Player grades: Thunder feel absences in 120-96 loss to Mavericks

DALLAS — Hoping to keep it competitive, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander emptied the clip. Coming off several screens and moving around nonstop, his outside jumpers failed to fall through. Each time, the mic’d-up rims screech a loud thump. In between possessions, the two-time MVP winner had his hands on his hips, exhausted over the fruitless workload.

The Oklahoma City Thunder tasted their first low point of the year — at least, in the NBA standings — with a 120-96 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

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Running out a skeleton crew, the Thunder had to rely on Gilgeous-Alexander and the role players to step up on the road. As cynical as it sounds, enough time has passed since Sunday’s trauma to recalibrate things. You’re without Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace for the long haul. How will you adjust and move on with the NBA marathon?

Well, the Thunder took their first misstep of a long journey. As you can probably guess, the offense just wasn’t there. Gilgeous-Alexander can get you buckets. So can Ajay Mitchell. But everybody else went through a rough shooting night on the road. That’s understandable — from a role player’s perspective. But OKC just isn’t afforded that room for error anymore.

The Thunder were in a 33-30 deficit after the first quarter. Pretty good start for the offense. But defensively, Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving absolutely sliced through OKC’s interior defense. That’s what happens when your second-best point-of-attack guy is undrafted rookie Josh Dix.

The talent discrepancy started to show in the second frame. Sure, the Thunder dropped 29 points. But the Mavericks started to play with confidence. After Jared McCain bricked a corner 3-pointer, Marcus Sasser swished in a pull-up outside jumper on the other end. The outside shot became the difference between the two teams. OKC was ice-cold while Dallas hit everything.

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The Thunder entered halftime with a 65-59 deficit. Not a bad spot to be at, per se. But if they wanted to make some noise, Gilgeous-Alexander had to take over. The two-time MVP tried that in the third frame. Dallas honed in on absolutely suffocating him — even if the ball wasn’t anywhere near his stratosphere. The extra defensive attention paid off. Nobody from OKC could step up.

Struggling to get good halfcourt looks, the Thunder only had 22 points in the third quarter. They were in a 94-81 deficit at that juncture of the game. Even Caleb Martin and his janky outside jumper were talking trash at OKC. The fourth quarter became a non-story. OKC’s deficit ballooned to as large as 27 points. It only put up 15 points in the final frame.

The Thunder shot 41% from the field and went 5-of-32 (15.6%) from 3. They shot 19-of-23 on free throws. They had 17 assists on 36 baskets. Four Thunder players scored double-digit points.

Gilgeous-Alexander had 21 points and six rebounds. Mitchell went off for 29 points and four rebounds. Isaiah Hartenstein logged a 10-point, 14-rebound double-double. McCain had 10 points, but on 13 shot attempts.

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Meanwhile, the Mavericks shot 47% from the field and went 16-of-45 (35.6%) from 3. They shot 12-of-15 on free throws. They had 30 assists on 46 baskets. Eight Mavericks players scored double-digit points.

Flagg led the way with 26 points and eight assists. Irving helped with 15 points and four assists. PJ Washington had a throwback with 18 points and nine rebounds. Max Christie had 11 points and five rebounds. Morez Johnson Jr. chipped in with 10 points and six rebounds. Zaccharie Risacher tallied 13 points and six rebounds. And then Sasser and Martin each scored 10 points apiece.

It’s been said ad nauseam since Sunday’s catastrophe, but this is OKC’s new reality. One single night turned them from the top NBA title favorite to a team figuring out if it’s still good or not. Gilgeous-Alexander did his best to carry the Thunder, but you can’t constantly win games one-on-five. While Chet Holmgren and Alex Caruso should help things out in the short term when they return, this season is going to have some pretty frustrating nights like this.

Welcome to your new reality, Thunder fans. I really don’t know how long it’ll take for OKC to rediscover its groove — if it does at all. I don’t mean to be Eeyore, but sometimes, you gotta call it as you see it. I guess the only constructive positive is that they have three months to figure out what the remainder of this team will look like for the rest of this year.

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Let’s look at Thunder player grades:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: C-minus

In a last-gasp effort, Gilgeous-Alexander tried to put on his Superman cape. He let his jumper fly in the third quarter. Instead, a bunch of 50-50 misses exposed just how nonexistent the margin for error is going to be for the remainder of the year. If the walking 30-point bucket isn’t putting up video-game numbers, then there’s close to zero shot at a win.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 21 points on 7-of-19 shooting, six rebounds and two assists. He shot 1-of-6 from 3 and went 6-of-6 on free throws. He also had one steal.

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This is how opposing teams are going to game-plan Gilgeous-Alexander. Go all in on him. Throw every defender you can think of. And dare the rest to beat you. He seldom had any space on his jumpers. He couldn’t get to the cup as Dallas sold out on his drives. And he’s suddenly lost his ability to get to the free-throw line at will. Mix all those ingredients together, and you have an off-night like this.

