Western Conference Finals Game 5: Oklahoma City at Dallas (May 25) Dallas scored the first 6 points of the game before Oklahoma City got on the board on a driving layup by Russell Westbrook with 10:25 remaining. Dallas continued to hold a small lead and led 13-7 with 7:15 left, but a 3-pointer by Kevin Durant followed (a few plays later) by a jumper by Westbrook pulled Oklahoma City within 12-13 with 5:50 to go. After some more misses, Jason Terry nailed a 3-pointer as Dallas continued to hold a small lead. A 3-point play by Westbrook gave the Thunder their first lead of the game at 20-19 with 2 minutes left. A 3-pointer by J.J. Barea briefly gave Dallas the lead back, but Oklahoma City scored the next 4 points - but the game stayed close. James Harden hit a runner with less than 3 seconds remaining to give Oklahoma City a 27-25 lead after 1. Neither team shot that great as Oklahoma City shot 10-23 FG and 1-2 3-pointers and Dallas shot 9-24 FG including 2-6 3-pointers. Both teams made 6 free throws (though Oklahoma City attempted 7). Durant had 12 points in playing all but a minute in the quarter. Dallas opened the 2nd quarter with a steal by Barea, who fed Shawn Marion for a dunk on the break, but Oklahoma City then went on an 11-3 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Harden, to take a 38-30 lead with 8:30 to go. 2 free throws by Dirk Nowitzki (with Serge Ibaka picking up his 3rd foul) and a layup by Barea ended the run, but Oklahoma City continued hold a small lead as Dallas would get no closer than 3 points (but no farther away than 7 points) over the next 7 minutes. Oklahoma City let 54-47 with 2 minutes left, but Marion hit a runner and Terry nailed a 3-pointer to pull Dallas within 2 points. Harden hit 1-2 FT to capped the quarter scoring (as Oklahoma City missed 4 shots over the last 2 minutes) and Oklahoma City led 55-52 at the half. Oklahoma City had the slight lead in the quarter in out-scoring Dallas 28-26 in the 2nd as both teams found their shooting touch. Oklahoma City shot 11-21 FG including 2-5 3-pointers and Dallas shot 10-18 FG, but just 1-4 3-pointers. Oklahoma City shot 4-6 FT and Dallas shot 5-6 FT. Harden had 10 points in the 2nd quarter (playing all 12 minutes) and Marion had 8 points on a perfect 3-3 FG and 2-2 FT. The game stayed close with Oklahoma City holding no larger than a 3 point lead over the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter (with both teams having lost their shooting touch - Oklahoma shot 1-9 FG (with 2 made free throws) and Dallas shot 3-8 FG). Dallas was able to tie the game twice (59-59 6:40 and 61-61 5:50) before a 3-pointer by Peja Stojakovic and technical foul free throw by Terry (as Westbrook shoved Terry going into a timeout) gave Dallas a 66-63 lead with 4:40 left. After the teams traded misses, a 3-pointer by Durant kicked off 9 straight points by Oklahoma City to give them a 72-66 lead with 2:10 remaining. But 6 points was the largest lead of the quarter. Nowitzki had a reverse layup near the end of the quarter. Oklahoma City led 76-72 after 3. It was again only a very small advantage to Oklahoma City in a quarter as the Thunder out-scored Dallas 21-20 in the 3rd quarter. Both teams shot poorly with Oklahoma City shooting 6-19 FG including 1-4 3-pointers and Dallas shot 5-16 FG including 1-7 3-pointers. The teams had points thanks to the line as Oklahoma City shot 8-8 FT and Dallas shot 9-11 FT, including Brendan Haywood shooting 4-4 FT! Westbrook had 12 points (including 6-6 FT) in the 3rd quarter. Both teams continued to play small-ball (no true center) to open the 4th quarter. A 3-pointer by Durant gave Oklahoma City an 83-76 lead with 9:45 remaining. After Marion hit 1-2 FT, Westbrook hit a pullup jumper to give Oklahoma City an 85-77 lead with 9:25 left - but 8 points continued to be the largest lead of the game as there were no long rallies. Eric Maynor made a nice feed to Nick Collison and his dunk gave Oklahoma City a 90-83 lead with 5:50 left. Dallas went back to their normal lineup (non-small ball) in bring Tyson Chandler (who was battling foul problems in the game) with 6 minutes left in the game while Oklahoma City stuck with small-ball the rest of the way. Chandler was fouled inside and hit both free throws and, after a turnover by Maynor, Barea was fouled (putting Oklahoma City in the penalty) and he hit 1-2 FT to pull Dallas within 86-90 with 4:45 remaining. Durant drove for a layup with 4:30 left, but Nowitzki was fouled at the other end and he hit both free throws to again make it a 4 point game with 4:20 left. Kidd stripped a driving Durant and Dallas ran the other way and Marion got the blocking call (tough call) on Maynor to go to the line. He hit both free throws to pull Dallas within 90-92 with 4 minutes left. Westbrook missed inside, but got the