In the opener we got the shootout we were looking for. Dirk went 12-15 from the field and his all 24 of his free throws, submitting a 48-point masterpiece. With 40 points on 18 shots, Kevin Durant nearly pulled out the victory for the Thunder, but Dirk was too good.
In game two, Dirk only scored 29 points on 17 shots, and it took Durant 23 shots to put up 24 points. The story of the night was the Thunder bench—who was sitting on it. After a breakdown on offense and a bad foul at the end of the third quarter, Scott Brooks and Russell Westbrook got into it during the ensuing timeout. Russell Westbrook didn’t return as Kevin Durant and the Thunder’s second unit, led by the all around play of James Harden and Eric Maynor at the point, outplayed not only the Mavericks bench, but also the Mavericks starters down the stretch. The fourth quarter, with Eric Maynor setting the table for the rest of the Thunder, felt like a breath of fresh air for the Thunder offense.
After the game, Westbrook, Brooks, and Durant all downplayed the benching and played up the fact that they stole a game in Dallas, and that was what mattered. Blogs didn’t make as much of the Westbrook benching as the mainstream media. I felt that it all was something that mattered a lot more to us than it did to the Thunder, presumably locked-in for game three.
Our fascination with the benching—and the endless questions that came with it—clearly got to the Thunder, because in game three, they came out flatter than the topography of Oklahoma City. Dirk played facilitator for much of the game, drawing double teams and dishing. The rest of the Mavericks realized how open they were. Oklahoma, meanwhile, couldn’t buy a bucket and found themselves down 40-19 halfway through the second quarter. They fought their way back in the second half, and Russell Westbrook, center of all the drama, led the Thunder in scoring. He made a couple of questionable decisions in the last few moments of the game, but it’s unfair to hang the loss on those decisions; the Thunder were trying to climb out of too big a hole.
Coming into game four, I expected the Thunder to bounce back and to even the series. For three quarters, I was right. The Thunder flew off to a 10-point lead in the first half and rode it through the third quarter. Nick Collison, Serge Ibaka, and Kevin Durant (for a little while) were doing as well as anyone could hope to on Dirk Nowitzki.
With five minutes left in the fourth, Kevin Durant buried a three, extending the lead to 15. James Harden fouled out soon after, and the Thunder scored two more points in regulation. They were outscored 11-4 in overtime. There are a lot of reasons the Thunder lost it down the stretch—no Harden, bad execution, settling for outside jumpers, turnovers, cheap fouls, missed free throws—that all point to youth and a lack of playoff poise. With the clock running out, Westbrook got the ball to Durant, who threw up a 40-foot attempt (which was blocked by Shawn Marion) with time left on the clock.
There are two reasons the Mavericks won. The first is their defense, which stifled the Thunder, creating the turnovers they needed to get back into the game. The second is Dirk Nowitzki, who scored twelve of the Mavericks last 15 points in regulation—on a number of unbelievable shots that are becoming more and more believable—then found Jason Kidd for the go-ahead three in overtime. After the game, Magic Johnson made the point that Dirk’s closer to Jordan than anyone else in this year’s playoffs, which is a roundabout way of saying he’s been the best player. Last night, Dirk channeled the Temple of Doom, holding the Thunder’s still beating heart in front of them after he ripped it out and left the Thunder looking like this.
The Thunder won’t beat these Mavericks three times in a row. They knew this game was the series, and reflected it with their post-game demeanor. It wasn’t just a crushing loss; it also ended their season. Conventional wisdom says that young teams need to lose at least one heartbreaking series before they can win a title. I was hoping the Thunder would skip that step, but Dirk Nowitzki had other plans.
—Photo AP/Eric Gay
