The Mavericks accomplished something special against the Thunder.
It was a comeback for the ages by the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals as they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder to take a chokehold on the series with a 3-1 lead.
The overtime victory was one that has never been accomplished before. Over the last 15 NBA playoff seasons, when a team has been trailing by five points or more at the 5:00 minute mark of the final quarter, it's a tough hill to climb. There have been 66 teams that came back to win when down by five. The number of come-from-behind wins drops to nine when down by 10 points. No team has ever come back to win when trailing by 15, until the Mavs turned the trick.
The Thunder fell because of the "Two E's, experience and execution, as teams sometimes do in that situation. It can be difficult to cope with riding out a big lead late in a game because there is a tendency to watch the clock and allow your concentration, aggressiveness and execution, at both ends of the floor to become shoddy. That's what happened to the Thunder as it breathed life into Dallas' comeback hopes.
On the other side of the ledger and still speaking of comebacks, there have only been eight 3-1 comebacks in the history of the NBA playoffs. Listening to Kevin Durant after the loss, he sounded defeated as the Thunder will have to go on the road and win not once but twice if they are to realize the dream of winning a title.
But with the NBA historically being a league where you have to lose and sometimes have to swallow some tough losses before you ultimately scale the mountain, this loss will bring Oklahoma City some wisdom in years to come. It needs some time to marinate and sit, tearing at the pit of their stomachs, but eventually, it will make them better.
OK, here is my take on the Joakim Noah situation. Similar to the same predicament Kobe Bryant found himself in, utterances like the ones used by Noah and Bryant are unacceptable… period. Noah took his punishment and apologized for his mistake. It's surprising because Noah, as he put it, is an open-minded person. But what about the fan, apparently intoxicated with "liquid courage". Security needs to be beefed up and these guys need to be thrown out of arenas.
Having covered the NBA for 16 seasons, I'm amazed at the comments that cross the line from fans. I sometimes wonder if they were on the street and they saw a rival NBA star, would they approach him in the same manner? I doubt it. I'm all for good-natured heckling but once it gets personal and crosses the line it's time for security to step in.
