Luka Doncic played with a bloody left knee and a sprained right knee, frequently stumbling across the court.

His firing motion remained unaltered. He helped the Dallas Mavericks defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder 119-110 on Thursday night, tying the Western Conference semifinals at one victory apiece, with 29 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists.

Doncic remarked, “I think that was one of the hardest games I have had to play.” “I am fighting there, doing everything in my power to support the team’s victory.”

In Game 1, the Thunder limited Doncic to 19 points on 6-for-19 shooting. In Game 2, he made 11 of 21 field goals. He spoke with the referees often enough to annoy Thunder supporters, who jeered and chanted at him during the entire event.

That is fantastic for me, he remarked. “I adore it.”

For the Mavericks, P.J. Washington contributed 29 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 of 11 3-pointers made. In the regular season, he scored 12.9 points on average.

“P.J. seemed to set the tone,” stated Jason Kidd, the coach of Dallas. We somewhat exploited him in the post, and I believe that ignited him. For us tonight, he was significant.

The fifth-seeded Mavericks, who defeated the Thunder to gain home-court advantage, will host Game 3 on Saturday. Kyrie Irving contributed nine points and eleven assists.

Doncic anticipates that the Thunder will be ready.

Doncic praised the players in the team. Their teamwork and chemistry are excellent. It is also going to be difficult. There will be a struggle to the very end. Respect to Oklahoma City notwithstanding, it is high time we emerged victorious in this match.

The Thunder, who had lost their previous six postseason games and gave up more than 100 points for the first time, were led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 33 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists. Jalen Williams chipped in with 20 points.

The Mavericks played with the same desperation as when they defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 2 and won the series at home.

Washington stated, “I feel like it was a must-win game for us.” “And we play our best in those games, I think.”

In the first three minutes, Doncic scored eight points and made all three of his shots, giving Dallas a 13-2 advantage. In the first quarter, he scored 16 points on 6 of 8 shots, but the Thunder had the better performance in the period. With 1.4 seconds remaining, Oklahoma City inbounded from under the Dallas goal. To trim Dallas’ advantage to 36-32, Jaylin Williams sent a long pass to Chet Holmgren, who received the ball in traffic while being guarded by two Mavericks. Holmgren then twisted around and made a long 2-point jumper.

Dallas was ahead 68–62 at the break. Before the half, both teams made 25 of 47 shots, but Dallas made 12 three-pointers to Oklahoma City’s six.

Two minutes into the second half, a baseline jumper by Gilgeous-Alexander tied the score at 70 for Oklahoma City. Josh Giddey was replaced at the beginning of the second half by Aaron Wiggins, who scored from close range to give the Thunder their first lead of the game, 72–71.

Dallas came back, mostly thanks to Doncic’s rest. After he came back, Derrick Jones Jr.’s lob for a dunk gave the Mavericks a 99-85 lead late in the third quarter, and they continued to lead 99-89 into the fourth.

Williams’ impressive two-handed putback slam reduced Dallas’ advantage to 99-95, but the Mavericks rallied. With nine minutes remaining, Doncic made a 3-pointer to give Dallas a 104-95 lead, taking advantage of a screen set by Dereck Lively II. For the remainder of the game, the Thunder never drew closer than five points.

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault stated, “We have got a really good opponent that played really well tonight.” We made an effort to claw our way back. We made a pretty nice effort tonight, in my opinion. I believe we made a few attempts to get it going. I felt that execution was the area where we could have done better.