Almost always when a team in the NBA has a 15 point lead with less than 5 minutes to go the game is over. Somebody forgot to tell the Mavericks that as they made an improbable comeback to force overtime where they prevailed, beating the Thunder 112-105 to take a resounding 3-1 series lead.
For over 3 and a half quarters the Mavs were being totally outplayed, being destroyed on the boards and allowing OKC to shoot over 50% from the field. From that point on the Mavs turned on the defensive screws and went to who else but Dirk on offense who turned yet again another amazing performance. Dirk scored 12 of his 40 points in the Mavs 17-2 run to close regulation, hitting tough shots and 2 free throws to tie the game with 6 seconds to go. After that all the Thunder could muster was a 30 footer by Kevin Durant which was blocked by Shawn Marion who played tremendous defense on Durant during the stretch.
After never leading in regulation the Mavs never trailed in overtime taking the lead on a Jason Kidd 3 with 40 seconds left. Kidd has another tremendous outing filled with clutch plays to go along 17 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. Also giving a major contribution for Dallas was Jason Terry who contributed 20 points off the bench.
The Thunder were led by Durant who had 29 points and 15 rebounds but had 9 turnovers and struggled down the stretch. Also struggling in crunch time was Russell Westbrook who 19 points, 8 boards and 8 assists, but was just 7-22 from the field and had 6 of the Thunder's 25 turnovers.
The Mavs were able to take the game despite being totally dominated on the boards , getting outrebounded 55-33 for the game. Thankfully Dallas was able to clean up the defensive glass late leading to the amazing comeback.
For the Mavericks it was just another incredible playoff performance in a postseason that so far erased a lot of past demons and shown that no matter the final outcome this team truly has the heart of a champion.
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