One Fourth-Quarter Collapse Is Another Teams Fortune.
Saturday night, The Oklahoma City completed their sweep of the defending champion Dallas Mavericks. Dallas now becomes the 5th defending championship team in NBA history to be swept in the first-round. The Mavericks controlled this game for the first 3 quarters with a 13 point lead heading into the 4th. Late in the 3rd with less than a minute remaining, Dallas guards Jason Kidd and Delonte West hit back-to-back three pointers to give Dallas a 13 point. The momentum from their spectacular 3rd quarter run initially seemed like it would rejuvenate Dallas enough to get one win but the Thunder were determined to bust out the brooms. Unphased by their 3rd quarter struggles, OKC came out strong at the start of the 4th quarter. The presumptive Sixth Man of the Year, James Harden started the 4th scoring 7 in row and contributed to 9 points in OKC’s 12-0 run. Harden finished with a game high 29 points, 5 boards and 5 dimes outscoring the Mavericks bench alone.
The Mavs seemed to have never started their season because of the lockout and championship celebration continued thru the entire season. Players returned to camp in December out of shape and had very little motivation to win another ring. With free agency approaching in June, the most like scenario seems for Mavs management to go after Dallas native Deron Williams first then add more pieces around him and Dirk. Now with home-court again for the conference semis, OKC awaits the winner of the Lakers-Nuggets series.
Win Or Go Home.
Thunder win 4-0
Game 1 – Oklahoma City 99, Dallas 98
Game 2 – Oklahoma City 102, Dallas 99
Game 3 – Oklahoma City 95, Dallas 79
Game 4 – Oklahoma City 103, Dallas 97