Western Conference Finals Game 4: Dallas at Oklahoma City (May 23) In a reverse from Game 3 (where Dallas had a strong 1st quarter), Oklahoma City opened the game strong in scoring on their 1st 5 possessions (while Dallas committed 2 turnovers) to take a 10-2 lead with 9:50 left. A 3-pointer by Jason Kidd pulled Dallas within 8-12 with 8:50 to go, but Kevin Durant scored the next 6 points to take an 18-8 lead with 8 minutes remaining. A layup by Thabo Sefolosha gave Oklahoma City a 26-15 lead with 3:30 left - the Thunder's largest lead thus far in the series. Oklahoma City led 31-22 after 1. Oklahoma City shot 15-26 FG (and missed their only 3-point attempt) and Dallas shot 7-16 FG including 2-6 3-pointers. Again in a reverse from Game 3, the free throw line kept Dallas in the game as Dallas shot 6-7 FT and Oklahoma City shot 1-2 FT. Oklahoma City out-rebounded Dallas 12-4 including 5-0 offensive. Both teams were sloppy with Oklahoma City with 5 turnovers and Dallas with 6 turnovers. Durant had 10 points on 5-6 FG. Dallas was able to find their scoring touch, but their defense remained lax and they weren't able to make up much ground on the Thunder as the Mavericks would get no closer than 7 points over the first 8 minutes of the 2nd quarter (though Oklahoma City's lead got no larger than 11 points). Oklahoma City led 51-40 with 5:10 left and Dallas then went on a 10-2 run to pull within 50-53 with 45 seconds left as Oklahoma City shot 1-9 FG during the run. Durant was fouled driving with 2 seconds left and hit both free throws to give Oklahoma City a 59-54 lead at the half. Dallas out-scored Oklahoma City 32-28 in the 2nd quarter - thanks in large part to Dirk Nowitzki who had 17 points on a perfect 5-5 FG, 1-1 3-pointer, and 6-6 FT. After their poor 1st quarter shooting, Dallas found their touch in shooting 10-15 FG including 2-3 3-pointers, while the Thunder still shot well at 13-22 FG (again missing their only 3-point attempt). Dallas again had an advantage at the line as they shot 10-12 FT and Oklahoma City shot 2-3 FT (and 16-19 FT to 3-5 FT difference in the half). Dallas got their rebounding problems under control and each team had 7 boards in the 2nd quarter. Both were still turnover prone with each having 5 turnovers. Both teams opened the 3rd quarter shooting blanks as neither team scored over the first 90 seconds of the quarter. After Russell Westbrook hit 2 free throws with 10:30 remaining, Kidd hit a 3-pointer and Nowitzki drove for 2 to pull Dallas within 59-61 with 8:50 left - but the Mavs still could not pull even. Oklahoma City scored 7 straight points, capped by a dunk by Nick Collison on a pass from Westbrook on a push, to re-take a double-digit lead at 74-63 with 4:50 remaining. But Dallas scored the next 5 points to stay in the game. A short shot by Serge Ibaka gave the Thunder a 79-70 lead with 1:45 to go, but Dallas rattled off the next 7 points to again make it a 2-point game with 6 seconds left. In a repeat from the end of the 2nd, Durant was fouled with 2 seconds left and hit both free throws to give Oklahoma City an 81-77 lead after 3. Dallas had a slight edge in out-scoring Oklahoma City 23-22 in the 3rd quarter. It wasn't that pretty of a quarter as Dallas shot 9-24 FG including 2-9 3-pointers while Oklahoma City shot 5-11 FG and hit their only 3-point attempt (also their first 3 of the game). And the Thunder had a huge advantage at the line in shooting 11-13 FT while Dallas shot 3-3 FT. And Oklahoma City had a 14-7 rebounding edge in the 3rd. So how did Dallas have a 1-point edge in the 3rd quarter? Turnovers. Oklahoma City committed 9 turnovers in the quarter on which Dallas scored 12 points, while Dallas had just 1 turnover. Jason Terry had 9 points in the 3rd quarter. Oklahoma City opened the 4th quarter with a 7-2 mini-run to take an 88-79 lead with 10:25 remaining. A putback by Ibaka gave the Thunder a 92-81 lead with 7:30 left. After J.J. Barea converted a 3-point play, Oklahoma City then scored the next 7 points, capped by a straight-up 3-pointer by Durant, to go up 99-84 with 5:05 to go and Dallas called timeout. Game over, right? Nope as the Mavs finally started playing good defense and Nowitzki took over on offense [with Nowitzki having just 4 points in the 2nd half up to that point]. Shawn Marion was fouled and hit 2 free throws. Ibaka missed inside and Nowitzki was fouled on the rebound - it put Oklahoma City in the penalty and was also James Harden's 6th foul. Nowitzki hit 1-2 FT (his first miss after 14 straight makes in the series). Westbrook