PJ Washington, a huge double-double to forget his injury

The question made him smile. Yes, PJ Washington quite likes facing this Thunder team. After shining against this same team in the playoffs last year, the Mavs power forward delivered a major performance last night in OKC.

Deprived of Luka Doncic, the Mavs decided to rely on the returner who had missed ten days of competition due to a knee injury. PJ Washington had played the previous match against the Spurs, but returned a blank copy (no points, 0/2 on shots in 19 minutes, 4 rebounds).

Change of atmosphere for this match. From the first possession of the game, he was served in the post and was able to gain the upper hand over the smaller and less strong Aaron Wiggins. Then on the second possession, Quentin Grimes found him in 3-point transition. A 5-0 in itself therefore.

“ We played PJ tonight for his second match since his return. We played as much as possible on him in the post and we asked him to do everything in defense and he was great “, like Jason Kidd who saw in this use in attack leftovers from the last playoffs, in the search for favorable “matchups”.

Even though he converted his other two winning baskets of the game in the opening minutes, he took advantage of his size to cause a lot of harm to the opposing defense. We think of this backline action where he once again took the upper hand in front of Wiggins. He missed his shot, but managed to come back directly to slam his miss with a dunk.

Almost as many rebounds as the holders opposite!

Or this ball volleyed twice on a missed free throw from Derek Lively, which turned into an assist for Quentin Grimes at 3-points. “ When it came time to come back, that was my priority, to get to the rebound. I feel like we did a good job with that. They are clearly small, but we killed them on the rebound. This is why we won », Analyzes the former Hornets player.

By taking twice as many offensive rebounds (18 to 7), the Texans largely won this battle (53 to 29), making a victory for the opposing team very complicated. PJ Washington, alone, took almost as many rebounds (17, a new career record)… as the members of the Thunder's five as a whole.

“ He has confidence in himself. Every time he is served at the station, he tells himself that there aren't many people who can contain him. This shows how good he is. We can use it in various ways, with these opportunities we have on the offensive rebound, it slows down our attack too », Appreciates Kyrie Irving, whose teammate finished with 27 points (7/13 including 3/4 from distance, 10/10 on throws).

“ He had some good shots that didn't fall in, but he continued to be aggressive. And the fact of going to the free throw line, his ability to post, the offensive rebounds if he misses… But also his creation, this has not always transformed into points scored, but with the fact of being unselfish, I think he played at a high level for us tonight », Finishes Jason Kidd.

How to read the stats? MJ = matches played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Successful shots / Attempted shots; 3pts = 3-points / 3-points attempted; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; Off = offensive rebound; Def=defensive rebound; Tot = Total rebounds; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal fouls; Int = Intercepts; Bp = Lost balls; Ct: Against; Pts = Points.