Doncic scores 29 points as Mavericks top Thunder 119-110 to tie series at 1-1

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Luka Doncic limped around the court, often grimacing as he played through a sprained right knee and a bloodied left knee.

His shooting stroke was unaffected. He had 29 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists to help the Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 119-110 on Thursday night and even the Western Conference semifinals at one win apiece.

“I think that was one of the hardest games I’ve had to play,” Doncic said. “I’m battling out there trying to do my best to help the team win.”

The Thunder held Doncic to 19 points on 6-for-19 shooting in Game 1. He made 11 of 21 field goals in Game 2. Throughout, he had frequent conversations with the officials — enough to draw the ire of Thunder fans, who booed him and directed chants his way.

“That’s great for me," he said. “I love it.”

P.J. Washington added 29 points and 11 rebounds and made 7 of 11 3-pointers for the Mavericks. He averaged 12.9 points in the regular season.

“I thought P.J. set the tone," Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. "We played through him a little bit in the post and I think that sparked him. He was big for us tonight.”

Kyrie Irving added nine points and 11 assists for the No. 5-seeded Mavericks, who host Game 3 on Saturday after taking home-court advantage from the top-seeded Thunder.

Doncic expects the Thunder to be prepared.

“They have great players," Doncic said. "They have great chemistry, great team. And it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be a fight till the end. So, just much respect to Oklahoma (City), but it’s big time we won this game.”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 33 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, and Jalen Williams added 20 points for the Thunder, who lost for the first time in the postseason and allowed more than 100 points for the first time in their six playoff games.

The Mavericks played with desperation, just like they did in the first round when they beat the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 2 and took home court from them.

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

Doncic made his first three shots and scored eight points in the first three minutes to help Dallas take a 13-2 lead. He scored 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting in the first quarter, but the Thunder had the play of the quarter. Oklahoma City inbounded from under the Dallas goal with 1.4 seconds left. Jaylin Williams threw it long for Chet Holmgren, who caught the ball while defended by two Mavericks in traffic, turned around and hit a long 2-point jumper to cut Dallas' lead to 36-32.

Dallas led 68-62 at halftime. Both teams made 25 of 47 shots before the break, but Dallas made 12 3s to Oklahoma City's six.

Oklahoma City tied it at 70 on a baseline jumper by Gilgeous-Alexander two minutes into the second half. Aaron Wiggins, who started the second half in place of Josh Giddey, scored from in close to give the Thunder a 72-71 lead, their first advantage of the game.

Dallas rallied, largely with Doncic resting. After he returned, his lob for a dunk by Derrick Jones Jr. put the Mavericks up 99-85 late in the third quarter, and they took a 99-89 lead into the fourth.

A powerful two-handed putback dunk by Williams cut Dallas' lead to 99-95, but the Mavericks responded. Doncic took advantage of a screen by Dereck Lively II and hit a 3-pointer to put Dallas up 104-95 with nine minutes remaining. The Thunder never got closer than five points the rest of the way.

“We’ve got a really good opponent that played really well tonight," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "We tried to scrap back into it. I thought our effort was really good tonight. I thought we tried to gear it up a couple different times. I thought where we left something to be desired was execution.”

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Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, right, shoots against Dallas Mavericks forward Tim Hardaway Jr. during the first half in Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, right, shoots against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey during the first half in Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Thursday May 9, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, right, works the floor against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace during the first half in Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) goes up for a shot against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Aaron Wiggins (21) during the first half in Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) works the floor against Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) during the first half in Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) works the floor against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort (5) during the first half in Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The helicopter crash in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and other officials were killed is likely to reverberate across the Middle East, where Iran’s influence runs wide and deep.

That's because Iran has spent decades supporting armed groups and militants in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories, allowing it to project power and potentially deter attacks from the United States or Israel, the sworn enemies of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tensions have never been higher than they were last month, when Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an airstrike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and five officers.

Israel, with the help of the United States, Britain, Jordan and others, intercepted nearly all the projectiles. In response, Israel apparently launched its own strike against an air defense radar system in the Iranian city of Isfahan, causing no casualties but sending an unmistakable message.

The sides have waged a shadow war of covert operations and cyberattacks for years, but the exchange of fire in April was their first direct military confrontation.

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has drawn in other Iranian allies, with each attack and counterattack threatening to set off a wider war.

It's a combustible mix that could be ignited by unexpected events, such as Sunday's deadly crash.

Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program, its ballistic missiles and its support for armed groups sworn to Israel's destruction.

Iran views itself as the chief patron of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule, and top officials for years have called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Raisi, who was a hard-liner viewed as a protégé and possible successor of Khamenei, chastised Israel last month, saying “the Zionist Israeli regime has been committing oppression against the people of Palestine for 75 years.”

“First of all we have to expel the usurpers, secondly we should make them pay the cost for all the damages they have created, and thirdly, we have to bring to justice the oppressor and usurper," he said.

Israel is believed to have carried out numerous attacks over the years targeting senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.

There is no evidence Israel was involved in Sunday's helicopter crash, and Israeli officials have not commented on the incident.

Arab countries on the Persian Gulf have also long viewed Iran with suspicion, a key factor in the decision of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel in 2020, and of Saudi Arabia to consider such a move.

Iran has provided financial and other support over the years to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack into Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and the smaller but more radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which took part in it. But there is no evidence that Iran was directly involved in the attack.

Since the start of the war, Iran's leaders have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians. Their allies in the region have gone much further.

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, Iran's most militarily advanced proxy, has waged a low-intensity conflict with Israel since the start of the Gaza war. The two sides have traded strikes on a near-daily basis along the Israel-Lebanon border, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee.

So far, however, the conflict has not boiled over into a full-blown war that would be disastrous for both countries.

Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq launched repeated attacks on U.S. bases in the opening months of the war but pulled back after U.S. retaliatory strikes for a drone attack that killed three American soldiers in January.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, another ally of Iran, have repeatedly targeted international shipping in what they portray as a blockade of Israel. Those strikes, which often target ships with no apparent links to Israel, have also drawn U.S.-led retaliation.

Iran's influence extends beyond the Middle East and its rivalry with Israel.

Israel and Western countries have long suspected Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons in the guise of a peaceful atomic program in what they see as a threat to non-proliferation everywhere.

Then-President Donald Trump's withdrawal from a landmark nuclear pact between Iran and world powers in 2018, and his imposition of crushing sanctions, led Iran to gradually abandon all the limits placed on its program by the deal.

These days, Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90%. Surveillance cameras installed by the U.N. nuclear agency have been disrupted, and Iran has barred some of the agency's most experienced inspectors. Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, but the United States and others believe it had an active nuclear weapons program until 2003.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East but has never acknowledged having such weapons.

Iran has also emerged as a key ally of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, and is widely accused of supplying exploding drones that have wreaked havoc on Ukraine's cities. Raisi himself denied the allegations last fall in an interview with The Associated Press, saying Iran had not supplied such weapons since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022.

Iranian officials have made contradictory comments about the drones, while U.S. and European officials say the sheer number being used in the war in Ukraine shows that the flow of such weapons has intensified since the war began.

In this photo provided by Moj News Agency, rescue teams' vehicles are seen near the site of the incident of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Varzaghan in northwestern Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (Azin Haghighi/Moj News Agency via AP)

An Iranian woman prays for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People pray for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE - People gather around a component from an intercepted ballistic missile that fell near the Dead Sea in Israel, Saturday, April 20, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Itamar Grinberg, File)

FILE - Iranian worshippers chant slogans during an anti-Israeli gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 19, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)