Thunder up Against it as Mavericks Take Control

Nowitzki came up with a stellar 40-point performance to turn the game around.

Post Game Reaction:

The Dallas Mavericks literally stole the thunder from the Oklahoma City Thunder in the fourth game of the Western Conference Finals, as the game witnessed one of the most amazing comebacks in the Mavs’ history.

Down by 15 points with less than 5 minutes left to play, the Mavericks rallied to win the game 112-105 against the shell-shocked Thunder. Much of the plaudits are being reserved for Dirk Nowitzki, as he walked away with a cool 40 points from the game, 12 of which came in the 4th Quarter.

When Kevin Durant scored a daft 3-pointer with 5:06 minutes on the clock, the author, along with most Dallas fans, had all but given up hope of a victory. Four minutes later, the home team’s bench had the look of a deer caught in headlights, as they failed to come to terms with what had just happened.

The epic turnaround saw the Mavs take the lead for the first time in the game in OT. As Nowitzki later recalled, “…we’re just a veteran team trying to play off each other. We just ran [up and] down, we free-flowed. I don’t even remember calling a play the last couple of minutes. We just ran down and pick-and-rolled and free-flowed it.” ‘Nuff said.

Overtime saw a barrage of defensive stops, as a Terry jumper, a Kidd 3-pointer and a couple of free throws finished the game as a contest. A last minute peep at the Thunders bench showed the shocked reaction on their faces – so much so that star Kevin Durant claimed that he would not even be able to speak to his mother or grandmother after this game.

A Few Takeaways:

After Harden was fouled out, the Thunder offense simply seemed to drop a couple of notches. They had just two pick-and-roll plays after he left the court, and could not score from the one transition play; as compared to the 25 pick-and-roll plays when he was playing, and 17 points off 14 transition plays.

Dirk Nowitzki is already expected to score in clutch games, and this game was no different. The author wonders why no one from the Thunder team just stopped and said, “This guy’s killing us. We must adapt accordingly.” Maybe put more pressure on Nowitzki. This was a similar mistake to the Bulls giving Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat too much space inspite of his awesome show in 1st Quarter.