rebound and called timeout. Durant drove left and hit the tough short shot with 3:40 to go. The teams traded misses and there was 3 minutes remaining. Terry's 3-point attempt was just off, but on the other end Harden drove and fumbled the ball away with 2:25 left and Dallas called timeout (down 90-94). Dallas got the ball to Marion in the post and he hit the short flip shot. Durant missed, but Westbrook was fouled on the rebound (but Dallas was not in the penalty). Westbrook went to pass inside to Collison, but Nowitzki knocked the pass away with 1:20 to go. Dallas nearly lost the ball twice and Nowitzki missed a 3-pointer, but Westbrook wasn't able to control the rebound and Terry picked up the lose ball, tossed it to Kidd, who pass to Nowitzki, who swished the straight up 3-pointer to give Dallas a 95-94 lead with 1:15 left and Oklahoma City called timeout. Maynor missed a 12-foot jumper with 55 seconds remaining, Collison got the rebound as he was heading out of bounds and simply threw the ball back and Terry jumped high tipped the ball to Marion and he breaked the other way (with Terry setting a small screen on Durant) and Marion got the dunk and Durant fouled him from behind (dumb foul). Marion hit the extra free throw to give Dallas a 98-94 lead with 50 seconds to go. Westbrook was fouled driving and hit both free throws with 40 seconds remaining and Dallas called timeout. Dallas ran some time off the clock and Nowitzki missed a short jumper with 18 seconds left, but Marion and Collison tapped the rebound out and Kidd grabbed the ball and passed to Nowitzki, who was intentionally fouled. He hit both free throws to push Dallas' lead back to 4 points with 13 seconds left and Oklahoma City called their last timeout. Durant missed a 3-pointer, Westbrook rebounded, and Harden missed a 3-pointer and Marion got the rebound and that was game. Dallas won 100-96. Dallas takes the series 4-1 and advances the NBA Finals!!! We're going to the Finals! We're going to the Finals! Okay, I'm still giddy and have a huge grin on my face with that thought. It will be only Dallas' second trip to the Finals (2006) and they will face the winner of the Chicago-Miami series [with it likely being Miami as they currently [Friday afternoon] have a 3-1 edge in the series, and that series deficit has only been overcome a few times in the history of the league - which would make it a rematch of the 2006 series where Dallas lost to Miami 4-2 (losing the last 4 games); but only Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Dwyane Wade, and Udonis Haslem from the series remain with their teams]. The East will have homecourt advantage as Chicago had the best record in the league and Miami had 58 wins while Dallas had 57 wins and it is a 2-3-2 series (2 on the road, 3 in Dallas, 2 on the road). If Miami wins the series tonight, the Finals will start Tuesday (with Game 3 in Dallas on Sunday), else the Finals will start next Thursday (June 2) (with Game 3 in Dallas on June 7). With another extended break between series, it does give Dallas a chance for rest for their older players (read, 38 year old Jason Kidd) before getting back to action. But, we're going to the Finals, we're going to the Finals! After the win, the team was presented the Western Conference Championship trophy. The fans stayed and celebrated, but it was more for the fact of going to the finals than the trophy and no streamers came down from the ceiling as this was not the goal - even the shirts and caps handed out to the players for the ceremony didn't say "Western Conference Champs", but "2011 Finals". In fact, after the trophy was presented, Dirk Nowitzki soon left the court and the other players shortly followed him - ESPN announcer Doris Burke finished her interview with coach Rick Carlisle and went looking for another player to interview, but found that they had all left. So the Mavs will enjoy this win for a day (the players were given today off) and then focus on the next round. Where we're going to the Finals!!! As for the game, it was another Dallas comeback in the 4th where Oklahoma City simply could not execute down the stretch - a 17-6 Dallas run to close the game over the last 5:30 of the game (or 14-4 run over the last 4:30 (but most are reporting the 17-6 as that corresponds with the 17-2 run to end the 4th of Game 4)). Dallas' veteran leadership and ability to execute got the team this win, while Oklahoma City again struggled late in the game and committed 5 turnovers during the last 5:30 (they had 7 turnovers in the 4th on which Dallas scored 11 points). Dallas won purely thanks to the 4th quarter where they out-scored Oklahoma City 28-20. I know that Thunder fans will look at free throws in the quarter where Dallas shot 11-13 FT while Oklahoma City shot 3-4 FT, but the Thunder got into the