missed a jumper and Nowitzki threw the ball away with 4:10 left. But Kidd stole the ball on the other end and was fouled. He hit both free throws to pull Dallas within 89-99 with 3:50 to go. Durant missed a long jumper and Nowitzki hit an elbow jumper with 3:15 remaining and Oklahoma City called timeout, only up by 8. Durant missed an open 3-pointer, but Collison got the rebound and Westbrook hit a free throw jumper to give Oklahoma City a 101-91 lead with 2:30 remaining. But Nowitzki drained the quick straight up 3-pointer. Terry tripped Westbrook at halfcourt and put Dallas in the penalty with 2:10 left. But Westbrook missed both free throws. Nowitzki took a 2-step drive with 2 defenders on him, faked, and got the tough one-handed 15-footer (was actually trying to draw a foul) to pull Dallas within 96-101 with 2 minutes remaining. With Dallas doubling Durant, Westbrook missed a jumper. At 12 feet out, Nowitzki spun and hit a tough fade-away jumper with 1:25 to go despite good defense. Marion knocked the ball away from a driving Durant, but Ibaka blocked Terry on the break and there was a minute remaining. Oklahoma City held the ball to run the clock down some and Westbrook missed a jumper late in the shot clock and Marion was fouled on the rebound. He hit 1-2 FT to pull Dallas within 99-101 with 40 seconds left and Oklahoma City called timeout. Oklahoma City ran the shot clock down to 13 seconds before starting to move the ball, and Durant made a cross court pass to Sefolosha in the corner, but he missed a 3-point attempt with 21 seconds remaining. Dallas took some time looking for a good shot and Kidd passed to Nowitzki and Collison was called for the foul as he had his arm around Nowitzki's waist. Nowitzki hit both free throws to tie the game at 101-101 with 6.4 seconds left - it was the first tie since a minute into the game. After an Oklahoma City timeout, the Thunder got the ball to Durant, but his 3-point attempt (from 4 feet behind the arc) was blocked by Marion and Kidd grabbed the ball and called timeout with .7 seconds left. But the inbounds lob did not work and we had overtime at 101-101. Dallas closed the quarter with an 17-2 run - during which Oklahoma City shot 1-9 FG and 0-2 FT. In the 4th, Dallas out-scored Oklahoma City 24-20 as Dallas shot 7-19 FG, 1-5 3-pointers, and 9-11 FT and Oklahoma City shot 7-24 FG, 1-6 3-pointers, and 5-7 FT. Oklahoma City out-rebounded Dallas 19-10 including 7-1 offensive resulting in 11 Thunder 2nd chance points in the quarter. Oklahoma City had 5 turnovers in the quarter while Dallas had 1. Nowitzki had 12 points in the 4th and Durant had 8 points (including 2-8 FG) and 8 rebounds. Dallas controlled the jumpball and Nowitzki was fouled on a shot attempt and hit 2 free throws 15 seconds into overtime - it was Dallas' first lead of the game. Durant missed a long 3-pointer, but Kidd missed a 3 on the other end. Durant fed Sefolosha in the corner for a long 2 (foot on the line) to tie the game at 103-103 with 3:55 left. Terry passed to Marion who passed back to Terry who hit the baseliner with 3:15 remaining. Westbrook missed a 3-point attempt. Nowitzki missed a fade-away, but the rebound was tapped down court and Terry and Westbrook tried to run it down and the ball went out of bounds, last touched by Westbrook. Nowitzki had an airball with 2:10 remaining. Westbrook found an open Ibaka (with Dallas doubling Durant without the ball) and he nailed an 18-footer to tie the game at 105-105 with 1:55 to go. Terry missed a long jumper. Durant, with Kidd guarding him (and then Marion helping), drove, spun at 12-feet out, and Kidd knocked the ball away for the steal with a minute left. Dallas got the ball to Nowitzki again and he passed to Kidd in the corner and Kidd faked as Westbrook flew at him and then Kidd swished the 3-pointer to give Dallas a 108-105 lead with 40 seconds to go and Oklahoma City called timeout [and the Thunder players looked dejected during the timeout]. Westbrook drove and missed and Kidd got the rebound - the Thunder wasted 8 seconds before intentionally fouling with 17 seconds left - it was the foul to give, so Dallas inbounded the ball and the Thunder lost 4 more seconds catching up to Terry for the intentional foul with 13 seconds remaining. Terry hit both free throws and Oklahoma City called their last timeout. Durant missed a 3-pointer and Kidd was intentionally fouled. His 2 free throws capped the scoring. Dallas won 112-105 in overtime. Dallas leads the series 3-1. Wow! Oklahoma City was the much better