Mavericks avoid collapse, beat Thunder 93-87; Lead West Finals 2-1

Mavericks-Thunder notebook
By Randy Renner, for NBA.com
Posted Sunday May 22, 2011

DAL:  27 | 25 | 18 | 23 | 93

                                             F

OKC: 12 | 24 | 20 | 31 | 87

THE FACTS: The Dallas Mavericks jumped out to a 35-12 lead early in the second quarter then held on for dear life as the Oklahoma City Thunder cut that 23-point margin down to just four late in the game. Earlier in the playoffs the Mavs blew a 23-point lead at Portland and went on to lose the game but they held on in OKC to take Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals 93-87. Neither Thunder All-Star Kevin Durant (24 points on 7-for-22 shooting) nor Mavericks All-Star Dirk Nowitzki (18 points on 7-for-21) had particularly good nights.

The Thunder were 0-for-16 on 3-pointers, a playoff record for futility, before Russell Westbrook dropped one in from beyond the arc in the last minute. Oklahoma City outscored Dallas 51-41 in the second half but it wasn't enough. Nowitzki and Shawn Marion led the Mavs with 18 points. Jason Kidd and Jason Terry added 13. Center Tyson Chandler came up big with 15 rebounds, six on the offensive end. Westbrook led the Thunder with 30 points and Durant added 24 and pulled down 12 rebounds but no one else in a home uniform scored in double figures.

QUOTABLE: "We were much better defensively tonight and we had to be. The first two games we were horrible. Now the challenge is to sustain it."
-- Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle.

QUOTABLE II: "They did a great job from the start with their defensive pressure, they took us out of our sets and got us playing on our heels. They were very physical, pushed us off our spots. But our guys fought back to make a game of it."
-- Thunder head coach Scott Brooks.

THE STAT: Over the last two games Durant is 0-for-13 on 3-pointers.

QUOTABLE III: "It's not like me to miss 13 threes in a row. I practice them every day. I got some wide open looks they just didn't fall."
-- Durant.

TURNING POINT: It's hard to say the turning point wasn't the big start the Mavs got but after a 23-point advantage had evaporated down to just six with 3:20 left in the game Oklahoma City missed three consecutive 3-point attempts one each by Westbrook, James Harden and Daequan Cook and turned the ball over during the next two minutes. The Thunder cut the lead to four but could not get any closer.

QUOTABLE IV: "Russell's three might have been an opportunity for him to attack, his attack game was really working so he maybe should have done that instead, but the other threes were wide open. When you shoot 1-for-17 on 3-pointers it's not good."-- Brooks.

HOT: In the first nine minutes of the game Dallas was 9-for-17 (52.9 percent) including 3-for-4 (75 percent) on 3-pointers and had scored 21 points...in the first half the Mavs were 21-for-40 (52.5 percent)...Marion had 12 points in the first 24 minutes on 6-for-8 shooting...The Dallas bench was a combined 7-for-18 (38.9 percent) for 20 points...Also in the first half the Thunder were hot at the line going 16-for-17 (94.1 percent)...Through three quarters Marion had scored 16 points on 8-for-11 shooting...OKC ended the game shooting 32-for-36 (88.9 percent) from the free throw line...

not: Oklahoma City got off to a terrible shooting start in the first nine minutes of the game they were just 2-for-12 (16.7 percent) and had scored only eight points...OKC finished the quarter with just 12 points, their worst first quarter of the season. The Thunder were just 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) and 0-for-5 on 3-pointers...At halftime OKC had just 36 points (a season low) on 10-for-34 shooting (29.4 percent)...Durant had 10 points on 2-for-10 shooting, including 0-for-4 on 3-pointers...Harden was 0-for-5...The Thunder bench was a combined 2-for-8 (25 percent) for five points...In the third quarter Dallas was just 6-for-21 (28.6 percent) but Oklahoma City wasn't much better, 7-for-21, (33.3 percent)...Through three quarters Durant had 15 points on just 4-for-18 (0-for-8 on 3-pointers)...Nowitzki had just eight points on 3-for-12...The Thunder hit their last 3-point attempt after missing their first 16 (5.9 percent).

INSIDE THE ARENA: A strong demand for tickets as some fans paid as much as $2,500 per seat. It was another "blue-out" as more than 18,000 blue tee-shirts were distributed to fans along with white rally towels. The pop group Hanson sang the National Anthem. The brothers are from Tulsa. NBA "Superfan" James Goldstein sat courtside along with PGA Tour star Scott Verplank. Verplank lives in the OKC suburb of Edmond.

GOOD MOVE: Mavs guard J.J. Barea driving into the lane passes underhand to center Brendan Haywood for a slam in the second quarter.

GOOD MOVE TOO: Dallas point guard Jason Kidd with a nice move coming off a pick and roll early in the third quarter gets into the lane for a wide open floater that goes in giving the Mavs a 20-point lead.

GOOD MOVE III: Mavs guard DeShawn Stevenson standing out near the three point line comes running in to grab an offensive rebound in the third quarter. He gets the ball out to Kidd who flips it back to Stevenson who has drifted back out beyond the arc and nails the three ball.

NOTABLE: Dallas has now won four straight road playoff games.

UP NEXT: Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Mavericks and Thunder is set for Monday at 8 p.m. CST inside Oklahoma City Arena. The game can be seen on ESPN.