penalty with 4:45 left and it was really the turnovers that killed them. And it was just the 4th quarter that they had turnover problems as they had just 6 turnovers through 3 quarters - but Dallas made them pay from almost all of those turnovers as the Mavs scored 21 points off of Oklahoma City's 13 turnovers. Where as Dallas had 12 turnovers and Oklahoma City scored just 8 points on them. For the game, Dallas shot 41% (32-78) FG including just 5-20 3-pointers and Oklahoma City shot 42.7% (35-82) FG including 5-16 3-pointers. Dallas shot 31-36 FT and Oklahoma City shot 21-25 FT. Oklahoma City had a 49-44 rebounding edge, but just a 15-14 offensive edge (as a Mav fan, it seemed like the offensive rebounding edge was larger, but 6 of Dallas' offensive rebounds came in the 4th quarter). Dallas had 19 assists and Oklahoma City had just 16 assists. There were 10 lead changes and 3 ties in the game, though Oklahoma City led most of the game after the 1st quarter - but the game did stay close as their largest lead was just 8 points (a number of times). And the series stayed close as well as all 5 games were decided by less than 10 points. Shawn Marion had a stellar game on both ends of the floor. At times he guarded Kevin Durant and at times he guarded Russell Westbrook - though both scored lots of points, neither had a stellar game. And Marion tied Dirk Nowitzki for the Mavs team high with 26 points. Marion shot 10-17 FG and 6-7 FT and had 8 rebounds (including 3 offensive) and 3 blocks in 40 minutes. 14 of his points came in the 4th quarter. Nowitzki also played 40 minutes and had 9 rebounds, but also 5 turnovers - but his lead-giving 3-pointer is what will be remembered from this game. 9 of his 26 points came in the 4th quarter. The game changed for the better once Dallas brought Tyson Chandler (despite his foul problems) back in the game midway through the 4th quarter as Oklahoma City continued to play small-ball. The Thunder continued to attack the basket with their quick lineup, but Chandler's presence helped them miss some shots. Chandler had 9 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks before fouling out with 40 seconds left in the game (and the Mavs stayed large in subbing in Brendan Haywood for Chandler). Jason Kidd's shot was off in this game, but he had some key rebounds and passes. He had 2 points on 1-7 FG and 0-3 3-pointers to go with 7 rebounds and 10 assists - and he had just 1 turnover for a great assist-to-turnover ratio. Jason Terry's shot still wasn't great (he missed the 3 shots he attempted in the 4th), but the defense had too stay on him and he was active defensively. Terry had 12 points including 3-9 FG. J.J. Barea gave a nice boost to the Mavs in the 1st half where he scored 11 of his 14 points, in getting some of his layups and a 3-pointer. He also had 5 assists and ran down 4 rebounds in 22 minutes. DeShawn Stevenson had a poor outing in attempting too many shots (though Oklahoma City was giving them to him) in missing all 7 he attempted including 5 3-point attempts - hard to believe that he shot 38% 3-pointers during the regular season with some of the struggles he's had in this series (take out his 2-3 3-pointers in game 3 and he shot 3-18 3-pointers in the other 4 games). Haywood was in the game for Chandler when he had foul problems (and when Dallas wasn't going small ball) and he was active and had 7 points on 1-1 FG and 5-6 FT (always a great sign when Brendan is hitting his free throws - he shot just 36% FT during the regular season). Peja Stojakovic didn't have his touch again in shooting 1-4 3-pointers (his only attempts) and had 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 1 steal in 9 minutes. For the 3rd straight game, Dallas and Oklahoma City both went with a 9-man rotation. Russell Westbrook's 31 points looks impressive until you see that he took 28 shots - that's a lot of shots. He shot 11-28 FG (missed 3 3-point attempts) and 9-9 FT and also had 8 rebounds including 4 offensive, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers - but 2 of those turnovers came in the 4th quarter. 6 of Westbrook's points came in the 4th quarter Kevin Durant had 23 points, but shot 8-20 FG. He also had 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers. 7 of his points came in the 4th quarter. James Harden had a strong outing with 23 points off the bench on 7-11 FG and 8-10 FT. He also had 5 rebounds and a team high 6 assists. 