team for 43 minutes. But those last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter were killer. Part of it was Dallas' defense finally getting going and part of it was Dirk Nowitzki hitting some incredible shots - add in Oklahoma City committing some dumb fouls which stopped the clock and gave Dallas free throws and it made 5 minutes not long enough to hold a 15 point lead. Neither team was that sharp in overtime (both shooting 2-7 FG), but Jason Kidd's 3 with 40 seconds left seemed to take the life out of the Thunder players - the camera caught Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant sitting on the bench during the timeout and both looked like they were still feeling the sting of the end of the 4th Dallas run instead confidence that they were still in the game (it was just a 3-point deficit with Oklahoma City having possession). But Durant struggled since Dallas started throwing double-teams at him late in the 4th (sometimes doubling him even when he didn't have the ball) and Westbrook struggled as he shot 1-6 FG and 0-2 FT over the last 10 minutes of the game. So, give Dallas a lot of credit for the comeback win, but also give Oklahoma City a ton of credit for the loss as you simply can't comeback from 15 points down with 5 minutes left without your opponent giving you a lot of help. Dallas now holds a commanding 3-1 lead and the next loss will eliminate Oklahoma City from the playoffs. For the stats in the game, they mostly favored the Thunder and it is amazing Dallas won with some of those numbers. Oklahoma City out-rebounded Dallas 55-33 including 20-5 offensive (4 is the Dallas playoff record low). You have to go back to 1986 to find a playoff game where a team won despite giving up a 22 or more rebound difference (29, Was-Phi game 4/18/86, 58-29). Oklahoma City had 54 points in the paint and Dallas had 36. Oklahoma City had 19 fast break points and Dallas had 6. Oklahoma City had 23 assists and Dallas had 16 assists - how do you score 112 points with just 16 assists??? But the key stat was Oklahoma City had a very high 26 turnovers (tying the Dallas opponent playoff record) while Dallas had just 13. Dallas also had the edge at the line in shooting 34-39 FT (including 4 off intentional fouls) while Oklahoma City shot 19-25 FT. From the field, Dallas shot 43.2% (35-81) FG including 8-25 3-pointers and Oklahoma City shot 46.7% (42-90) FG including 2-13 3-pointers. All hail Dirk! Dirk Nowitzki had 40 points, including 12 during the critical 17-2 run, for his 2nd 40+ game of the series. He shot 12-20 FG, 2-3 3-pointers, and 14-15 FT. He had 5 rebounds and 3 assists, but also had 4 turnovers in 45 minutes. Jason Terry kept the game from being a blowout through 3 quarters as he scored 16 points in the first 3 (and missed his 4 shots in the 4th quarter). He also had 4 points in overtime to up his game total to 20 and had 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 42 minutes. Jason Kidd had another nice all-around game with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals. No other Mav was in double-digits. The unsung hero of the game is Shawn Marion. His point production was off (1-5 FG), but his defense on Kevin Durant during the 4th quarter run and overtime was great and he a nice steal, helped with another steal, and had the block at the end of regulation. Marion had 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals and played the last 10 minutes of the game (subbing in just after Oklahoma City went up by 15). In fact, Dallas did not make a sub during those 10 minutes as Nowitzki, Terry, Kidd, Marion, and Tyson Chandler played all 10 minutes of the end of the 4th and overtime [okay, Peja Stojakovic came in for Chandler for the .7 seconds left of the 4th.]. Manning the middle, Chandler had 5 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 seals in 35 minutes. Backing him up, Brendan Haywood had 9 points on 2-2 FG and a shocking 5-8 FT (he's a terrible free throw shooter) and 3 rebounds in 18 minutes. Stojakovic had 4 points on 2-7 FG (missed 3 3-pointers) in 17 minutes. J.J. Barea played 16 1/2 minutes and had 7 points including 3-10 FG (he got a couple of layups, but also had a couple layups/inside shots blocked). Dallas again went with a 9-man rotation (as did Oklahoma City). Kevin Durant was the high man for the Thunder with 29 points on 9-22 FG, 2-7 3-pointers, and 9-10 FT, but Dallas' defense late in the 4th and overtime obviously bothered him (see his post-game comments). He also had 15 rebounds and 4 assists, but was