Two things to take from the Oklahoma City Thunder beating the Dallas Mavericks 119-108 to take a 3-1 lead in the series: One is Kevin Durant is a dirty player and it’s good he finally gets caught in the act.
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Durant was hit with a ,000 fine, and teammate Russell Westbrook was also fined $25K for yelling profanities at a Mavs fan sitting courtside.
Justin Anderson holds his head after being hit by Kevin Durant in the final minute of Game 4.
OKC leads the Dallas Mavericks 3-1, and will try to advance with a win at home Monday night.
Durant failed to score 20 points in a game for the first time since November 10, 2015, against the Wizards, when he left at halftime with a hamstring strain after scoring 14. The Mavericks will now attempt to stave off elimination in Game 5, hoping to learn from their previous shortcomings to force the series back to Dallas.
It’ll be interesting to see how much Coach Carlisle will turn to reserve point guard Devin Harris throughout the rest of the series, seeing he’s averaged 7.5 ppg during the four games against the Thunder while shooting over 52 percent from the field.
Mavericks point guard Deron Williams has been playing throughout a sports hernia throughout the entire postseason-until now.
Dirk Nowitzki has about 2 left in his career and he will likely spend it in Dallas, fighting for the 8th seed in the playoffs and losing in the first round to a far superior team. Oklahoma City swept a first-round series the next year.
Still, that doesn’t remove the fact that tempers are still flaring high, and the Mavs still want to win.
“When I’m out there with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, I say it every time, that I’m so much more comfortable out there because they do an incredible job, ” Kanter said.
Durant was ejected from the game after smacking Anderson in the face.
Warriors stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green paced a third-quarter three-point barrage for Golden State as Thompson finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Officials spent about six minutes reviewing the incident and chose to slap the Thunder bench with a delay of game penalty, and issued technical fouls to Mejri – who exited with a right hip injury in the fourth quarter – and Westbrook. “When a team plays us like that we have to move the ball and Russ did a great job of finding guys and we spaced the floor very well tonight”. It’s the second straight game above 50 percent after they shot 34 percent in the Game 2 loss.
“I’m not talking about that”, he said after cutting off the first question. “He plays the game the right way, and then he carries that over into the community and all the positive things he’s done here in the last nine years is just fantastic”.
Kawhi Leonard pulled the Spurs through Game 3 with another impressive playoff performance. Raymond Felton and Wesley Matthews each scored 19 points.
Mavericks: Nowitzki passed Elgin Baylor (3,623 points) for 15th on the NBA’s career playoff scoring list after passing Wilt Chamberlain (3,607) in Game 3.
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Meanwhile, Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas says he hasn’t been suspended for taking a swing at Atlanta’s Dennis Schroder during Game 3.
