Mavericks star Luka Doncic’s perfect reaction to Game 5 sealing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander block

Doncic’s comment was met with laughter. He also laughed, as he clearly said it in a joking manner. Still, Luka has worked hard to improve on defense this season, and his block was important in Game 5.

“No, the ball escaped a little bit for him,” Doncic continued. “So that’s why I got the block.”

The Mavs played impressive defense overall. Oklahoma City shot just 42.5 percent from the field and 25 percent from beyond the arc.

“I think we are playing great defense,” Doncic said. “Some little stuff we didn’t do in the past game we did today. I don’t know how many offensive rebounds they had but they had like four in the first three minutes and then we cleaned that up. We just played with a lot of pace.”

Mavericks display resiliency again

Dallas led for most of Game 4 before coughing up the advantage and dropping the contest. Oklahoma City had seemingly stolen the momentum with the Game 4 victory in Dallas. Some teams may have lost focus. The Mavs, however, have continued to perform well when battling adversity.

In fact, the Mavericks almost become a better team in difficult games and situations. Once again, Dallas rebounded from a tough defeat.

“Just our mentality. We know the last game we played against them at home, we let it go,” Doncic said. “It was our mistakes. They hit shots. Our mentality is in the playoffs it’s first to four. You gotta win four before they do so you got to go game by game.”

The series is certainly not over. Both teams will have a few days to think things over and prepare for Game 6.

Dallas and Oklahoma City will both treat Game 6 like a must-win affair. The Thunder need to win for obvious reasons. The Mavs, however, want to avoid a potential Game 7 back in Oklahoma City.

Dallas can book their ticket to the Western Conference Semifinals with a win on Saturday night. If they are able to win this series, the Mavs will play either the Minnesota Timberwolves on Denver Nuggets next round. Denver currently leads the series over Minnesota 3-2.

The Mavericks will likely pay close attention to Game 6 of that series which is scheduled for Thursday night. Dallas’ primary focus will be on preparing for their Game 6 at home against the Thunder, though.