turnover prone with 9 in the 49 minutes he played. Russell Westbrook also (and again) struggled with turnovers as he had 6 in this game. His shot was also off most of the night as he shot 7-22 FG. He had 19 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals. Durant and Westbrook combined to shot 0-5 FG in overtime (neither scored). Serge Ibaka and Thabo Sefolosha each had a bucket in overtime for Oklahoma City's only points. For the game, Ibaka had 18 points, 10 rebounds including 5 offensive, and 5 blocks. Sefolosha had 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and no turnovers (of the 7 Thunder players who played major minutes, he was the only one without a turnover). Kendrick Perkins had another poor outing with just 6 points and 3 rebounds in 25 minutes. Nick Collison played well defensively (despite Dirk Nowitzki getting hot as some of his 4th quarter shots were well defended (even some non-called fouls, but still scored)) and also grabbed some offensive rebounds. Collison had 12 points including 5-7 FG, 7 rebounds including 6 offensive, and 3 assists before fouling out at the end of overtime. James Harden fouled out at the start of Dallas' comeback in the 4th - and some credit his not being on the court as disrupting what Oklahoma City wanted to do offensively (but, to me, his performance in this game did not deserve that claim). Harden had 7 points including 3-5 FG (and did not attempt a 3-pointer) and 7 rebounds in 23 minutes. Eric Maynor played 11 minutes and had 2 points on 1-4 FG and 3 assists. Daequan Cook only played 6 minutes and did not have a stat. Quotes Rick Carlisle on the comeback: "I believe that it was all about getting stops. And every guy that was in there during that period made big plays - whether they were loose ball plays, big rebounds, big offensive plays, big extra pass plays, you know. And the one thing about this team all year is just it's been a resourceful group. They keep believing and we've been extremely opportunistic. Every playoff series - with the exception of one game in the Portland series - the LA series, and so I don't know how you quantify that, but the way they hung in tonight was fantastic." Carlisle on Oklahoma City's turnovers: "Well, look, I mean, the guys that are getting the ball a lot are facing tremendous pressure. You know, Dirk in the last game had 7 turnovers. And tonight Durant had his share of turnovers. Look, we're game planning like crazy for the guy. We're chasing him, we're double-teaming him out to half court a lot of the time. He's receiving a lot of attention. So look, we got our hands on some balls. And those deflections, they just showed how much we wanted to hang in and give ourselves a chance." Carlisle on what he did for the 17-2 comeback run: "Let the guys play. I don't know if I called any plays during that period of time. You know, we've really worked at becoming a good flow team, which means you're just playing basketball off each other. In a playoff series as you get deeper into it, you know, set plays get tougher because the teams look into stuff, they know calls, everything else. So you know, we have a group of guys that are veteran. You know, we've got some really high IQ guys that know each other's strengths, and really what happened the last 5 minutes was all about the defensive end because we didn't have our best offensive group out there, but we had a team that got stops and got the ball in the basket. You know, previous to that, we had tried to go small and tried to get an attacking group in there, and look, we had some success getting shots, but we couldn't get rebounds. And so, you know, we had to go away from it." Carlisle on being up 3-1: "Look, we worked really hard these 2 games to win. You know, none of that guarantees anything for Game 5 - we know that. But all of us involved with this team have been through a lot of these wars. We understand the position that we're in. We respect it. We're very humble about it. We've got to get ourselves rested up and ready for Wednesday because that's an opportunity." Carlisle: "Look, Marion - it's become clear to Shawn exactly what we need from him, and we need just tenacity defensively. I mean, we need him to - Durant needs to be wearing him like a suit. Look, offensively, whatever comes, comes; but Durant is such a great player that he's just one of those guys that needs the constant attention. And Jason Kidd, you know, everybody asks questions about the age and all that other stuff, but the thing I would say to anybody is never underestimate