Mavericks-Thunder notebook
By Randy Renner, for NBA.com
Posted Tuesday May 24, 2011 1:36AM
THE FACTS: The Dallas Mavericks used an amazing performance by Dirk Nowitzki coming down the stretch to rally from 15 points down to force overtime and beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-105 in a thrilling Western Conference finals Game 4. The Mavs now take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series, which shifts to Dallas for Wednesday night's game. Oklahoma City managed to score only six points in the last five minutes of regulation and the overtime period. Nowitzki looked like a circus act or a member of the Harlem Globetrotters during a 17-2 Mavs run to tie the game and send it into overtime. Nowitzki hit a jumper off of one leg falling backwards and another while he was falling down. He scored 12 points during the spurt to tie the game and finished with 40. Jason Terry added 20 for Dallas and Jason Kidd dropped in 17.
Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 29 points and 15 rebounds, but he also turned the ball over nine times. The Thunder had 25 turnovers for the game. That offset what was a dominating night on the boards for OKC. The Thunder out-rebounded Dallas 55-33 and 20-5 on the offensive glass. Russell Westbrook had 19 points, eight assists and eight rebounds. Serge Ibaka had his best game of the series with 18 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks.
QUOTABLE: "It was all about getting stops at the end. This team has been a resourceful group and extremely opportunistic. The way they hung in there was fantastic."
-- Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle
THE STAT: In the last five minutes of regulation Oklahoma City was just 1-for-9 from the field and 0-for-2 at the free throw line. The Thunder also turned it over twice. The Mavs meanwhile were 4-for-5 and 6-for-8 at the line.
QUOTABLE II: "This is a tough loss to accept but we have to learn from it. Our guys played hard but we struggled down the stretch. Now we have to focus on one game. It's a tough loss for the players, the coaches, the organization and the fans. We have to execute better. The turnovers really bothered us, just way too many."
--Thunder head coach Scott Brooks
TURNING POINT: The Thunder seemed to have the game all but put on ice leading by 15 points (99-84) with less than five minutes to play. But Thunder shooting guard James Harden fouled out and OKC could manage only two points the rest of regulation. The Mavs, meanwhile, put up 17 to tie the game in the last seconds.
QUOTABLE III: "We worked really hard to get these two wins here. Now we've gotta get rested up and ready for Wednesday. Our building needs to be really loud. It's got to be like it was here. These fans are beyond belief here."
--Carlisle
HOT: In the first five minutes of the game, Durant was 5-for-5 for 10 points. ... After scoring just 12 points in the entire first quarter of Game 3, OKC had 26 points in the first nine minutes of Game 4 on 13-for-18 shooting (72.2 percent). ... By halftime Oklahoma City had cooled off a little but was still shooting 58.3 percent. ... Durant was 6-for-8, Ibaka was 4-for-6 and Nick Collison was 3-for4...The Mavs were above 50% too, 17-for-31 (54.8). ... Nowitzki had 22 points on 6-for-7 shooting and 9-for-9 on free throws. ... Kidd was 3-for-3. ... Nowitzki finished 12-for-20 for 40 points. ... Collison was 5-for-7 and Thabo Sefolosha ended with 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting.
NOT: In the first quarter, the Terry was 0-for-3. ... After scoring 18 points in Game 3, Shawn Marion had just seven points on 1-for-5 shooting. ... DeShawn Stevenson had just 3 points on 1-for-5.
INSIDE THE ARENA: Thunder fans were once again decked out in blue. 18,203 blue tee-shirts were distributed to the crowd before the game. NBA "Superfan" James Goldstein was back in OKC Arena. Goldstein hasn't missed a Thunder home playoff game.
GOOD MOVE: Coming out of a Dallas timeout, OKC's Westbrook jumps the inbounds pass, steals it and races away down court for an uncontested slam.
GOOD MOVE TOO: Moments later Thunder guard Sefolosha bats a Dallas inbounds pass up and into the hands of Thunder forward Durant. Durant cuts between two Mavs defenders gets to the rim and slams it home.
GOOD MOVE III: In the third quarter, Nowitzki took a pass at the free throw line, dribbled and drove on Thunder forward Serge Ibaka. With Ibaka almost attached to his hip, Dirk drove to the basket and scored.
NOTABLE: The Mavs have now won nine of their last 10 playoff games. Oklahoma City loses back-to-back home games for the first time all season.
UP NEXT: Game 5 of the Western Conference finals is set for Wednesday night in Dallas. Tip-off will be at 9 p.m. ET from American Airlines Center, and you can see the action on ESPN.
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Mavericks vs Thunder Game 5 NBA Western Conference Finals 05/25/11by mikegutierreztheboss8,467 views
Dick lebron all day
dayday9078 1 month ago
thunder would of destroyed the heat also
KD35COLLECTOR 4 months ago
how did the mavs do that
jakenajjar 8 months ago
MFFL
Rockider 9 months ago
dammit
DeadmanTaha 9 months ago