DALLAS — The Oklahoma City Thunder may have the best record in the NBA, but it didn't keep them from holding a team meeting before Wednesday's shootaround.
Center Kendrick Perkins, the man who'd been on the receiving end of Blake Griffin's outrageous dunk Monday night, delivered a "heartfelt" message, according to several of his teammates.
The Thunder responded with a 95-86 win over a cold-shooting Dallas Mavericks team that isn't getting anything from Dirk Nowitzki. The Mavericks (14-9) shot 68 percent in the first quarter to take a 29-21 lead, but they were pitiful for the next two quarters.
And a lot of that had to do with Thunder power forward Serge Ibaka, who recorded an unconventional double-double with 11 rebounds and 10 blocks.
Mavs point guard Roddy Beaubois and veteran shooting guard Vince Carter had been deadly in recent games, but they combined to shoot 6-of-23 against the Thunder on Wednesday. Ibaka fueled his teammates with four blocks in the second quarter.
When he stuffed Mavs center Ian Mahinmi, Thunder guard James Harden grabbed the rebound and raced the other way before delivering a lob pass that was slammed home by Russell Westbrook. The Thunder pulled to within 36-35 on the play, and it became obvious this would be much different from Oklahoma City's last trip to American Airlines Center, a 100-87 win for the Mavs.
Ibaka had three blocks each in the third and fourth quarters, making the Mavs timid around the rim.
Ibaka said that he went to Thunder head coach Scott Brooks before the game and asked if Kendrick Perkins or Nick Collison could guard Nowitzki, so that he could stay in the lane. Ibaka remembered chasing Nowitzki around the perimeter in last season's Western Conference finals and thought he could be more effective in the paint.
"He's been playing great defensive basketball, I'd say, eight of the last nine games," Brooks said of Ibaka. "He's good when he's really aggressive around the basket. People are looking for him and that's what we need out of him."
Nowitzki recently talked about how the Mavs fear no one in the Western Conference, and guard Jason Terry has said the Mavs view the Thunder as their "little brother" in the relationship.
But at this point in the season, it seems like Oklahoma City has more balance on both sides of the court.
The Mavs won't have a chance at repeating if Nowitzki keeps shooting like this. You knew there would be a transition period after he missed four games to work on his conditioning, but 2-of-15 from the field and eight points is pretty ridiculous for one of the premier players in the league.
It's not like the Thunder committed more resources to stopping Nowitzki than usual.
"He just missed some shots," Brooks said. "We finally found out he was human. He scores in so many different ways and gets to the free-throw line – in the past a lot against us – and we did a pretty good job of staying down on his pump fakes."
The Thunder (17-4) took a 77-67 lead when Collison had a reverse dunk with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. But Terry sparked an 18-8 run to help the Mavs tie the score at 85 with 2:14 left.
It was an all-too-familiar feeling for the Thunder, who let leads slip away in last year's playoff series.
But this time, Westbrook responded with a 19-foot jumper and then another Ibaka block set up Kevin Durant for a 14-foot turnaround jumper to give the Thunder an 89-85 lead.
The Mavs never recovered, and their head coach wasn't around to see the end because he was ejected for accidentally kicking the ball into the stands early in the fourth quarter.
"I want to apologize to our franchise, Mark [Cuban], our fans," Carlisle said to begin his postgame news conference. "The incident where the ball got kicked into the stands - that can't happen. My intent was not to kick it into the stands, I was trying to kick it to the referee, but I'm not a very good kick. But that can't happen; the officials made the right call on that one. That's a regrettable situation."
It was another interesting chapter in what is quickly becoming an excellent rivalry in the Western Conference. The Mavs remain the defending champs, but on this night the Thunder had too much firepower.
The so-called big brothers looked old and slow for much of the evening.
And unlike last summer, the Thunder knew what to do with the Mavs when they had them on the ropes.