greatness." Dirk Nowitzki: "We kept believing. Finally I think we got some rebounds. I think that was killing us all night long - they got 2nd chance points, tip-outs. And then the last couple of minutes we got great stops, finally got some rebounds - and that really helped us with our flow. They couldn't really guard us off the transition and we needed to get some stops and that was big down the stretch." Nowitzki on his game: "For some reason in this series I can't get a rebound. You know, I'm averaging like 4 rebounds in this series. But other than that, I had a good shooting rhythm from the beginning. Guys found me in my spots and I was able to shoot over them some. So that was great. But a lot of credit to Jason Kidd. His defensive battle. Made the big 3 there in overtime to really put us over the top." Nowitzki: "I think Tyson and Haywood added length and toughness in the paint for us. And they came really to play today. I think Haywood played a phenomenal game after the last game. And Tyson really was big down the stretch for us, contesting shots. So those 2 big guys added a lot to our ball club. And we're happy with this win, but it's not over yet." Nowitzki: "I can't remember another comeback like that, you know, when we kind of fumbled that rebound there, kick-out, Durant 3. They were up 15 with like whatever 6 minutes to go, and obviously it didn't look great there. But I think really our defense was unbelievable down the stretch. Trix [Marion] and also JKidd did a wonderful job on Westbrook and Durant, making catches tough. The other guys were kind of helping and zoning. And really what was killing us all night long was offensive rebounds. They got a lot of tip-ins, tip-outs for shots, and finally I thought there in the last 5 minutes I only can recall 1 offensive rebound they had and same in overtime. So really I thought our defense and our rebounding got us the win down the stretch." Nowitzki: "Well, you know, once we got to OT, you know, we had to feel good about ourselves after being down 15 and making all that comeback, and we obviously talked about it in timeouts that we've got to go for it now and we're here and this is our ballgame - we've got to go for it. So that's what we talked about. You know, I don't know, we're just a veteran team trying to play off each other, and finally I thought they're getting stops and getting the rebounds, that kind of helped our offense the last couple minutes. We just ran down, we free flowed. I don't remember actually calling a play the last couple minutes. We just ran down and pick-and-rolled it and free flowed it. Like I said, all season long I think when our defense is good and we rebound the ball, that's when our offense opens up and that helped us down the stretch." Nowitzki on his pass to Kidd for the 3 in overtime: "Yeah, you know, I was actually going to make a play there on the elbow against Collison, and then once I turned, I think Westbrook was kind of right there or right in between, so I didn't really have a good look and swung it over to Kidd, and he made a heck of a play I thought. Westbrook closed out hard initially and tried to take his first 3 away, and he pump-faked and stuck with it and got his balance and made a big 3 for us. You know, people still think that Kidd is not a good shooter, but over the years I think he proved everybody wrong. He made big shots for us this season, ever since he got here. So any time he's open, I think, down the stretch it's going in." Nowitzki: "Well, you know, I really think we stepped our defense up there down the stretch. We really got into them, and I give Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd a lot of credit there, trying to keep Westbrook out of the lane. He really got to the basket a bunch of times today. And Durant, trying to force his catches out a little deeper, and just making shots tough. And then down the stretch it was a tie game. Shawn Marion had a huge block there on Durant - he had a 3-pointer there that obviously could go in because he's so skilled and Shawn got up there and contested the shot, was able to get a hand on it. That was a huge play. I just think there were a bunch of huge plays made down the stretch and we're lucky to get the win." Nowitzki on the defense on Durant and if Durant got frustrated: "Well, I didn't sense anything, but I know, like I said, we did a good job even helping him, Shawn, when he came off down picks, we were kind of like right there. When he faced him up and iso'd Shawn, I think with our bigs and Tyson did