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• Box score: Mavericks 104, Thunder 92

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Luka Doncic stopped worrying about calls and just played.

It worked. He scored 31 points in a triple-double, and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-92 on Wednesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series.

Doncic didn’t voice his displeasure with the officials nearly as much as usual, though he had words with fans a few times.

“I’m just trying to play basketball, just focus on basketball,” he said. “Sometimes I forget this is the thing I love, the thing I do. My mental focus was just go out there and play basketball with a smile on my face and just go.”

Doncic, the league’s leading scorer in the regular season, had struggled some in the series against Oklahoma City. Playing through a sprained right knee and a sore left ankle, he had averaged just 22 points on 39% shooting through the first four games. He made 12 of 22 field goals in Game 5 and had 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his sixth career playoff triple-double.

“He was aggressive,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “He was making shots, taking shots. The deep 3, being able to get to the basket, playmaking for his bigs and also for the wings.”

Dallas regained the lead in the series after blowing a 14-point advantage and losing 100-96 at home in Game 4.

“We know the last game we played against them at home, we let it go,” Doncic said. “It was our mistakes and they hit shots.”

Derrick Jones Jr. scored a playoff career-high 19 points and P.J. Washington Jr. added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Dallas, which shot 52.6% from the floor. The No. 5-seeded Mavericks can advance to the Western Conference finals with a win Saturday at home.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points for the top-seeded Thunder, but no other Oklahoma City player scored more than 13.

The Mavericks won Game 5 on the road, just like they did in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers. Dallas held Oklahoma City to 42.5% shooting.

Coach Mark Daigneault said the Thunder simply didn’t shoot well, but they found some cracks in Dallas’ defense late in the game.

“I thought we were kind of there tonight and maybe missed a couple plays,” Daigneault said.

Oklahoma City tried to jump-start its struggling offense by replacing Josh Giddey with Isaiah Joe in the starting lineup. Giddey did not start for the first time in 229 combined regular season and postseason games.

Dallas led by 15 in the second quarter and took a 54-44 edge into halftime. Jones scored 15 points before the break.

Gilgeous-Alexander scored 14 points in the third quarter, but Dallas still led 79-67.

Dallas pushed its lead out to 18 points early in the fourth quarter before the Thunder surged. A 3-pointer by Gilgeous-Alexander cut the deficit to 89-79 with just under seven minutes remaining and forced Dallas to call a timeout. The Thunder never got closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Now, the Mavericks are close to advancing.

“We’ve got one more to win out of two games,” Doncic said. “That’s it. We’re up 3-2, but that’s still nothing. We’ve got to finish it and go with the same mentality at home.”

The Thunder, one of the youngest teams in the league, face elimination for the first time.

“Our mood won’t change, our mentality won’t change,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’s one game at a time. We wanted to win this game tonight as badly as we’re going to want to win the next game.”

The Miami Heat may do everything in their power to acquire Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell after missing out on Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal in recent years.

Mitchell and the Cavs were eliminated from the postseason on Wednesday, marking a second straight early playoff exit. Most believe Mitchell, 27, is the sole reason Cleveland made it past the first round. The lack of support when it matters most could lead to him refusing to extend his contract past the 2026 season.

“I think if Donovan chose not to extend, he would be able to kind of direct the trade a little bit because of the one year on his contract,” analyst Brian Windhorst said on an episode of ESPN’s Get Up. “The Miami Heat have been star hunting for a year now. They’re always star hunting. They have some players on their roster who would potentially be interesting to Cleveland, but not as deep in draft picks as others.”

Mitchell’s player option for the 2026 season is likely insignificant because he will either switch teams or extend his contract prior. The Heat should think twice before going all-in for the five-time All-Star due to the lack of success of front-loaded rosters. The Phoenix Suns Big Three had championship expectations this season but were swept in the first round, leaving their future in jeopardy.

There’s no doubt Mitchell is one of the league’s top shooting guards, averaging 26.6 points, 6.1 assists, and 5.1 rebounds on 46.2 percent shooting in 55 games last season. Tyler Herro, a young player (Jaime Jaquez Jr. or Nikola Jovic), and draft capital are a sufficient package, but holding onto depth is arguably more important for a team that has reached the NBA Finals twice since 2020.

Anthony Pasciolla works as a contributing writer to Inside the Heat. He can be reached at ampasciolla@gmail.com or follow him on Instagram @anthony.pasciolla.

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LONG BEACH — The new-look Sparks could not overcome an 11-0 run by the Atlanta Dream to start the fourth quarter and dropped their season opener, 92-81, in front of celebrities like Kim Kardashian and team owner Magic Johnson on Wednesday night at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid.

The score was tied at 66 through three quarters, but Atlanta seized control with its pivotal 11-0 run for a 77-66 lead with 6:29 left.

The Sparks cut Atlanta’s lead to 87-81 on rookie forward Cameron Brink’s 3-pointer with 1:34 remaining, but they missed their last four shots and had a critical turnover while Atlanta went 5 for 6 from the foul line to ice the win.

