Basketball World

The Dallas Mavericks overcame an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to reach the NBA finals for only the second time with a 100-96 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday.
Dallas clinched the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals series by a 4-1 margin with the thrilling Game Five win and will face either the Miami Heat or the Chicago Bulls in the NBA finals. The Heat lead that series 3-1.
Roared on by their home fans, talisman Dirk Nowitzki, who sealed the triumph with a pair of late free throws, and fellow forward Shawn Marion scored 26 points apiece while Jason Terry weighed in with 12 points off the bench.
Guard Russell Westbrook scored a game-high 31 points for the Thunder, who were unable to prevent the Mavericks from conjuring a second successive come-from-behind win. NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant added 23 points for the visitors.
"They played a small lineup and really tried to jump the game up," Nowitzki told reporters of the Thunder. "They drilled us on transition all night long and you've got to give them credit. They left it all out there today.
"We just had to get some stops down the stretch. We finally got away with a little zone (defense), a little man-to-man, and got some stops. That was big."
After the Mavericks were presented on court with the Western Conference trophy, team owner Mark Cuban said: "All I can tell everybody is: 'We ain't done yet'."
As the fans began chanting: "Beat the Heat, Beat the Heat," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said courtside: "All of us, including all of our fans, believe. We believe in each other. This is a great moment but we've got a lot of work left."
ROARED BACK
Dallas, who won Game Four 112-105 after overtime in Oklahoma City two days earlier, opened an early six-point lead but the Thunder roared back to lead 27-26 after the first quarter.
The Mavericks twice drew level before the fourth-seeded Thunder edged ahead again to lead 55-53 at halftime.
With James Harden and Nick Collison sparking Oklahoma City's bench, the visitors kept the third seeds under continual pressure to grab a 76-72 advantage going into the final period.
Westbrook landed a two-point jumper to put the Thunder ahead 85-77 for the biggest lead of the night with 9.14 remaining.
However, the Mavericks steadily clawed their way back, and had reduced the deficit to 92-90 with a little under four minutes on the clock following consecutive pairs of free throws from Nowitzki and veteran Marion.
Nowitzki then missed a three-point attempt but Dallas stole the rebound and this time the German made no mistake from beyond the arc to put his team ahead 95-94 with 1.14 left.
"The guys did a great job getting to a loose ball and I said: 'It's now or ever. We've got to go for it.' And I was able to knock it down," Nowitzki said.
The Thunder again lost possession, this time on attack, and Marion burst away to score with a running slam dunk shot, forcing a foul for a bonus free throw to give Dallas a 98-94 lead which they never relinquished.
The Mavericks, who swept the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in the previous round, reached the NBA finals once before in 2006, when they were beaten 4-2 by the Miami Heat.
"We were right there where we wanted to be but couldn't close out," said Nowitzki who, along with Terry, was part of that Mavericks team. "Miami, they played a heck of a series.
"We are back again and hopefully with a better result now. We've got a bunch of veterans who want to win and play off each other. We will see how it goes





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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma — Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd used their experiences to guide the Dallas Mavericks to a shocking 112-105 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of the NBA’s Western Conference final Monday night.

“We worked really hard these two games to win, and none of that guarantees anything for Game 5. We know that,” said coach Rick Carlisle.

“All of us involved with this team have been through a lot of these wars,” Carlisle added. “We understand our position that we’re in.

“We respect it. We’re very humble about it. We’ve got to get ourselves revved up and ready for Wednesday, because that’s an opportunity.”

Down big in the last closing quarter of the game, the Mavericks stayed focus and rallied from a 15-point deficit in the final 5 minutes of regulation to pull off the stunning win.
Nowitzki scored 12 of his 40 points in the dramatic fourth quarter comeback, where Dallas used a 17-2 run to force the game into overtime.

“It’s just a bunch of veterans with a lot of unique stories. A lot of guys have been through a lot in this league and have been around forever,” Nowitzki said.

“A bunch of guys have been to the finals. … Ultimately, we have one goal and we came together and fought through some stuff.”

Kidd then hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 40.3 seconds remaining in overtime and finished with 17 and seven assists in the win that put the Mavericks 3-1 up in the seven game series.

Jason Terry added 20 points, while Shawn Marion was crucial when called on for his defensive skills for Dallas.

Kevin Durant led the way for the Thunder with 29 points and 15 rebounds, while Russell Westbrook added 19 points, eight rebounds and eight assists and Serge Ibaka finished with 18 points, 10 boards and five blocks.

The Thunder also got 12 points apiece from Thabo Sefolosha and Nick Collison, who also grabbed seven boards in a game that James Harden fouled out.

Oklahoma City were suffering their first consecutive losses of the postseason and the first back-to-back home losses in six months.

Game 5 will be Wednesday night in Dallas.

“There’s no doubt it was a tough loss,” Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. “If this loss did not hurt, there’s no such thing as a loss that can hurt you.”





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The Oklahoma City Thunder lost Game 3 to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night, 93-87, and this time Russell Westbrook is not the man fans will point their fingers at. However, it will be interesting to see fan’s reactions to the loss since the man to blame for the Thunder’s woes is Kevin Durant.

Kevin Durant is the poster boy for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Even when Russell Westbrook or James Harden or Serge Ibaka is tearing it up on the court, fans still chant “GO KD!” Unfortunately for the Thunder, KD did not answer the fans calls in Oklahoma City on Saturday night and Dallas took a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals.

Kevin Durant only hit 7 of 22 shots on the night and did not hit a single 3 the entire game. The entire Thunder team failed behind the arch, only hitting one from long distance, but Kevin Durant was the one whose misses killed the Thunder. As a matter of fact, the NBA scoring leader only has one 3-pointer in his last 17 attempts.

"I was telling myself after the game, 'It's not like me to miss 12 or 13 threes in a row,'" Durant said after the game. "I get 'em up every day [in practice]. I work on it every day. It's just a matter of me being confident."

After scoring 40 and 24 in the first two games respectively, Kevin Durant finished Game 3 with another 24 point game but ten of those came on free throws and Durant even missed one of those.

"Frustrating," said Durant after the game. "It's tough to start a game, not make shots and you give teams easy baskets. That's like a backbreaker."

Russell Westbrook, on the other hand, rebounded from his ‘benching’ in Game 2 and scored 30 points with four assists and seven rebounds.

However, not all the blame can be laid at the feet of Kevin Durant. Scott Brooks should know by now that the Thunder need their bench to play strong to win games. In Game 3, Brooks played James Harden for 36 minutes and Nick Collison for 24 but that was it, save for short stints by Eric Maynor and Daequan Cook. After relying on the bench to pull out the win on Thursday, they only scored 16 points on Saturday.






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