5 of his points came in the 4th quarter as those 3 scored 18 of Oklahoma City's 20 4th quarter points. Nick Collison was again a force in the game with his defense and rebounding. And this game he had a bit of offense. He had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds including 6 offensive in 38 minutes. And those 4 players scored all but 7 of Oklahoma City's 96 points. And those 4 also played all 12 minutes in the 4th, with Eric Maynor being the 5th 4th quarter player (with Daequan Cook getting in for the last 13 seconds of the game). But Maynor missed all 3 shots he attempted in the 4th and had 1 assist, 2 turnovers, and 4 fouls in the 4th. For the game, Maynor had 5 points on 2-6 FG and 1 assist in 21 minutes. Starter Serge Ibaka only played 3 minutes in the 2nd half. He shot 1-6 FG for 2 points and had 3 rebounds and 4 fouls in 14 minutes. Starters Kendrick Perkins and Thabo Sefolosha did not play in the 4th quarter. And neither scored in the game, with Perkins missing 2 shots in 28 minutes and Sefolosha not attempting a shot in 14 minutes. Perkins had 8 rebounds and Sefolosha had 2 rebounds. Cook played 4 minutes and had a rebound for his only stat. Quotes Rick Carlisle: "Well, you know, Oklahoma City is a great young team. They played with unbelievable fight and spirit. I mean, the game tonight, all the games I've been involved with over the years in the playoffs, this is as hard a game as I've ever been involved with, just because of some of the adjustments they made, how they attacked. Psychologically, there was stuff that could have gotten us down, but our guys stayed with it. And their time will come, but it's not now. We feel like now is our time to move on. This is a great moment, but we've got a lot of work left to do." Carlisle on the comeback: "Well, we had to stay patient and disciplined. You know, Westbrook kept flying at the rim. Durant kept throwing in shots. You know, there were a lot of plays that could have been deflating plays. But all year long we've kept playing. Game 4, same thing - we kept playing. And tonight, you know, coming home and everything, it looks like it's tailor made, you know, just go out there and get the crowd behind you. But Oklahoma City had other ideas, and they played a great game. That franchise is set up for a lot of long playoff runs. But I'm proud of the way our guys hung in." Carlisle: "Yeah, Shawn Marion the last 3 games was - as great as Dirk has been and all the talk about what he did in the last game, Shawn's defense in all 3 games. And then tonight the plays he made at the end of the game to finish - the foul, making the free throw - that gave us enough breathing room and it took a little bit of the wind out of their sails because they were really going. You know, Shawn is a guy that has had such an underrated career. If you look at his stats for his career, you know, he's top 5 in almost every Phoenix Suns category. He's top 2 or 3 in most. He's been a franchise type player for a lot of years. And when he came here, our team was built differently than the run-and-gun Suns. He had brief stints in Toronto and Miami, but there was some frustration the first year, and he really had to reinvent his game to some degree to figure out the way he was going to fit in with us. I give him a lot of credit. You know, he's proven right now to everybody that he's about one thing, and that's winning. He's an integral part of what we're doing. He's one of our stars." Carlisle on OKC going small: "Well, you know, it was very challenging with all the matchups and the quickness. We went small for a while. We were having success getting shots, but we had no rim coverage and we were struggling to get rebounds. So we went back big and basically went with the finishing group that has been pretty much our closing team most of the year. And those guys delivered stops, and they were resourceful finding ways to get the ball in the basket. You know, sometimes you don't know exactly how the points are going to come. But with us, when we get the stops and the ball keeps moving, good things happen." Carlisle: "Yeah, Kidd, he's one of our superstars. It's as simple as that. When he's on the court, it just elevates our overall confidence and then he impacts so many areas. You know, in the huddles, talking about things that we're anticipating, things that he's anticipating, keeping guys engaged that way. You know, he's always calm, collected. His eyes are completely focused on the task at hand. You know, again, you're talking about a guy that's one of the greatest ever to play. The plays he made at the end, just knowing who to find when, getting hands on balls, all that kind of stuff, he makes it look easy. He makes it look second nature. But it's more difficult than that." Carlisle on Nowitzki's 2nd trip to the Finals: "Well, Dirk I know is excited. Look, this is what our season has been about. It's been about advancing and getting an opportunity for a title, because it's the one thing that he and Jason [Kidd] haven't done, and Jason Terry and Shawn Marion and Stojakovic - we've got some guys with some very decorated careers here that have taken on different types of roles on a team that's