Oklahoma
Mavericks vs. Thunder recap: 4 thoughts from an intense 106-98 Mavericks win to the Oklahoma City Thunder
The short handed Dallas Mavericks (23-19) bested the short handed Oklahoma City Thunder (34-7) 106-98 in an intense matchup Friday night in Dallas. Kyrie Irving led all Mavericks with 25 points, five assists, and five rebounds, while Jalen Williams put up 19 points for the Thunder in a losing effort. Dallas got a much needed win, ending a three-game losing streak, while Oklahoma City suffered just their second loss in their last 21 games.
Dallas continued to be without starters Luka Doncic and Dereck Lively, but the big injury news was in Oklahoma. MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a late scratch with a sore wrist, missing his first game of the season and joining Isiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren in street clothes. The stars may have been missing, but it was still an intense matchup between two Western Conference contenders.
This was a game of runs, starting with Dallas taking a 10-0 lead off hot shooting from Kyrie Irving and PJ Washington. That was followed by the Thunder going on a 26-12 run to take a 26-22 lead into the second quarter. The Mavs countered with a huge 19-0 run at the end of the first half to go up by 20 points. If the second quarter was one of the best of the Mavericks season, the third quarter was one of the worst. Oklahoma City outscored Dallas 33-14 in the third, setting up a consequential fourth quarter.
It was a neck and neck fourth quarter until Spencer Dinwiddie hit two clutch threes, extending the lead to 101-93. Notable Thunder killer PJ Washington had a huge dunk to put the exclamation point on a great Mavericks win.
Here are our main thoughts from the game:
Role players stepped up
With Doncic’s return still being weeks away, Dallas has a huge offensive role to fill. When they play tough teams like the Thunder, the Mavericks need Kyrie Irving to play like an All-Star and get production from multiple role players. Tonight, they got both. Irving had 25 points and was joined in double figures by Washington, Dinwiddie, and Naji Marshall. Even more impressively, they combined to shoot 12/26 from three for an efficient 46%. They need each and every one of those points in a game that was a slugfest.
It’s impossible to replace what Doncic brings to this team, but the Mavericks need to find a way to win games without him in a competitive Western Conference. If they can get points from three or four role players, Dallas can beat anyone as evidenced by tonight.
Rebounding woes continue
Despite the Mavericks holding the Thunder to just 38% shooting from the field, this game came to the wire. That’s mainly down to Dallas giving up 20 second chance points off offensive rebounds. With Oklahoma City only scoring 98 points, second chance points accounts for a staggering 20% of their total offense. Without Hartenstein and Holmgren, Oklahoma City isn’t even a good rebounding team, yet that’s how they were able to stay in the game on a cold shooting night.
This is a familiar problem for Dallas, who are the fourth worst team in the league in giving up offensive rebounds. The Mavericks are simply not a good rebounding team, and they’re significantly worse without Luka. This is one of the biggest weaknesses with this team and needs to be a point of emphasis for the rest of the season.
Two more Mavericks injuries
It wouldn’t be a Dallas Mavericks game this season if there wasn’t a worrisome injury to a key rotation piece, but tonight we had two. Jaden Hardy went down with a right ankle sprain after a collision with Isiah Joe in the second quarter and did not return to the game. Then in the third quarter, Dwight Powell slipped closing out on Jaylin Williams and couldn’t get up off the floor. Powell was escorted to the locker room and also did not return to the game.
These injuries could not come at a worse time for Dallas. Hardy was having one of the best stretches of his career, scoring over 20 points against the Lakers and Pelicans in recent games. Powell was becoming a bigger part of the rotation with Lively out. The Mavs will have to get creative with their center rotation – look for Maxi Kleber and even Washington to play more minutes at center.
It’s unclear as of this writing whether Hardy or Powell will miss time, but they would join Doncic, Lively, Kessler Edwards, Dante Exum, and Jazian Gortman on an already lengthy injury report. The basketball gods are certainly testing the theory that this is the deepest Mavericks team of the Luka era. Exum seems to be close to returning, but Dallas has a real shortage of playable bodies in the short term.
These teams do not like each other
Even without the star players, this game was intense, highly competitive, and often chippy. PJ Washington was somewhat predictably at the center of the charged moments. Washington and Lu Dort wrestled over possession until Dort fell to the ground. Washington stood over Dort for a moment, which led to Aaron Wiggins shoving Washington. It was a whole lot of nothing, but led to double techs. Later in the game, Washington fouled Jaylen Williams in a hard, mid-air foul, which was ruled a flagrant one. If Oklahoma City fans hated Washington during last season’s playoff series, they’ll really hate him after tonight.
In general, it was a hard fought defensive battle. Players were diving for loose balls, playing aggressive defense, and living and dying on every shot. The Dallas crowd was loud and engaged – it felt like a playoff atmosphere.
