Dallas Mavericks guard Deron Williams (8) drives to the basket around Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) during the first half of Game 1 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Saturday, April 16, 2016, in…
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Russell Westbrook had 24 points and 11 assists, Kevin Durant added 23 points, and the Thunder overwhelmed the Mavericks 108-70, opening the Western Conference series with their most dominant postseason performance since moving to Oklahoma City.
When Game 2 tips off Monday evening at 8 p.m. ET (on TNT), the Thunder should be focused on trying to deal another crippling blow to the Mavericks’ psyche before the scene shifts to Dallas for Games 3 and 4.
The Dallas Mavericks have limped into the playoffs again, unable to secure a spot without a Dirk Nowitzki throwback to his younger days in a much-needed game at the end of the season.
Durant returned healthy this season and averaged 28.2 points per game, yet Westbrook still elevated his game. We’ve got to play harder, we’ve got to play better. The biggest problem, and what will likely tip the series and is why the Thunder are so heavily favored, is that the Thunder are simply far more talented than the Mavericks.
Dallas – despite coming into the season as a team that very few expected to make the playoffs – finished the season with a 42-40 record, good enough for sixth place in the Western Conference and a third consecutive postseason appearance, and they couldn’t have done it without Nowitzki.
“The game will tell you what to do”, he said.
Durant’s pull-up three on the break pushed the lead out to 21 about midway through the second quarter and it only got worse for the Mavericks as others like Serge Ibaka also knocked one down in transition and Westbrook contributed one of his own as well.
“A lot of times in college, every game’s a game seven”. I don’t think it was something where it was just tight. Thunder coach Billy Donovan said he never anxious about whether Westbrook would be willing to share the ball after winning the scoring title. We’ll have more information tomorrow. “We came out and missed a couple shots and had a couple of turnovers, so obviously we got to have a better start to the game”.
In what was one of the most historic National Basketball Association seasons of recent memory, it’s time now to discuss a team that wasn’t quite included in the hype: the Oklahoma City Thunder. The two All-Stars took 222 (69 percent) of the Thunder’s 320 shots in clutch situations. He will also go down in history as the best player in Mavericks franchise history.
“We did a good job sticking to the game plan”, Thunder center Steven Adams said, per the team’s official Twitter account. But if they commit to Dirk at the 5 and the big man can give them way more than his fair share of minutes, the Mavs have a chance to push the pace on San Antonio and beat them in seven games.
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Barea clearly wasn’t at full strength in the first half and the head coach thinks he aggravated the injury.