building a strength in numbers type team. It's exciting, but my sense is we're very grounded. We'll enjoy this moment for a day, watch the game tomorrow night, and see where things are. We have a lot of work left to do." Dirk Nowitzki: "Well, I thought they played a small lineup there a lot and really tried to junk the game up. We had trouble finding them. They killed us on transition all night. We have to give them credit - they played a heck of a [series], they left it all out there today. We just had to get some stops down the stretch. Finally got away with a little zone, a little man-to-man, and got some stops. That was big." Nowitzki on his 3-pointer: "I had a great look on that out-of-bounds play. JET set a good down-pick, I was open. It felt actually good leaving my hands. But the guys did a great job of getting to the loose ball. I said it was now or never, we got to go for it, and I was able to knock it down." Nowitzki on Marion: "Well we feel like he's our best perimeter defender. He's long, he's active. He's been doing it in this league for a long time. He had a big basket tonight down the stretch, when we were down 4, on the post-up. So he's a versatile offensive player. And our bench really came through tonight." Nowitzki: "Yeah, it was a great win. It feels good too finally go back [to the Finals]. I think we tried to go back the last couple years and always fell short - 1st round, 2nd round once - and it feels good to go back. But this time hopefully we can finish the job and we'll go from there." Nowitzki on the comeback: "Yeah, just execution down the stretch. I think we had some good steals, got some good rebounds, and we had some lucky bounces. One time the ball was in the air, it was up for grabs and it was a 1 point game. We were lucky to get out of there and run down. Trix [Marion] had a dunk, and I wanted to go up 4. So down the stretch a couple lucky bounces, also some good defense, some good hands - and I think that's what we did in Game 4, really scrambling last couple minutes when we were down 15, really locking down and guys helping each other and scrambling for each other, and that's how we've been winning all year. If our defense is solid, we create points off of that, and we pick up the pace, get the ball into Kidd's hands, and that's how we want to play." Nowitzki on Marion: "He was spectacular for us. For us he's probably our best perimeter defender, and he's long, he's active with his hands, and he was phenomenal the last couple games, really trying to make it hard. Durant - who's one of the best scorers in this world right now - just trying to contest every shot and make it hard on him. And on the other end [Marion is] versatile. We post him up some. He had a big basket there when we were down 4 with a couple minutes left. He had a little floor to the lane in the 4th quarter and he's a competitor. So he's a big reason why we're in the Finals again." Nowitzki on the opponent in the Finals: "Well, whatever happens, happens. That's not in our hands right now. We made it to the Finals. We're happy about that. We're going to enjoy that for a day or 2, and then we're probably going to know here pretty soon who it is, and we're going to prepare like we have in the first 3 series and do our homework and then get ready to play. But it's good to finish this series off early. Like I said, it was big for us to get Kidd rest after last series, and we're going to have a couple extra days here again and then be ready whoever comes through." Nowitzki on Dallas' return to the Finals: "Yeah, it's been a long stretch here. After the year we lost in the Finals, we came back, won almost 70 games, had a great season, lost in the 1st round, and that was another tough one. Been trying to get back to this stage ever since and fell short a bunch of times. But yeah, this is a bunch of veterans who want to play and are unselfish. I think that's what makes this group special, I mean, everybody sacrificing for each other, and we just want to win. It's been fun to play with these guys all season long, so hopefully we can have a great series in the next series." Nowitzki on if he was into the Western Conference trophy presentation: "Not really. We talked about it obviously after the game that this is a great moment. We can enjoy it for a day, but we got one of those trophies already, and it didn't mean anything at the end. I think once you get to the Finals there is no 2nd place finish. I was already thinking about the Finals and got to stay in the moment obviously. But yeah, like I said, this is nice for a day, but we said our goal in October was to win it all, so we haven't done that yet" Nowitzki on his game: "Yeah, I thought they did a good job actually after Game 1 of limiting my touches on the low post. Game 1, I basically made a living catching