When he was growing up in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Justin Lyons wasn’t yet known as “GuitarSlayer.” That would come later when his musical chops went global. But he was an athlete. A good one, too. He particularly excelled at basketball, enough to chase the dream. “I was a Mavs fan, a sports fan, because I played basketball all the way to college,” Lyons said. “I thought I was going to be on the court, be a Dallas Mav.” As it turns out, his dream came true. It just happened with him shredding a guitar instead of shredding defenses like Luka Dončić. If you are unaware, Lyons is the guitari ..read more

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mavericks lost one of their X-factors in this series when Maxi Kleber went down with a separated shoulder in the first round of the playoffs. Maybe, just maybe, another X-factor stepped up Thursday night. Tim Hardaway Jr. supplied strong energy and even better scoring off the bench and helped ignite the Mavericks to a 119-110 victory in Game 2 to knot the Western Conference semifinals against Oklahoma City at a win apiece. The Mavericks have been a strength-in-numbers team all season. That asset made a huge difference in Game 2. In addition to Hardaway’s 17 points in 19 min ..read more

OKLAHOMA CITY – Luka Dončić and P.J. Washington scored 29 points apiece and the Dallas Mavericks squared their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder at 1-1 with a gritty 119-110 victory on Thursday night at the Paycom Center. The series now shifts to American Airlines Center in Dallas for Games 3 and 4 starting Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and finishing up on Monday at 8:30 p.m. before returning back to OKC on Wednesday for Game 5. In addition to his points, Dončić also finished with 10 rebounds, seven assists and three steals, while Washington ..read more

OKLAHOMA CITY – Are the Dallas Mavericks flustered because they dropped Game 1 of their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, 117-95? Sure, they are. But not to the point where they’re ready to pack their bags and call it a season. “If it was just (a) one-game (series), we would be out,” coach Jason Kidd said following Wednesday’s practice at the Paycom Center. “It’s a (seven-game) series. “We’re on the road. We lost Game 1. We have to learn from that. We have to be better in Game 2.” Since Kidd became the Mavs’ coach in 2021, they wen ..read more

OKLAHOMA CITY – Tim Hardaway Jr. scored just two points in 17 minutes on Tuesday in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Yet, after Wednesday’s workout, the Mavericks’ shooting guard was all smiles. The last time the Mavericks went beyond the first round of the playoffs, Hardaway was a bystander, dealing with a broken bone in his left foot. When he went down after playing just six minutes in Game 2 of the first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers with a sprained right ankle, Hardaway understandably had flashbacks. He would miss the final four games of the first round. But he ..read more

OKLAHOMA CITY – If the Mavericks are going to have to knot this Western Conference semifinals at a win apiece on Thursday, they’re going to have to learn a lot from what ended up being a blowout loss in Game 1. At the top of the priority list is creating better shots. You can’t shoot 34 percent in the second half and expect to win a road playoff game. Was the OKC defense at least partly responsible? You bet. But the Mavericks didn’t help their own cause. They didn’t create enough clean looks to make it easy on themselves. Lu Dort, the Thunder’s leader defensively, was like a piece of duct tape ..read more

OKLAHOMA CITY – Daniel Gafford prides himself on being as close to perfection as humanly possible. After all, the Dallas Mavericks’ center led the NBA in field goal shooting this season at 74 percent. And at one stage this season, Gafford converted 33 consecutive shots – two shy of the NBA record established by the great Wilt Chamberlain. So, when Gafford glanced at the stat sheet from Tuesday’s 117-95 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center, he was none too pleased to see that he was just 5-of-12 from the field. Those seven missed shots are the most field goals Gafford has missed i ..read more

OKLAHOMA CITY – Well, at least the Mavericks are in familiar territory. They trail the Western Conference semifinals 1-0 after the youthful energy of the Oklahoma City Thunder showed itself on Tuesday night and the Mavericks’ shooting didn’t. They proceeded to lose the opener of this best-of-seven set 117-95 at Paycom Center. Not to worry. The Mavericks have been here before. A lot. They haven’t won Game 1 of a playoff series in their last two postseason runs. They went down 1-0 in 2022 against Utah, Phoenix and Golden State. And of course, they lost the opener to the Clippers in Los Angeles i ..read more

OKLAHOMA CITY – Anybody who’s been watching the NBA for any length of time knows that the key for the Mavericks in the conference semifinals against Oklahoma City can be summed up in one word. Energy. The Mavericks no longer are the young team going against the wily graybeards like they were in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers. Now they are the grizzled veterans, comparatively speaking to the Oklahoma City Thunder. So the Mavericks need to channel their inner Energizer Bunny when the best-of-seven series opens Tuesday night at Paycom Center in OKC. You know the Thunder are goin ..read more

The Dallas Mavericks signed coach Jason Kidd to a multi-year contract extension on Monday. Kidd is currently in his third season coaching the Mavs and has led them to a 140-106 record in the regular season, and a 13-11 record in the playoffs. In Kidd’s first season with the Mavs two years ago, he guided them to a 52-30 record and a berth in the Western Conference Finals. Behind Kidd, the Mavs won the Southwest Division title this season for just the fifth time in franchise history with a 50-32 record. Also, the Mavs defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of this season’s playoffs ..read more