If tonight is any indication, a full strength Mavericks and Thunder matchup in the playoffs would be one of the more exciting possible series. Let’s hope we get to see it come May.
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It was a Friday Night Lights in June kind of moment for the Oklahoma State Cowboys as Israel “Izzy” Hammons made his commitment announcement.
The Choctaw, Okla., rising senior announced his decision to commit to Oklahoma State on Friday during an Instagram Live session. The Cowboys beat out a roster of schools vying for the linebacker, most notably Texas.
Hammons made just two official visits — one to OSU and one to Texas last week.
His commitment pushed the Cowboys’ 2027 recruiting class back to nine players after the defection of Mount Carmel (Chicago, IL) offensive lineman Chase Clark to Purdue.
Commitments are non-binding. The earliest that Hammons can sign with OSU is in December.
Izzy Hammons to OSU
Hammons is the first four-star player to commit to the Cowboys this cycle. Their previous commitments all came from three-star players. The 6-3, 225-pound linebacker was considered a Top 200 player in the country by both On3/Rivals and 247Sports. Both services had him ranked as a Top 10 player in the state of Oklahoma at any position. He’s also considered the No. 1 linebacker in the state.
He also runs track and field, competing in the high jump and the 100-meter days, with a personal best of 11.30 seconds in the latter.
The Longhorns came in hot at the end but already had linebackers committed to the program this cycle. For the Cowboys getting a pledge from a player like Hammons is key to shore up a position where they didn’t have a commitment and where they plan to use senior transfers as starters in 2026. That means OSU and head coach Eric Morris must start building a pipeline now.
OSU’s Class of 2027
After Clark’s decommitment the Cowboys were down to eight recruits for 2027 entering Friday, most of which were on the offensive side of the ball and starting with Iowa Colony (Texas) quarterback Carson White, who was the cycle’s first commitment in April.
Up front, OSU has two offensive line commitments Jake Baker of Ensworth High School in Nashville, Tenn., and Sonny Mullen of Troy, Texas. When it comes to skill positions players the Cowboys have three commitments as well, including two wide receivers — Cooper Hooker of Pryor (Quapaw, Okla.) High School and Ake O’Neal of Argyle, Texas. Oklahoma State also has a pledge from tight end Talan Scott of Queen City, Ariz.
Defensively, the Cowboys have commitments from safeties Chayce Davis of Euless (Texas) Trinity High School and Bryson Brown of Broken Bow, Okla.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — As an Oklahoma utility company seeks a multimillion-dollar rate increase, two Oklahoma state representatives are asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to give customers a voice.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is currently deciding on a $29 million rate increase for Oklahoma Natural Gas.
If approved, officials say it would mark the fourth rate hike the OCC has approved for ONG in the last four years and has led to an $128 million increase in customer bills.
Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, and Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, have filed an appeal with the Oklahoma Supreme Court, saying customers weren’t given a chance to participate in the case.
“The OCC has gone completely off the beam,” ONG customers Gann and Kevin West told the Supreme Court in their June 17 petition.
In the filing, they claim that the OCC set a March 27 deadline to intervene in ONG’s rate case but only set it after the deadline had already passed.
They say ONG’s customers weren’t notified about the case until late April.
“This case was rigged from the start to keep ONG ratepayers out,” said Gann. “The federal courts have said utility customers have constitutional due process rights – including a right to timely and adequate notice about these cases. We are asking the Supreme Court to uphold customers’ rights and require the OCC to change its rules to respect them. ONG ratepayers should be allowed to exercise their right to participate without being muzzled.”
The commissioners are expected to make a final decision on the $29 million rate increase later this year.
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ONG, the OCC, and the attorney general have 30 days to respond to Gann and Kevin West’s latest ONG appeal.
Just 26%, or about one in four registered Oklahoma voters, cast a ballot in the race, according to an analysis of the results.
In total, 630,085 people weighed in on a state question to gradually increase the minimum wage. It was the only race open to Democrats, Republicans and independents, who weren’t eligible to vote in partisan races.
Democrats have typically opened their closed primaries to include independents, but failed to submit the paperwork for this year’s primaries on time. Some voters expressed frustration with the system on election day.
This year’s polls drew fewer voters than in 2018, the last time there was a similar gubernatorial race without incumbents. The election included a state question to approve medical marijuana, and 44% of registered voters cast ballots.
There are almost 1.3 million registered Republicans in Oklahoma, but the GOP race for governor only garnered about 400,000 ballots. Out of more than 613,000 registered Democrats, only about 172,000 voted in Tuesday’s election.
Even though general elections are usually better attended, Oklahoma’s numbers were also low during the 2024 presidential election. One report from the University of Florida rated Oklahoma’s turnout at the time as the lowest in the nation.
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