the ball in the low post facing up and shooting over them, and they really took that away the last couple games. Every time I was low post, they brought the weak-side center over and kind of flooded the strong-side and never really had good catches in the low post the rest of the games. Same tonight. Didn't really have a lot of good catches there, clean catches early. But like I said, I've got to keep attacking for this team and got to the foul line there twice I think in the 4th quarter, which was big. And then I had some good bounces. I missed a wide open 3, which actually JET set a heck of a screen. I was so wide open and missed that 3 and I said if I get any daylight on the next look, I'm going to let it go again. And we were able to get our hands on the ball and tip it out and got a good look there and was able to make it, so that was definitely a big shot. Like I said, for this team I've got to keep attacking and keep being aggressive." Nowitzki on the comebacks: "Well, again, that comes with experience, I think, from playing with each other for a while now, and then we've got Jason Kidd, who has obviously seen all in this league, who is one of the greatest leaders on this team, always seems to make the right play down the stretch - if it's a steal, if it's a big rebound, just get his hand on the ball, a deflection on the offensive end getting the ball in the right guy's hands. And even the last game, I kicked it out to him, he made a heck of a 3 there, pump faked, got Westbrook in there and knocked down a big 3 for us to even be in a position today to close it out. So I give all the credit to him, and it's good for him to get a couple days off and hopefully be ready in the Finals." Jason Terry on the comeback: "It goes to our veteran leadership, our experience, us being in every possible situation we could possibly be in. We know what we're going through offensively and defensively. We know we have to get stops and we're able to do that. When you have that belief and that trust in what you're doing it's just a confidence and more times than not you're going to be successful." Terry: "Everyone knows what this next step means. Everybody knows when you wear a Dallas Mavericks uniform, certain things come along with it. ... As long as you keep talking about [the 2006 Miami series], it's going to hang over us. Me, Dirk, Mark Cuban, Darrell Armstrong [now an assistant coach, then a player], we sleep with it every night." Terry: "If you look to a man this team is better than it was in 2006. To a man. The whole makeup. The chemistry, just all together. ... Just look at the point guard on that team. It was me. Look at the point guard on this team: Jason Kidd. Big difference. All the stars have to line up for you to win it all. They're in place right now. It's just on us now to go out and finish the job." Terry on the Finals: "It doesn't matter who we play. Whoever shows up in those uniforms, they know they're going to have a fight on their hands because we're going to go out and we're going to leave it all out on the floor. We know what happened last time, and it's our job to seal the deal." Jason Kidd on the break before the Finals start: "Any time you can get rest this time of year is a bonus. For us to close it out here is huge." Kidd on the comebacks: "Everybody's calm. The crowd might be a little uneasy, especially when we're at home, but the guys don't panic." Shawn Marion on going to the Finals: "Lots of guys never go, so I'm going to make the best of it. We knew what we were capable of from the start of the season. This is a realization of that." Marion on the comeback: "We just kept our poise at all times. It seemed like we never got rattled and just chipped away and chipped away." J.J. Barea's on Nowitzki's and Terry's (who went through the 2006 Finals) reaction to the win: "I know those guys really wanted to get here again [to the Finals]. We waited for 5 years. You could tell with Dirk he doesn't even want to celebrate. He's ready to go. And Jason kept saying we got to win 4 more. Those 2 won't celebrate tonight." Brendan Haywood on Kidd's rebound with 16 seconds left: "Kidd's rebound was huge. It was one of the biggest plays of the game. It won't be on any highlights, but it was very big." Haywood on his free throw shooting: "I put a lot of work in. I had my guy come back from D.C. to work with me and things have really worked well the last couple of games. I'm felling a little bit more confident up there." Peja Stojakovic on going to the Finals: "You don't understand how hard it is to get to this point. These opportunities don't come up in your career as much as you want." Scott Brooks: "I thought that was a heck of a basketball game. That's what you want. We wanted this game to be a tough, physical game, and it was. I'm proud of our