“I take it as my responsibility that a lot of the starters got tired at the end of the third quarter all at one time,” Sparks coach Curt Miller said. “I have to substitute more players at one time at the start of the fourth quarter. That 9-0 run to start the fourth quarter, ultimately, was a hard situation to dig out of but we never quit. We really battled and showed our scrappiness that we’re going to be defined by this year. It’s a great learning lesson for our young post players in Cam and Rickea to go against one of the best ever in Tina Charles.”

The Sparks made significant changes to their roster after missing the WNBA playoffs for the third consecutive season, saying goodbye to several veterans and bringing in some fresh faces in addition to their pair of first-round draft picks. Newly acquired guard Kia Nurse scored a team-high 23 points, going 5 for 11 from 3-point range in her Sparks debut after being acquired in a trade with the Seattle Storm.

“I do think for me personally it’s been a long road and a long journey coming back from the ACL (injury) and last year mentality I just didn’t feel like myself,” Nurse said. “This is a nice place to start. I think I said to my partner before the game I was like I just want to make all my family and everyone that was around me proud and he was like you need to make yourself proud. The loss is not as exciting, but it’s a proud moment to be able to play and feel more like myself out there.”

Sparks forward Dearica Hamby had a double-double (20 points, 14 rebounds), while guard Layshia Clarendon had her first career triple-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Both players said they are looking to make a major impact this season.

“I just came into camp very clear-minded and had very clear intentions on what I wanted this season to look like for me personally and what I wanted to help this team do,” Hamby said.

Clarendon said she sensed she was playing a strong all-around game but was unaware of her triple-double.

“I think it’s cool. Every game stats don’t always reflect how good you play or how hard you played, so I think it’s cool to actually see that come out,” Clarendon said. “I didn’t realize I had that many rebounds, never know assists because I don’t count them. I knew I was playing well, sometimes you make the right pass and people don’t make the shot. They told me afterward and I was a little surprised but I was like ‘oh yeah, I was ballin’ so it’s pretty cool to get that, not a lot of people do it.”

Brink, the No. 2 overall pick in last month’s WNBA draft, finished with 11 points (two 3-pointers), four assists, two rebounds, two blocked shots and five personal fouls in 20 minutes.

“Cam has to find a way to stay out of foul trouble because she’s so important to what we’re doing,” Miller explained. “She helps spread the floor offensively. She’s a really good distributor of the ball as a 6-5 person, so she can create opportunities for her teammates. Defensively, she’s great rim protection but when you play three minutes in the first stretch and have to sit down, that’s a big blow.”

Sparks rookie forward Rickea Jackson – the No. 4 overall pick last month – added seven points and three rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench.

“(Jackson) can find her own offense, that’s what’s special about her. When plays break down and people take you out of your system, she can go make plays,” Miller said. “That’s not common with everybody in the league.”

The Sparks began the game with a 24-second shot clock violation on their first offensive possession.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie playing in your first ever WNBA game like Cam and Rickea will be or you’re a seasoned veteran, everybody is going to have nerves tonight,” Miller said before the game.

However, the Sparks recovered and began the game on a 9-2 run, with five early points from Clarendon, which forced Atlanta coach Tanisha Wright to call timeout less than three minutes into the game.

The Sparks’ starting lineup was Clarendon, Lexie Brown, Nurse, Hamby and Brink, who had three points and one assist early but only played 3:21 in the first quarter before exiting the game with her second personal foul.

“That starting unit was terrific … that group has had a chemistry, really quickly and we’re going to bring that bench along,” Miller continued. “The bench is better than they played tonight and they know it, we know it. We have confidence in them but really proud of that starting unit, they’ve all been asked to take on a more prominent role with this team and they’re embracing it and I can’t wait to keep working with that starting unit.”

Atlanta (1-0) was led by All-Star guard Rhyne Howard (25 points) and shook off its slow start behind Allisha Gray’s outside shooting (two 3-pointers in the first quarter) and tied the score at 26 heading into the second quarter.

Atlanta veteran center Tina Charles took over and scored 11 points in the first six minutes of the second quarter, as the Dream opened a 41-32 advantage. Charles finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds, and Gray finished with 12 points.

The Sparks responded with a 14-5 run and tied the score at 46 on a pair of Nurse free throws with 36 seconds left before halftime. Jackson stole the ball at midcourt and made a buzzer-beating layup, which tied the score at 48-all at halftime.

The Sparks shot 17 for 32 from the field in the first half (53.1%), including 7 for 14 from behind the arc. Hamby had 13 points and six rebounds at halftime. The Sparks cooled off in the second half and finished the night at 39% from the field but they had 24 assists on their 28 field goals.

“A couple things bounce our way, a couple runs go our way a little bit differently early in that fourth probably, we win that game and with that energy and that effort and the chemistry we played with today, we’re going to win a lot games in this league,” Nurse said.

Atlanta point guard Haley Jones finished with 14 points and four assists in a start for Jordin Canada, who played the past two seasons with the Sparks but missed the game with a right hand injury.

The Sparks (0-1) next play at the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday at noon in a nationally televised game on ABC.