The Thunder’s youth isn’t showing (and that’s a problem)

The primary question about the Oklahoma City Thunder going into the playoffs was whether or not they could live down their youthfulness. Considering how the last two games of their second-round series with the Dallas Mavericks have gone, they may want to live up to it.

For the second consecutive game, the Mavericks — the NBA's eighth-oldest team at the start of the season — essentially outworked the Thunder, the league's second-youngest team making its first postseason appearance in four years. The result: a second consecutive win, 105-101, for a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series.

Experience was supposed to be the Mavs' advantage, but effort and energy have proved to be the difference. Name a hustle statistic and the Mavs owned it. Rebounds? A 48-41 advantage. Second-chance points: 16-9, thanks to a 15-6 edge in offensive rebounds. Fastbreak points: 11-10. Points in the paint: 52-40.

"We're going against a young team," said Mavs guard Kyrie Irving. "We know they're going to compete at both ends. We just want to continue to do what gets us these Ws and it starts at the defensive end."

And, for the last two games, has ended with the Mavs roaring past their younger opponents for transition buckets. The big momentum swing in Game 3 came in the third quarter, when Dallas flipped a 10-point deficit into an 82-78 lead going into the final period by holding the Thunder scoreless for nearly 4 1/2 minutes. Nearly every OKC miss or turnover resulted in a backcourt pass for a drive to the rim and either a dunk or a kick-out dish for a corner 3.

The coup de grâce may have been a possession midway through the period when the Mavericks missed three consecutive three-pointers and ran down all three rebounds before Luka Doncic