way. A surprise considering how much Dallas’ home gym has haunted them in recent years. A quick 11-2 lead forced an early timeout. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sat back as Holmgren and others cooked the Mavericks. They had a 28-24 lead after the first quarter.

The Thunder continued to keep an arms’ distance on the scoreboard. They scored 20 points in the second frame. Meanwhile, the Mavericks kept up. Anthony Davis had a few putback dunks to keep the Monday crowd engaged. The multi-time All-Star kept his team around as OKC entered halftime with a 48-42 lead.

Coming out of the break, the Thunder found a groove. It was another signature third-quarter avalanche. They exploded for 39 points in the frame. Holmgren was on another plane of existence. He was coming off pindown screens for outside buckets ala Klay Thompson. Just stuff that made you mouth ‘wow’ to yourself multiple times and shake your head in awe.

The Thunder had an 87-69 lead after the third quarter. Everything was going right for them. It looked like they’d be afforded the luxury of sitting Gilgeous-Alexander and others for the final frame as they complete the first leg of a road-andhome back-to-back.

Instead, the Mavericks slowly returned. One bucket at a time. On the other side, the Thunder couldn’t buy a bucket. Their offense had a slew of outside misses. You couldn’t look away from the disaster. Jaden Hardy and the rest of Dallas’ bench provided a boost of energy. Eventually, backto- back corner makes sliced OKC’s lead to 93-87 with a little under four minutes left. Crunch time. Who would’ve thought? Most of the Dallas crowd filed out by then. After Gilgeous-Alexander couldn’t hit a jumper to put it away, the Mavericks had possession in a three-point game with a little over a minute left. D’Angelo Russell’s floater made it a one-point game with 54 seconds left. Isaiah Hartenstein answered right back. Now, it was up to OKC’s defense to get another stop.

They were able to do that. Thanks to Russell playing hero-ball once again. He missed an outside look in the final 25 seconds that would’ve tied it. That was their best shot at an epic comeback. Gilgeous-Alexander drilled a couple of free throws in the final seconds to seal it. They only scored 14 points in the final frame, but it was just enough to escape.

The Thunder shot 47% from the field and went 6-of-30 (20%) from 3. They shot 11-of-13 on free throws. They had 21 assists on 42 baskets. Five Thunder players scored double-digit points.

Gilgeous-Alexander had 23 points on 22 shot attempts. Holmgren finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Hartenstein tallied 16 points and 12 rebounds. Ajay Mitchell did it again off the bench with 17 points and seven rebounds. Aaron Wiggins had 11 points.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks shot 38% from the field and went 12-of-39 (30.8%) from 3. They shot 16-of-22 on free throws. They had 20 assists on 33 baskets. Four Mavericks players scored double-digit points.

Davis had a monstrous 26 points and 11 rebounds. Washington finished with 15 points and nine rebounds. Max Christie finished with 14 points. Hardy scored 11 points off the bench. 2025 No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg was held to just two points as a ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment.

Always bad mojo is involved in Dallas. The Thunder seem to be out of sorts when they play at that mic’d-up rims gym. While it looked like the Thunder would finally dominate the center-less Mavericks, a poor finish made this closer than it needed to be. Alas, we can’t complain too much about a win. But you’d like to see them stiffarm their opponent on the scoreboard.

“There’s a lot we can look at in the fourth and at different parts of the game,” Daigneault said. “But like I said, we’re never going to take a win for granted.”