a good job protecting the rim down the stretch. Yeah, so our defense was real phenomenal. And when you're down 15 with a couple minutes to go, you're obviously desperate. You've got to go for it on defense. I think that the one 3 I shot was either do or die. I mean, at that point we were down 10, I think, so if it goes in, great, and if not, then it just wasn't our night. And we were able to get that 3 in. And I was able to get one on the wing to go in, where I was actually trying to draw a foul. So, our defense really won us the game, and our flow on offense really helped us down the stretch." Nowitzki: "The good thing about us, we didn't cave in there in the 4th. We hung in there, kept battling, even though it didn't look good, but kept trying to make plays. And it was a great comeback for us, definitely one of the best that I can remember being a Maverick, definitely in a very important game. But we had some guys step up. I thought Haywood actually came through today playing big for us and making big plays. So I'm really proud of the guys how they battled." Nowitzki: "But yeah, today, I mean, it was almost over. I mean, if we mess up one more time or give up one more offensive rebound, that would have been game. So we couldn't afford any mistakes down the stretch, and like I said, we were almost perfect. I think Collison got 1 offensive rebound that I remember from a long, long board, but other than that, I think our defense was energetic. We were helping each other, we were talking, we were communicating, we were rebounding, and that's definitely as well as you can play down the stretch on the defensive end." Nowitzki: "Nothing is going to be given to you in this league, especially not in the playoffs. So we can be a little happy now, but I think starting tomorrow we've got to get focused on Game 5 and just be more solid. They hit us early today, and we weren't quite ready the 1st quarter. Then the rebounds were killing us. So we've got a bunch of stuff to look at. Turnovers actually were big, I thought, in the 1st quarter. We turned the ball over a bunch. That's always an automatic basket against this team." Nowitzki: "Yeah, like I said, down 15 with a couple minutes left, that's as good as it gets, that comeback. So definitely it feels good to come back and close the game out in such a fashion. That was fun, but like I said, this series is not over. We need one more win, and we've got to just be sharper overall defensively early on in Game 5 and let our home court and our home fans kind of get us fired us and hopefully get that win." Jason Terry: "There's times and situations where they are going to test the courage and the mental inner strength of your team. This was one of those times. This was a defining moment in our season where we look back and say, 'Hey, that was the game.'" Jason Kidd on being down by 15 late in the 4th: "During the timeout there was always the comment that there was a lot of time left. 5 minutes, 3 minutes left, we felt if we could get the clock stopped and be able to score, hopefully that would give us a chance to do something.: Kidd on his 3-pointer in overtime: "Dirk has a little trust in me and I thought they were going to go double on us, so my job is to be able to knock down that shot. They kind of went to him late so Westbrook could contest my 3. I thought about jumping into him, but I just reloaded and shot it." Tyson Chandler: "We're never going to give up. If they beat us, they beat us. But we're not going to give up." Chandler on Nowitzki: "I'm kind of getting used to him being heroic at the end of the game. You start to recognize what being a superstar is all about. He relishes those moments. When a game starts to get close, you expect him to make every big shot." Brendan Haywood: "You're lying if you're not surprised. Down 15 with 5 minutes to play you're thinking hopefully something can happen. You're just kind of wishing." Haywood: "When Harden fouled out, we focused all our attention on KD [Durant]. That was basically it." Scott Brooks: "Well, it goes without saying that it was a tough loss to accept, but it is a loss, and we have to learn from it. I thought our guys played as hard as a basketball game you can play. They were physical, and they challenged shots. We struggled a little bit down the stretch with execution, and throughout the game we struggled with turnovers. I think we had 26 turnovers or 25 turnovers. That's hard to overcome against a very good Dallas team. I give our guys a lot of credit - they came and fought and did