DALLAS – Dennis Smith Jr. didn’t waste any time redeeming himself.
One game after letting time expire before he could get off a game-tying shot at the buzzer last Friday against the New Orleans Pelicans, Smith was at the center of a pair of critical late-game situations Sunday that propelled the Dallas Mavericks to a 105-103 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder at American Airlines Center.
Not only did Smith fly in from the perimeter and score the game-winning basket against OKC that put Dallas ahead 102-101 with 24.8 seconds remaining, but he also forced Thunder forward Paul George to miss a well-contested 19-footer with just four seconds left.
At the time, George, who finished with a game-high 36 points, had scored OKC’s final 13 points. But there was Smith, sticking his nose in George’s grill and making his shot as difficult as possible.
“This is what being a big-time player is all about,” coach Rick Carlisle said of Smith. “He makes the go-ahead basket at one end and you guard the best player at the other end.
“He wasn’t intended to be on George, but they were doing a lot of things to facilitate switching. So he ended up on him and made him take a difficult shot and broke the rhythm a little bit.”
The defensive stance by Smith was very much needed, because the Mavs created disaster for themselves by committing a whopping 24 turnovers, which OKC turned into 20 points.
“It was clutch,” said center DeAndre Jordan, who collected 12 points, 17 rebounds and two blocks. “Paul is a helluva offensive player and he’s being playing extremely well this season for them scoring the basketball.
“And Dennis, we needed him to get a stop for us late. And he made a great defensive play and made Paul take a tough shot and we were able to get a rebound.”
It was Jordan who rebounded George’s final missed shot, and then nailed one of two free throws with two seconds left to complete a game-ending 10-2 run by the Mavs. And after a timeout, Russell Westbrook misfired on a 3-pointer at the buzzer and the Mavs were able to stretch their overall record to 17-18 and their home record to a gaudy 15-3.
Overall, the Mavs got physical and beat up the Thunder (22-13) on the boards, 49-39. But the Mavs also had to escape a 101-95 deficit with under two minutes remaining in order to bring home the hard-fought victory.
“There are more events in an NBA game with OKC than virtually any other team because of how active they are defensively and how many loose balls and rebounds they come up with,” Carlisle said. “But the key to the game was that they only got seven offensive rebounds tonight.
“The last time we played them they got 26. There were other things that went wrong for us – turnovers and things like that – but the guys kept playing and the number one thing was rebounding and the whole team took on the challenge.”
Luka Doncic led the Mavs in scoring with 25 points, and also added seven assists. Harrison Barnes, who came up with two late steals, finished with 16 points and six rebounds.
In addition, Smith tallied 14 points, Dorian Finney-Smith poured in 10 points, and J. J. Barea had six points and a game-high 10 assists.
The Mavs held Russell Westbrook to nine points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Westbrook also turned the ball over five times and was only 4 of 22 from the field, including 0 of 8 from 3-point range.
Can the Mavs, who led 69-59 early in the third quarter, anticipate another lackluster shooting night from Westbrook when these same two teams meet Monday at 7 p.m. in Oklahoma City?
“We got lucky,” Carlisle said. “He had an off shooting night.
“We stayed in front of him pretty well, but look, he’s a great player. Knowing him, I‘m not looking forward to tomorrow night.”