I think that's 6 straight road wins in the playoffs. That's pretty damn good and just shows how much important the JKidd trade was. No way they win these type of games without him. Tonight he has the big time steal along with Marion, big time 3, and FTs to ice the game. I think the Mavs can play with Miami because once again you get Marion on their best (or 2nd best) scorer and they have no one to cover Dirk. They can play Stevenson in short minutes against DWade. Bosh will not want to risk foul troubles to cover Dirk all over the floor.
My heart goes out to KD. The defeatist look on his face when the Mavs tied it up was painfully obvious and the ensuing horrible final shot in regulation punctuated it. Sorry Kobe, LeBron, Kevin, Derrick, et al.. Right now Dirk is the best player in basketball. Those crazy off balance one-legged shots at the end of regulation were Jordanesque clutch.
Does this OKC team remind anyone of the late 90s Minnesota Timberwolves? Westbrook looks like Stephon Marbury out there, where he only passes when he's called out on it. Durant looks like KG before he got his mean streak. Too easily pushed beyond his shooting range, not willing enough to demand the ball.
I'm not sure we can truly blame youth for OKC's collapse at the end. The Mavs fell in like fashion to Portland... I think the tendency to relax with a big lead is just human nature... And GO MAVS!
Mavs won the thing alright, but they had to have massive help, and OKC obliged with 26 TOs. Durant had a horrible game.
Wad I was put to rest. You actually posted 4 times since that post you just quoted. Seems like you still don't get somethig.
www.scoresreport.com/2011/05/24/how-did-the-thunder-blow-a-15-point-lead-in-five-minutes/ Here is a synopsis of the final possessions down the stretch. What jumps out is that Dallas made every shot and the most of every possession. The Thunder missed nearly every shot (1-11) and turned the ball over twice. Dallas certainly factored into the TOs with their pressure. And Dallas certainly contested some of those shots, but not all of them. The other story of this series has been simply that OKC cannot make 3's. They are missing way too many and taking way too many. The games have largely been decided by a few spurts in which Dallas has gone on big runs and the Thunder have disappeared for some stretches. Again, I think during those stretches it has more to do with OKC and their inexperience than it does with Dallas. Dallas by and large has continued to play their game while during those stretches, the Thunder have shot themselves in the foot. At the end of regulation in game 4 Dallas played above and beyond their normal limits and this combined with the Thunder mistakes equalled what we saw.