everything they can to win this game. It's unfortunate that we didn't come out with the win. Dallas out-played us down the stretch." Brooks: "Well, there's no doubt it was a tough loss. If this loss did not hurt, there's no such thing as a loss that can hurt you. Our guys are very resilient. They're a group that battles every day. They're a group that believes in each other. There's no question that this is a very difficult loss, but it is a loss you have to take. You have to take it like a man and move on. And we have to somehow muster enough energy tomorrow in our practice and then come back and just focus on one game. We have to win one game. I believe in our guys. They're going to give every ounce of effort that they have come Wednesday night. But it definitely was a tough loss. There's no way around that - for all of us, for our organization, for every player in that locker room, for every coach, for our fans. It's a tough loss, but you've got to move on and you've got to focus on the next game." Brooks on Harden fouling out: "You know, he got fouls. We were fouling the team once again. But James, I didn't think James had a good 1st half, but I thought the 2nd half he came out, gave us some energy. He was defending much better. But James is important. I thought Thabo [Sefolosha] played an extremely, very good game on both ends. You know, Thabo made some shots for us. That's not something that we look for him to do often, but he defended and gave everything he had. But James fouling out, you know, he fouled out." Brooks on shots late in regulation: "Well, the first one with Thabo [3-point attempt], I think there was like 17 seconds, we were up 2. Kevin drove baseline. Marion and Dirk came over to double-team him. He got up in the air, threw the pass. It was a good pass. Thabo took the shot with I think it was about 7 seconds on the shot clock. Jason Terry slid under him so when he shot the ball, then Thabo spread his legs so he wouldn't fall on him. He didn't have good balance, but he didn't have room to land, so he missed the shot. But I thought Kevin made the right play. He attacked - maybe attacked a little too early. Thabo, I thought he caught the ball with 8 seconds on the shot clock when he missed the shot there. The last one [3-point attempt by Durant] wasn't well executed. They did a good job of pushing us out and taking us off the spot. We have to be stronger. We have to be able to push back without getting the foul. And Kevin was worried because he pushed back one time and got the foul, so that situation you just have to fight, everybody has to fight for their space on the floor." Brooks: "Well, we did take some quick shots. I thought we got up like 15 with like 5 1/2 to go, and we had a couple turnovers and a couple of quick shots, but we missed some shots. We were making those shots throughout the game, and we missed some of those shots. And then I thought we had 2 bad fouls. We fouled them in the backcourt and gave them 4 free throws without having any time run off the clock and then the turnover and then a couple of missed shots. Was that youth? I don't know. That's how we've had some success all year, playing with a young team. We just have to execute better, you know. And then we missed a couple of free throws that probably would have put us up 7 or so with a couple of minutes. Russell never misses free throws in the 4th quarter. He always seems to be automatic. But turnovers really bothered us, turnovers tonight bothered us - it was too many." Brooks on Durant's 9 turnovers: "Well, it definitely bothers you when you turn it over 9 times. KD has done very well all season long at keeping his turnovers down, and I thought that was an improvement from last season. 9 turnovers, you have to just learn from it. It's something that he's not going to be very happy with himself with, but he's an aggressive player. He just turned the ball over too many times. And, you know, it's hard to overcome 25 turnovers in a basketball game." Brooks on if the team relaxed after getting the big lead: "Looking back you can probably say that. I'm not sure. We had a lot of errors and we missed some open shots and then we turned it over and then we fouled a couple of times in the backcourt, gave them free throws without running the clock. And then Dirk, guys, he made a contested 3 - you can't double-team that. He made a spin off the wrong foot contested. He made that. He made one that we double-teamed on the baseline that was an impossible shot, and he made that. He took over. He took over