DALLAS– Luka Doncic already had a jammed right knee and sore left ankle when he fell on his back while fighting his main defender, Lu Dort, for a loose ball.
Not only did Doncic beat the ensuing jump ball, but the NBA scoring champion tracked down the ensuing loose ball as his Dallas Mavericks clung to the final lead.
“Everything,” Doncic said when asked what hurt, just minutes after walking gingerly to the locker room, with Dallas having defeated Oklahoma City 105-101 on Saturday to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. “I’m just fighting out there.”
The same could be said of many others.
Kyrie Irving scored 22 points, including a left-handed run in the lane in the final minute to help the Mavs hold on.
Doncic also had 22 points remaining and 15 rebounds, and PJ Washington Jr. scored 27, just two shy of his playoff high from Dallas’ Game 2 victory.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 31 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks, but was called upon to attack with Doncic defending on a drive with 29 seconds remaining and the Thunder trailing by five.
Chet Holmgren, who scored 13 points, also had four blocks as Oklahoma City finished with 10. But the Thunder were outscored 16-5 on the offensive glass by the scrappy Mavs, who had a 16-9 advantage in second-chance points.
Top-seeded Oklahoma City has lost consecutive games after starting 5-0 in the playoffs. Game 4 is Monday night in Dallas.
“It’s extremely competitive,” Holmgren said. “Both teams really want it. If you take the result from that, that’s all you want to go through in a basketball game.”
Irving bounced back from just the third single-digit scoring game of his long playoff career with 14 second-half points, including six consecutive fourth-quarter Dallas points that helped the Mavs take their largest lead into the final period with nine. .
Dallas’ lead was three after a missed 3-pointer by Gilgeous-Alexander when Irving crossed the lane and hit a runner for a 104-99 lead with 39 seconds left.
The eight-time All-Star, who had just eight shots and nine points as Dallas tied the series in Oklahoma City, shot 10 of 17 from the field and had seven assists to lead the team for the second straight game.
“One of my coaches came to me and said I waited too long, so obviously I need to be better,” said Irving, who made all four of his shots in the fourth quarter. “We are going to face a young team. So we just want to continue to do the things that get us those Ws, and that starts on the defensive end.”
Washington had a 19-point first half for the second game in a row, once again finishing three points below the combined total before halftime for Irving and Doncic. Washington was 3 of 6 from 3-point range in the first half and 5 of 12 for the game.
“He’s playing basketball,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’ve got to turn that water off if we want to win this series, that’s for sure.”
Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault decided to intentionally foul Dereck Lively II in the fourth quarter, and the rookie center missed three of his first four free throws. But he hit the next four in a row, the last one putting Dallas up 100-95 with 3:06 left.
Lively, who shot 51 percent from the line in the regular season and was 11 of 21 in the playoffs, shot 8 of 12 on free throws and had 12 points and eight rebounds.
Mavericks center Daniel Gafford, who dealt with a dislocated pinky finger in Game 2, left in the second quarter after injuring his left shoulder in an inadvertent collision with Josh Giddey.
Gafford returned to the court for the second half with a sprained shoulder, but took it off and was still in the starting lineup. He was limited to six minutes after halftime, finishing with eight points.
Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams was down for nearly 30 seconds of live action in the third quarter, ending with Irving’s 3-pointer after a left ankle injury. Williams briefly went to the locker room, but returned early in the fourth quarter and finished with 16 points and eight assists.
Isaiah Joe had a career-high in the playoffs in a 10-point game before halftime, hitting a 3 just before the buzzer to give Oklahoma City a 52-51 halftime lead. Joe finished with 13.
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