So Durant texted Anderson after the game and apologized.
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After Dallas Coach Rick Carlisle called out Durant while complaining during the off day over what he essentially said were dirty plays by the Thunder in Game 3, the teams had a confrontation in front of the Oklahoma City bench early in the second quarter. I know he has his issues on the defense side of the ball, but the combination of him and Westbrook on the pick and roll is just attractive.
Meanwhile, the Thunder will be satisfied with their win on Saturday because it means that they are now just one win away from advancing to the second round. Russell Westbrook had 25 points and 15 assists, and Kevin Durant finished with 19 points on seven-for-20 shooting.
Through four games, the Thunder has a plus-77 point differential over the Mavericks.
In Portland, the Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Clippers 96-88 to improve to 2-1 behind in the Western Conference first-round series with Damian Lillard scoring 32 points and C J McCollum adding 27 points for Portland. Dirk shot well from the field, but the majority of his shots are long, contested 2s, something the Thunder will be happy to give up in lieu of the open 3.
Jonas Valanciunas led Toronto with 16 points, and Kyle Lowry and former Missouri standout DeMarre Carroll each had 12. DeRozan also had six turnovers to accompany his 8-point effort.
Should we take double-teams out? “So I think that’s penalty enough”.
If there’s one thing Thunder fans are going to remember about this series, it’s just how gritty the whole thing has turned out to be. The Golden State Warriors just won the most games in a single season by a team in the history of the league after FiveThirtyEight ranked last season’s version as the fourth-best team ever by one measure. Regardless, he and Dion Waiters (12 points on 4-of-5 FG) have been tremendous in Games 3 and 4, combining for 80 points on 29-of-38 shooting. The Grizzlies will have to bring their A-game if they want to stick around.
The Thunder will have a chance to finish things up on Monday night at 7 p.m., but before we move forward, let’s look back on a few notable things from Saturday night’s Thunder win. The talk of these playoffs was that Westbrook was hurting the team with poor decision making and Durant had saved them. (See exhibit A: Harden, James).
But despite the fireworks, the Clippers still lead the series and could take a commanding 3-1 advantage with a road win.
At 37 years of age Dirk Nowitzki is still the best player on the Mavericks.
The Thunder have continuously blown large, third quarter leads this season as well. The 11-year veteran aggravated his strained left abdominal muscle less than a minute into Game 4 and didn’t make the trip to Oklahoma City.
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Since the summit of Nowitzki’s spectacular career, the 2011 title run when he was the world’s best player for two magical months, the Mavs have failed to get out of the first round.
