OKC Thunder learn valuable lessons after 107-70 pummeling by Mavericks

The second preseason meeting against the Dallas Mavericks with their stars on the court resulted in a loss and offered valuable lessons for the OKC Thunder.

Although wins are nice, the preseason is more about collecting intel. The OKC Thunder achieved that goal tonight via an absolute drubbing by the Dallas Mavericks. In truth, the team had a fairly easy go through two games initially facing an undermanned Mavs team and the New Zealand Breakers in the second.

Coming into this match knowing several key OKC Thunder stars would sit while the Mavericks wunderkids returned to the hardwood the writing was on the wall.  As it turned out Billy Donovan probably got more insights from this loss than he did from either of the wins about his young charges.

The absence of Steven Adams allowed the Mavericks bigs to get into the paint unimpeded and score at will.  Without Adams trolling the paint the battle on the glass wasn’t close with the Mavericks grabbing 53 rebounds to 33 for OKC. The one positive was the Thunder outscored the Mavericks 44 to 40 in the paint.

Past issues reared their ugly head as the Thunder struggled to hit from the perimeter and free throw line. OKC shot an atrocious 14.7 percent (5 of 34) from deep and an unacceptable 56.3 percent from the charity stripe (9 of 16).

The other major issue of the past few seasons was playmaking and assists. In the loss, the OKC Thunder struggled to move the ball and registered a slight 14 assists while allowing 27 for Dallas.