The Dallas Mavericks are Down 2-0 Against the Thunder in Opening Round
The NBA is a star driven league more so than any other sport, and when its time for the NBA playoffs to start, teams only go as far as their stars take them. Many people believe the Dallas Mavericks had the best superstar in the NBA Playoffs last season in Dirk Nowitzki, and never was that more evident than in the 5 game western conference finals against the OKC Thunder.
Dirk averaged 32.2 PPG and dropped 48 points in the opening game including an NBA playoff record 24 straight free throws. The 2010-2011 Mavs surprised a lot of people when they went on their championship run led by tough defense, strong role players, and Dirk playing some of the best basketball of his career. Unfortunately last season is gone; after an extreme makeover in the off-season followed by inconsistent regular season play, the consensus is that the Dallas Mavericks are too old and not talented enough to play with the youthful Thunder who many believe are the best in the West.
The Mavs ventured into OKC, arguably the loudest arena in basketball, Saturday night to play game 1 of their Western conference opening round series, hoping that their smart team play could keep them in the game and it did just that. The Mavs led most of game thanks to solid team defense and scoring off the bench from Vince Carter and Jason Terry. Jason Kidd was exceptionally good on defense as he had 7 of the Mavericks 11 steals that led to transition baskets to keep them in the game. Dallas had more rebounds, less fouls, and made more free throws than OKC, clearly stats that should have had them on the way to a win. Even with those stats and a poor shooting night by Thunder superstar Kevin Durant (10-27) the Mavs found themselves down by one with under a minute to play until Dirk was fouled and hit two clutch free throws to give them a one point lead. I was on the phone with my brother when the Mavs took the one point lead with 9.0 seconds to go and told him “9.0 seconds is too much time I think we may have lost this one”, sure enough Kevin Durant takes a ridiculous free throw line shot fading to his left with defenders draped all over him that somehow bounced around and in. This was a disheartening loss for the Mavs, but it wasn’t the first time Durant had burned the Mavs in the waning seconds of a game: he hit a buzzer beating 3 to beat them in the third game of the season. After the game Shawn Marion who was defending Durant on the last shot commented on the play, “It was great defense,” Marion said. “I don’t think he could see the rim, there’s no way he could see the rim. He just threw that (expletive) up and it rolled in.”
I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a deflated Mavs team come out for game two and lay down, but they did anything but lay down as they played the entire game very close again with the exception being a 9-0 run for OKC to end the 1st quarter that stretched to 16 in the 2nd. The Mavs continued their strong team defense with 9 steals, 16 forced turnovers, and they held Durant to 5-17 from the field. Delonte West was back in the rotation for game two after fully recovering from food poisoning; he provided a nice spark, scoring 13 points and adding 2 steals, 3 boards, and 2 assists. West showed no fear in the paint, taking the ball strong to the basket unlike Jason Kidd who seemed like he couldn’t get the ball out of his hands fast enough around the rim ever since Kevin Durant blocked his layup attempt from behind in game one.
The Mavs chipped away from the 16 point second quarter deficit by getting the ball inside and drawing fouls on the Thunder big men; at one point in the 3rd quarter, Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka, and Nick Collison all had 4 fouls. The game was very close the entire 4th quarter and with just under a minute remaining, the Mavs were up by one point: they played a fantastic defensive possession against OKC and deflected the ball out of bounds with just under 3.0 seconds left on the shot clock. The Thunder inbounded in the corner to Kevin Durant, and in one of the worst plays I have seen in some time Jason Terry fouled Durant, putting him on the line and giving OKC a 1 point lead. Dirk missed a shot on the next possession forcing the Mavs to foul, OKC didn’t miss its free throws and the rest is history.
Without the crazy shot by Durant in game 1 and the foul by Terry in game 2, the Mavericks could be up 2-0 in this series, but instead they face an uphill climb headed back to Dallas. When asked about the unlucky breaks the Mavs have had in the first two games, Rick Carlisle quoted “his good friend” Ron Washington saying “that’s just how baseball go”. Kevin Durant hasn’t been playing his best basketball, but him and Russell Westbrook have shown that the NBA is in fact star driven in the playoffs; they’ve scored 108 points combined through the first two games.
Do you think the Mavs have enough in the tank to turn the series around in Dallas?
Ready to join the SportDFW Nation? Check us out on Facebook, Twitter or contact us at therealsportdfw@gmail.com