THE GRAHAM JAM

Oklahoma City had a chance.

As the NBA and the country celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., OKC traveled down the road to take on the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night. With a healthy Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, Dallas was looking for its ninth win in the past 10 ballgames.

It seemed to be cruising. In the third quarter, Dallas stretched its lead to 22 points behind a barrage of 3-pointers.

But Oklahoma City's comeback was swift and fierce.

By the end of that quarter, the Thunder had clawed back within five points after their own 3-point makes and gritty play from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was getting to the line consistently.

Oklahoma City had hung in there, but never could take the lead in the fourth quarter. Just when all seemed hopeless — a five-point deficit with less than 10 seconds to play — guard Ty Jerome hit a clutch 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left to cut the deficit to two, 104-102.

The Thunder fouled immediately, and Dallas' Josh Green missed both his free throws on the other end.

That set up one inbounds pass and one shot for the tie or the win. Oklahoma City's best passer, Josh Giddey, took the ball on the sideline with the team's best shooters on the floor.

But the Mavs stuck to their men and, when Giddey tried to whip a cross-court pass to shooting specialist Mike Muscala, Tim Hardaway Jr. stole the ball away as the clock expired to preserve Dallas' narrow victory.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 34 points and shot 61.1% from the field, another efficient masterpiece from the team's best All-Star candidate. Lu Dort had 18 points and seven rebounds, while Giddey finished with 10 points, six rebounds and five assists.

After the game, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said Gilgeous-Alexander was "good, obviously."

"I thought he played with great pace tonight," Daigneault said. "He didn't hold the ball very much at all. They were double-teaming him on a lot of catches and a lot of times, before the double could get to him, he was already attacking. That's the value of playing faster. ... He obviously got it really going during that run in the third quarter."

SGA, after a scoring slump to start 2022, has now scored 30- plus points in three of his past four ballgames.

Oklahoma City's Monday effort was reminiscent of its Saturday at home, when the team matched up with the surprising Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland has surpassed expectations with one of the top records in the East so far this year, but OKC gave the Cavs all they could handle before falling 107-102.

Oklahoma City led for most of the game, and was up by as much as 18 in the third quarter, before Cleveland took the lead in the early fourth.

In many ways, Saturday's and Monday's losses were a best-case scenario for the Thunder. They were disappointing, sure, but also saw OKC play very well against good teams before falling narrowly, and increasing its draft odds in the process.

Oklahoma City is now 14-29, which is the second-worst record in the Western Conference and the fourth-worst in the league, overall. But OKC is just 2 games better than the Houston Rockets — and if the Thunder fell to the third-worst record, they would have the same draft odds as the worst team in the league.

Each of the three worst teams has an identical 14% chance at the No. 1 overall pick, and is more likely than not to pick inside the top four. OKC didn't help its draft chances when it throttled Brooklyn in New York last Thursday, but the fun and dominant win was well worth it. The Thunder notched their first victory of 2022 by beating the Nets 130-109, as Brooklyn looked sluggish without Kevin Durant and coming off a jam-packed schedule of games.

Monday's loss in Dallas kicked off a four-game road trip for Daigneault's squad. It'll continue Wednesday in San Antonio before Oklahoma City heads east for matchups with Charlotte on Friday and Cleveland on Saturday.

OKC returns to the Paycom Center on Monday, Jan. 24 against the Chicago Bulls.

Thunder Up!