the basketball game that he's capable of doing. Unfortunately he made some tough shots again tonight." Brooks on Oklahoma City's shots during Dallas' comeback: "I thought we had some good looks that we missed, one, and we turned it over. Ball movement is always - that's something that we have to continue to get better at. There's no question that we've improved in a lot of areas, even on the offensive end. We've improved in a lot of areas throughout the year, but we have to continue to get better. The ball movement could have been better." Kevin Durant on what needs to be done for Game 5: "Just be positive. Like you said, it's not over yet. You know, we have a game on Wednesday. So. We won in there before, so we've got to try to do it again." Durant on Dallas' 4th quarter comeback: "They made shots and we didn't. Dirk Nowitzki was great, you know, making 3s and contested jump shots, and they played great defense. So. We lost." Durant on his 3-point attempt at the end of regulation: "I didn't have anything else to do. I caught the ball almost at the halfcourt line, seen 3 Mavericks in front of me and had 3 seconds on the clock. I didn't know what else to do. I just tried to get a shot up. I didn't want to run into their defense and get another turnover. I didn't know what else to do. So, they played good D." Durant on if Oklahoma City's youth was a problem: "This is basketball, man. Our youth has nothing to do with what we were doing on the floor right now. We've showed we can play on this level. They played good defense, man. You know, we missed some shots. Our youth has nothing to do with it." Durant on his struggles: "Like you said, I was trying to play with so much force and play so hard. You know, early on I was getting the ball where I wanted to, and they were just playing straight-up defense. But later on I got the ball where I wanted to and I seen 3 or 4 guys around me and I had to make a pass, some passes were tipped, some passes I got offensive foul. A few of those, my swipe move, I didn't get the foul, I got turnovers. You know, late in the game, that's my timing. A few of those times, you know, it was just too clogged up. I didn't want to force a bad shot. I passed to my teammates. I believe in my teammates and I trust in them. But we just weren't making shots and they were." Russell Westbrook on the defense on Nowitzki: "We couldn't double because of the shooters they have around him. It was tough." Thabo Sefolosha: "I don't know what went wrong. It's hard to talk about it." 2011 Playoffs - Western Conference Finals: Game 4 Dallas Mavericks 112, Oklahoma City Thunder 105 OT at Oklahoma City (May 23) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 22 32 23 24 11 - 112 .482 .320 .432 .872 Oklahoma City 31 28 22 20 4 - 105 .519 .154 .467 .760 Halftime: Oklahoma City 59-54 3rd Q: Oklahoma City 81-77 Technicals: Oklahoma City defensive 3 seconds 6:17 1st, Tyson Chandler 6:07 3rd, Dallas defensive 3 seconds 11:11 4th Flagrant Foul: Brendan Haywood (level 1) 8:37 4th Refs: Tony Brothers, Ken Mauer, Danny Crawford Attendance: 18,203 (sellout) IL: Dallas - Caron Butler, Dominique Jones, Rodrigue Beaubois Oklahoma City - Cole Aldrich, Byron Mullens, Robert Vaden Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Shawn Marion 38 1-5 0-0 5-6 7 0-4 1 0 4 4 1 Dirk Nowitzki 45 12-20 2-3 14-15 40 0-5 3 4 2 0 0 Tyson Chandler 35 2-4 0-0 1-1 5 2-8 0 0 4 2 0 DeShawn Stevenson 13 1-5 1-4 0-0 3 0-0 0 1 3 0 0 Jason Kidd 41 5-9 3-6 4-4 17 0-5 7 3 1 4 0 Jason Terry 42 7-19 2-6 4-4 20 1-5 1 3 4 4 0 Peja Stojakovic 17 2-7 0-3 0-0 4 0-1 2 2 2 0 0 Breandan Haywood 18 2-2 0-0 5-8 9 2-3 1 0 2 0 1 J.J. Barea 16 3-10 0-3 1-1 7 0-2 1 0 0 1 0 Totals 53 35-81 8-25 34-39 112 5-33 16 13 22 15 2 Oklahoma City Thunder REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kevin Durant 49 9-22 2-7 9-10 29 3-15 4 9 2 0 1 Serge Ibaka 47 8-15 0-0 2-2 18 5-10 0 4 5 0 5 Kendrick Perkins 25 3-5 0-0 0-1 6 2-3 2 1 2 0 1 Thabo Sefolosha 30 6-10 0-2 0-0 12 1-4 1 0 3 3 1 Russell Westbrook 42 7-22 0-3 5-8 19 3-8 8 6 5 3 0 James Harden 23 3-5 0-0 1-2 7 0-7 2 4 6 1 0 Nick Collison 31 5-7 0-0 2-2 12 6-7 3 1 6 1 1 Eric Maynor 11 1-4 0-1 0-0 2 0-1 3 0 0 1 0 Daequan Cook 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 53 42-90 2-13 19-25 105 20-55 23 26 29 9 9 Go Mavs! patricia ---- Patricia Bender pbender@eskimo.com For Trianglons puzzles: http://www.trianglons.com For NBA stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/index.html For Mavs stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/mavs.html