Mar 31, 2019 3 min read

Without their best player and supposedly playing out the string of a disappointing season, the Dallas Mavericks figured to be one of the less-difficult opponents as playoff-bound Oklahoma City looked to improve its postseason seed.

The Mavericks were having none of that.

Trey Burke had 25 points and eight assists, Dwight Powell scored the winning basket on a dunk with 21 seconds left and Dallas stunned the Thunder 106-103 on Sunday despite the absence of star rookie Luka Doncic, who missed the game with a right thigh contusion.

Jalen Brunson had 18 points, Devin Harris added 15 and Dirk Nowitzki – playing perhaps his final game in Oklahoma City – grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds to go with seven points for the Mavericks, who were 3-17 over their previous 20 games.

The result “says that we’re growing,” Burke said. “We’ve been in a lot of close games, at least since I’ve been here. A lot of them we couldn’t pull out but (today) we found a way. … With Luka not playing tonight and them having their full team, we definitely were counted out, but we didn’t let that get between our ears. We came out with a chip on our shoulder and got the win.”

Russell Westbrook had 25 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his 30th triple-double of the season and Paul George had 27 points and 11 rebounds for the Thunder, who had sealed a Western Conference playoff spot Saturday when the Sacramento Kings lost. But Oklahoma City has struggled since the All-Star break, going 7-13.

Asked what the mood of the Thunder is, George said, “That’s among this locker room.”

One explanation for the Thunder’s woes is their shooting struggles. They hit 38.8 percent from the field and 25.6 percent (11 of 43) from 3-point range against Dallas, which hit 16 of 44 3-point attempts (36.4 percent)

“We’re not shooting as well,” George said. “The ball is not going in at the high clip that we’ve been shooting it. … The fact of the matter is, we’re still playing past April 10. These games (are) just to fine-tune. We’re not even looking toward matchups. It’s going to be a battle regardless of who we play. We just want to play the right way going down the stretch.”

Atlanta 136, Milwaukee 135, OT: Trae Young grabbed a deflected inbounds pass and made a last-second soft jumper to lift the Atlanta Hawks to a 136-135 overtime win over the short-handed Milwaukee Bucks.

Sterling Brown scored 27 points for Milwaukee, including a go-ahead layup with 1.1 seconds remaining in overtime. The Bucks were playing without their top two scorers, including Giannis Antetokounmpo.