guys. They battled for the entire 48 minutes. We came up short. It's unfortunate, but I have nothing but praise for our team. They battled. I give Dallas a lot of credit. They're a very good basketball team. Rick Carlisle is a heck of a coach. Their staff is - Dwane [Casey], Terry [Stotts], Coach Heard, one of the best coaches of all time, great organization. We're not ashamed at how we played. We fought through every game. We gave ourselves a chance to win. We came up short a few games, but I thought they deserve a lot of credit. They played great basketball. They're a heck of a team." Brooks on playing after the tough Game 4 loss: "There's nothing about going into this game that I was fearful of. I knew our guys would leave everything they had on the floor, and that's what they do. That's how they're wired. That's how they're built. They love the game. They respect what the game is about. They respect what we have to go through as an organization, as a team, and they work through it every single day. As the coach of this team, I couldn't ask for 15 men better than what they've shown me all year. They're committed to the game. They're committed to each other. That was a tough loss, our last home game, no question. We had a lot of things that we could have done better, but they never got down. They never used any of the things that did not go our way as an excuse. They came out focused. I really believe that started from our shoot around this morning." Brooks on not getting breaks down the stretch: "Yeah. Sometimes those are the breaks of the game. You make a shot that keeps the momentum going. You miss a shot, they get an opportunity and get out and run. It was a heck of a ballgame. They battled just as hard as we battled. Unfortunately, somebody has to lose this game - but I can't complain with anything that we did. We fought for 48 minutes. We played tough for 48 minutes. We played together and we played for each other for 48 minutes, and that's what basketball teams do, and we're a heck of a basketball team." Brooks on going small in the 4th: "I knew that we had, in order to beat this team, we had to keep moving their feet and we put as much quickness on the floor as possible. And I thought it gave us a chance to win this game. It's a smaller lineup, but with Kevin as a forward - he's 6-11 - so it's really not that small of a lineup. And Russell is as athletic as any guard in this league. But I thought the lineup gave us quickness and it gave us a chance to really drive by them and create opportunity towards the basket, and we were looking to get opportunities to use our speed and use our quickness to get around the rim and get some fouls." Brooks on not being able to hold the lead late in the game: "Well, that's something that you don't want to turn the ball over. We want to do a better job of taking care of the ball. 2 years ago or 3 years ago we led the league in turnovers, and every year they've gotten better, and that's what we want to continue to do as a team. Some games they sneak up on you. Unfortunately, we had - I didn't realize we had 7 [turnovers in the 4th]. I thought we had like 5. But we always want to get a shot on the basket at all times, and with the 7 turnovers, those are tough. But like I said, we still had our chance, we still had our chances to win the game." Kevin Durant on losing the series compared to the past playoff losses: "It's a different feeling. To be honest, all of us expected to go far. We had high expectations for ourselves coming into this year, and we knew we worked hard enough. You know, after a good 1st round, hard fought 2nd round, we put ourselves in good position to fight for a Finals appearance and thought we had a good chance. It's kind of shocking that our season is over with, you know what I mean? But we fought hard all season. I tried to keep it positive and tell the guys, hey, we had a great year. Collectively we've got to keep working." Durant on Westbrook: "He was great. He was great all year. He's been a guy that we rely on to be a good point guard, but he scores the basketball very well, gets to the rim, shoot the pull-up, does a lot of things. It's kind of frustrating to see how much criticism he's been taking because he led us by playing the way he's playing now the whole season. That's what made him an All Star 2nd team while in the NBA. It kind of baffles me that people just start to criticize him because he's playing like that now. That's how he's been playing the whole season. He got us here as our point guard, and we leaned on him for that. I thought it wasn't fair. But I can't control that. He can't control that. But the one thing about Russell is he kept playing his game all season no matter what people said, and he did a great job, man. I was proud of how he kept his composure and never let