Mavs put on horrible performance in 108-70 loss to OKC

Dirk Nowitzki must have felt like the lone ranger Saturday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

One glimpse at the final stat sheet from the playoff opener between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder revealed a disturbing sight. Besides the 18 points Nowitzki scored for the Mavs, none of his 11 teammates who played scored more than eight points.

None of them.

No wonder the Mavs got obliterated by the Thunder 108-70 in Game 1 of this best-of-seven Western Conference first-round playoff series. Nowitzki didn’t receive any help, and when help doesn’t arrive, usually a loss is sure to follow.

But this loss was disturbing because the Mavs talked a bold and confident game beforehand, but put up very little resistance when it came time to make a statement.

“We started off missing a couple of shots and we got a little discouraged, I think, instead of just playing through it, playing hard, getting back, picking up whole and just making life hard on them,” Nowitzki said. “We just went back in a shell a little bit.”

And when a team goes into a shell, the outcome is not going to be pretty. And this one was one of the uglier playoff games the Mavs have ever played.

“We got to show some pride,” Nowitzki said. “We obviously got embarrassed tonight.”

This is the fewest points the Mavs have ever scored in a playoff game. The previous low was the 74 they tallied in Game 4 of the 2006 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat.

Nowitzki did his part. But the solemn Mavs’ locker room told the story of a team that just didn’t make the Thunder sweat for this victory.

“It’s disappointing,’’ Nowitzki said. “I guess the only positive I’ll take out of this is it’s only one game.

“If you lose by two or by 50 in the playoffs, it’s only one game and we’ve got another crack to steal one here on Monday night. But like I said, we’ve got to play harder and we’ve got to play better, simple as that.”

Game 2 is back here Monday at 7 p.m. before the series moves to Dallas for Game 3 on Thursday and Game 4 on Saturday. But if the Mavs, who trailed by as many as 44 points Saturday, don’t wake up and at least make the Thunder work extra hard for their points, they’re going to find themselves in an 0-2 hole by the time they return home.

“I’ve got to get these guys better prepared to play, it’s pretty clear,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We had some struggles early, but we were not the team that we’ve been in the past two-and-a-half weeks, and I take a great deal of responsibility for that.

“I’ve got to do a better job of getting them ready for Game 2.”

The Mavs were down 9-0 two minutes into the game, and the ship kept sinking as the game progressed.

At one point in the second quarter, the Mavs had more turnovers (seven) than field goals (six).

In the meantime, a 3-pointer by Serge Ibaka put OKC ahead 57-27 with 1:30 remaining in the first half.

“We came out and we missed a couple of shots and had a couple of turnovers, so obviously we’ve got to have a better start to the game,” said Nowitzki, who was 7 of 15 from the field. “That usually sets us up to be in the game and compete later in the game.

“But we’ve got to address our first quarter, which has been an issue for us the entire season, and they’re the exact opposite. They’re one of the best first-quarter teams there is, they’re very explosive right away, so we’ve got to find a way to match that and at least keep it close throughout the first quarter.’’

The Mavs were just 5-of-24 from the field and dropped behind 26-11 after the first quarter. As the robo-rebounding Thunder kept up the pressure, the Mavs trailed 59-33 at the half and by 93-51 after three quarters.

“It’s one game, it’s 1-0, so I think that’s one thing we’ve got to take away from this,” Carlisle said. “And we’ve just got be a heckuva lot better in Game 2, and it’s my responsibility to get these guys ready to play.’’

OKC beat the Mavs up on the boards, winning that battle 56-33. And the Thunder just seemed much quicker than the Mavs and appeared to have better hops and activity when it came to trying to secure rebounds.

It also didn’t help that the Mavs shot a lousy 29.8 percent from the field while also missing 14 of 18 baskets from 3-point territory.

“I know we missed some (shots) that we felt were good looks, and I thought it deflated us some early and that can’t happen,” Carlisle said. “That’s just a part of playoff basketball where you just got to stay the course.

“I’ll look at it, we’ll assess it, I know we can get better shots, but we’re playing a great team. There’s no question about that.”

The question is how do the Mavs bounce back from their worst beat down of the season?

“Be more competitive, get some rebounds and try not to turn the ball over,” Nowitzki said. “I think we had some bad (turnovers) right away out of the gate again.’’

That led to easy opportunity baskets for the Thunder, who got 24 points and 11 assists from Russell Westbrook and 23 points from Kevin Durant. Also for OKC, Serge Ibaka (17 points, nine rebounds) and Enes Kanter (16 points, 13 rebounds) did some severe damage to the Mavs.

“We know they’re a very good first-quarter team, and we addressed that, and we want to obviously keep the margin small,’’ Nowitzki said. “We’ve got to step into the good shots that were there, and I thought we had some in the first half and we just couldn’t knock them down.

“We didn’t make shots and we couldn’t get any rebounds and any stops.”

On top of the problem they already have, the Mavs lost guard J.J. Barea, who strained his right groin. Barea missed Wednesday’s regular season finale against San Antonio while nursing the same injury.

“I don’t think it’s just that it was a little tight,’’ Carlisle said. “I’m afraid something happened, but we’ll have more information tomorrow.’’

The Mavs also hope to have more information from their coach on how to go about possibly winning Game 2.

“It’s one of those that you just throw out the window,’’ point guard Deron Williams said of Game 1. “You don’t want to look at it too much because there weren’t much positives.

“Coach is going to look at film and we’ll look at film together as well. He’ll have a game plan for us for Game 2. That’s the good thing about a playoff series — this one is done with and now we’re off to the next.’’

This story was originally published April 17, 2016 at 1:03 AM with the headline "Mavs put on horrible performance in 108-70 loss to OKC."