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Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks seemed to have the game in hand as they held a huge lead over the Oklahoma City thunder with just over four minutes to go.
A Christian Wood midrange jumper put the Mavs up 97-81 at the 4:14 mark, but it went all downhill from there as the Thunder closed with an 18-2 run the rest of the way to beat the odds and come away with the victory. Runs happen in basketball all the time, but this particular result isn't your ordinary bad beat for Dallas.
The likelihood of losing any game with the team leading by 16 or more was nearly 10,000 to one before Luka Doncic and co. jumbled up the figures. The Mavs became just the second team out of 9,977 instances to manage to fumble away a lead as big with the amount of time left in the game.
NBA teams were 9,975-1 when leading by 16+ points in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter over the last 25 years, per @ESPNStatsInfo.
Make that 9,975-2 after the Mavericks’ miracle loss to the Thunder.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) October 30, 2022
The Mavs had every opportunity to shut the door on the visiting Thunder. One extra made bucket or stop would have been enough, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander helped OKC pull out a needle from a haystack. SGA was insanely clutch in the latter stages of the game.
From the 1:23 mark of the fourth quarter up until the 1:38 mark of overtime, Gilgeous-Alexander scored or assisted on 16 straight points for the Thunder. He finished with 38 points, six rebounds, and nine assists and outlasting Luka Doncic – one of the best crunch time performers in the NBA.
The Mavs have had a few frustrating defeats in the early goings of the season. They'll need to be able to keep their foot on the gas in order to secure these victories.