things get to him and led us and was one of our leaders on this team. He's been great all season. He deserves everything he's getting as far as accolades, and he had a great year." Durant on the last few minutes: "I think that we got good looks. We got good looks, got to the rim a few times. I think we made a lot of hustle plays. There was a few plays where the guy threw the ball up in the air and, I think, Shawn Marion grabbed it for a fast break layup. He got a dunk and they got an offensive rebound. So there was a lot of crazy plays that happened this game - last game too, with Dirk hitting those shots and turnovers - but we can learn from everything. It's tough now, but we can learn from it. Like I've been saying, always try to stay positive with everyone and just learn from this. You know, the only way to get better is to keep pushing, man. That's all I can say." Durant: "Every series for us has been physical and fun and hard fought. But you know, this time we didn't end up on top. For me it's a great experience. I've just got to keep moving on and keep pushing." Durant on Nowitzki reaching the Finals: "I'm not happy at all. I'm a competitor, man. I really didn't care about what he went through last 3 or 4 years. I know it's been tough for him. He lost 3 of the first 4 years in the 1st round. I'm sure he's happy now he's going back to the Finals, but I'm not happy for him at all because I wanted to be there. But it happens like that." James Harden on losing the series: "You know, it's tough. We let our last 2 games slip away. We had leads going late into the 4th quarter, and we couldn't grasp it. We had a great season. We worked so hard during the regular season and then had to battle through adversity early in the playoffs. You know, we just had a great season." Harden on going small in the 4th: "Yeah, we wanted to attack. You know, that lineup, you have Eric [Maynor] and Russell and me and Kevin and Nick [Collison], our 4 guards can attack the basket and create for one another. So we just tried to use that lineup, and then just rebound and go. But trying something new, it was working for us. Like I said, we just couldn't get stops, and Dirk hit that big 3 to get the lead. But other than that I thought we fought hard." Harden on the last 2 loses: "There's no excuse. You know, we had 2 opportunities, 2 great opportunities with leads at home and on the road. We just have to close those games out. We've been in so many situations throughout this year, and even in the playoffs, to where we should have closed the game out. There's no excuse. Like I said, we just have to be better going into next year and just know." Kendrick Perkins on Dallas: "They didn't sweep the Lakers for no reason. They're a good team." Perkins: "We came out expecting to win today. One thing I told our guys before we ran out there, if we're going down, we're going down fighting. We did that. Every guy gave 100%." Perkins: "A couple times this postseason we lost our composure. It's nothing about our talent, it's nothing about our togetherness." Eric Maynor on his shot with a minute left: "Had a chance to make a basket and missed it. It happens." 2011 Playoffs - Western Conference Finals: Game 5 Dallas Mavericks 100, Oklahoma City Thunder 96 at Dallas (May 25) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Dallas 26 26 20 28 - 100 .466 .250 .410 .861 Oklahoma City 27 28 21 20 - 96 .455 .313 .427 .840 Halftime: Oklahoma City 55-52 3rd Q: Oklahoma City 76-72 Technicals: Oklahoma City defensive 3 seconds 7:16 1st, Russell Westbrook 4:38 3rd Refs: Monty McCutchen, Jason Phillips, Derrick Stafford Attendance: 21,092 (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 40 10-17 0-1 6-7 26 3-8 3 2 1 1 3 Dirk Nowitzki 40 8-15 1-2 9-9 26 2-9 0 5 1 2 0 Tyson Chandler 24 3-7 0-0 3-3 9 3-9 0 2 6 0 2 DeShawn Stevenson 25 0-7 0-5 1-2 1 0-2 0 0 1 1 0 Jason Kidd 34 1-7 0-3 0-0 2 4-7 10 1 0 1 0 Peja Stojakovic 9 1-4 1-4 0-0 3 0-1 1 0 0 1 0 Jason Terry 31 3-9 2-3 4-5 12 0-1 0 2 4 1 0 Brendan Haywood 16 1-1 0-0 5-6 7 1-3 0 0 4 0 0 J.J. Barea 22 5-11 1-2 3-4 14 1-4 5 0 0 1 0 Totals 48 32-78 5-20 31-36 100 14-44 19 12 17 8 5 Oklahoma City Thunder REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Kevin Durant 43 8-20 3-5 4-6 23 1-9 2 3 4 2 1 Serge Ibaka 14 1-6 0-0 0-0 2 1-3 0 0 4 0 1 Kendrick Perkins 28 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2-8 1 2 2 0 1 Thabo Sefolosha 14 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 0 2 0 1 Russell Westbrook 44 11-28 0-3 9-9 31 4-8 5 3 2 2 1 Nick Collison 38 6-9 0-0 0-0 12 6-12 1 1 5 2 2 James Harden 34 7-11 1-5 8-10 23 1-5 6 2 1 1 0 Eric Maynor 21 2-6 1-3 0-0 5 0-1 1 2 4 0 0 Daequan Cook 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 35-82 5-16 21-25 96 15-49 16 13 24 7 7 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