Oklahoma City at Dallas

[Real Deal]

TIME: 8:30 PM ET

TV: NBA TV

[Dash]

Great win for the Mavericks against what most consider is the top team in the West, this could be the sort of performance that gets them back on track.

[Real Deal]

Just felt like an off-night for the Thunder. They were playing far too much one-on-one, didn't really come out to play defense, and both Durant and Westbrook were on and off the entire game. Despite Dallas' early troubles in the first few they have played, they will win games by capitalizing on very simple mistakes, and that is exactly what happened.

 

I'd still take OKC in a seven-gamer, almost feels like a fluke loss, but in a compressed season, these types of losses are bad news.

[Built Ford Tough]

I liked the way that the Mavs utilized Carter in the post whenever he had smaller defenders like Harden, Jackson, Westbrook or Maynor on him. That is one area of his game that has always been overlooked and, even though he wasn't able to really convert any of his FGA, he created some very good scoring opportunities for his teammates and, obviously, got to the line frequently.

 

Odom looked like he actually had a pulse for the first time this year, so hopefully he can get his head out of LA and realize that he plays for Dallas now.

 

I liked what Mahinmi and Haywood gave the Mavs tonight. I thought both played really well inside, especially during the 3rd quarter when the Mavs pretty much won this game.

 

OKC didn't really play that well tonight, but that shouldn't take away from the way that the Mavs played. This was an impressive performance from them and a lot of OKC's struggles should be attributed to how well they played (although I do agree that they kind of shot themselves in the foot a bit as well).