It’s going to be a difficult year for Gilgeous-Alexander with this little NBA help, sadly. Highly-contested mid-range jumpers are the best look he can get right now. He’s talented enough to drill those in, but that’s obviously not a sustainable plan for success. At least, not for an entire regular season.

The Thunder need Gilgeous-Alexander to put up rockstar numbers every night for a chance to win. This is the first example of what will likely happen if that isn’t the case. There just isn’t enough healthy talent to overcome him struggling from the field. Because of that, this might be his highest-stress workload ever.

Ajay Mitchell: A

Catching Sasser in a jail dribble, Mitchell rear-ended him before going up for the floater. The shot rattled in. Despite what the scoreboard displayed, the 24-year-old had another night where he balled out. Make that two-for-two since he was jettisoned to OKC’s Robin in the post-DC (Dub-Caso) era.

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Mitchell finished with 29 points on 12-of-20 shooting, four rebounds and three assists. He shot 2-of-5 from 3 and went 3-of-3 on free throws. He also had two steals and one block.

Even on a hobbled ankle, Mitchell completely dissected Dallas’ defense. He wasted little time accommodating going from Sixth Man to Gilgeous-Alexander’s running mate. Per usual, he did his work within the perimeter. He snaked around several defenders to get to his spot in the mid-range. When that wasn’t there, he muscled his way to the cup for blue-collar layups.

On defense, Mitchell took on Flagg and Irving. Suddenly, he’s OKC’s best perimeter defender. The Thunder are absolutely loading his plate with responsibilities on both ends. Through two games, he’s shown he can handle the workload and then some. That’s the formula the Thunder are going to have to lean on the rest of the way. No one can create buckets the same way he does sans Gilgeous-Alexander.

Mitchell has a golden opportunity in front of him with the zombified Thunder. At least, from an individual standpoint. He has all the runway to put up monstrous numbers. At this point, OKC needs either him or Gilgeous-Alexander on the floor at all times or risk the halfcourt offense being unsalvageable. If he puts up big-time numbers — even if it’s a lost year — he can parlay that into a fat payday this upcoming summer.

Isaiah Hartenstein: B-minus

Catching an alley-oop, the Thunder had to get creative to manufacture points. Like the rest of the prominent role players, Hartenstein has to take on a bigger role if OKC hopes to stay competitive. The seven-footer is one of the last guys standing from their Opening Night starting lineup — which was a little over a week ago, by the way.

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Hartenstein finished with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting, 14 rebounds and three assists. He shot 2-of-2 on free throws.

This is about as much as you can get from Hartenstein, sadly. Want a double-double? He’s your guy. Need help running some of your secondary offense? He can pitch in. But that’s about it. It’s unfair to expect the 28-year-old to suddenly take a massive jump after a string of bad-luck injuries.

Zooming out to the big picture, it’s going to be interesting to see how the Thunder handle Hartenstein. If things go off the rails, he can suddenly become a trade piece. Both sides entered the year knowing this is likely his last hoo-rah here. Even after he signed his three-year contract extension this past summer. If OKC is out of the title picture by the 2027 NBA trade deadline, why wait around and pretend things are going to change?

But then again, maybe the Thunder will stay competitive enough. They can somewhat convince themselves to go all in with an outside addition. Considering Williams wasn’t necessarily ruled out for the entire year — he will be re-evaluated before the 2026-27 regular season ends — then there’s a shot, albeit foolish, that they can make a run. I guess we’ll see. But Hartenstein’s short-term future is the ultimate bellwether of what this year turns out to be.

Jared McCain: D

Once a luxury, McCain has turned into a necessity. If the Thunder want a slim chance to stay a contender, he has to be an every-night contributor. In the first road game since Williams and Wallace were sidelined, things went pretty badly. He couldn’t hit his outside jumpers.

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McCain finished with 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting, six rebounds and two assists. He shot 1-of-6 from 3 and went 6-of-6 on free throws. He also had one steal.

The timeless adage says role players struggle on the road. That happened here with McCain and others. The difference is, the Thunder can’t afford for that to happen. Or risk being blitzed on the scoreboard. We’re about to see what he’s made of and how much he can handle as a top-scoring option.

Either the Thunder learn McCain is a dynamic scorer or he’s truly just a role player who can get hot every other game. The former is preferred considering the circumstances. Neither outcome is disastrous. But after their championship aspirations have gone out the window for now, these are the mini-storylines to follow for the rest of the way.

It didn’t work out for McCain in Dallas. He’ll get plenty more chances to learn on the job. Either way, you won’t have to worry about him getting gun-shy. In his short time in OKC, he’s shown he’s willing to let it fly from deep. The Thunder are going to need that to continue to happen if it wants any semblance of a decent offense.

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This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Player grades: Thunder feel absences in 120-96 loss to Mavericks