Western Conference Finals: Dallas Mavericks vs Oklahoma City Thunder

He did choke. He almost missed the second one too.

 

OKC just needs to protect homecourt now, and they have a very hostile crowd for road teams.

If Westbrook keeps his mouth shut, he could probably minimize damage.

That being said if Harden starts and Westbrook comes off the bench as a sparkplug, they would be one hell of a team.

 

Here comes Dallas' true test, do they have the mental toughness to win a must-win at some point on the road?

 

Great coaching by Scottie Brooks

 

The refs didn't give Dirk 24 free throws and guess what happened? The Thunder won! Great officiating by the refs, not falling for flops like they did in game 1. Great game for Harden and Durant. I hope Westbrook learns after this game and applies it in game 3. The Thunder look very strong.

 

Dallas will get one in OKC. This series is going to be a mirror image of the grizz-thunder series

 

Absolutely great performance by OKC, their bench was outstanding. Harden must be a Sfgiants and 06 Warriors fan, he's epitomizing their slogan "FEAR THE BEARD" and Collison did a great job on Dirk, while Maynor delivered a true point guard performance.

 

A lot of Thunder fans in the arena. Did anyone else notice the "O.K.C." chants near the end?

:grin:

Oh and I know the media is going to have a field day with the Westbrook bashing tomorrow. But this is going to be so un-called for. Westbrook played and excellent game tonight.

 

why was westbrook benched?

 

Because he went out of control at the end of 3rd quarter.

Scotty patted his butt to warm it up and permanently glued it to the bench.

 

Harden and Maynor were getting things done, so it made sense to ride them out.

 

A little because he wasn't spreading the ball around enough, a lot because Maynor was playing so well.

 

Classic back in the day Rudy T. move when he first took over

Other than Dream, if you were f***'n up, you would ride the pine no matter
how big the game was

 

Westbrook was putting on his "I'm happy we won." face. I'm sure he was pretty bummed he didn't get to play in winning time.

Media pretty much hates Westbrook in these playoffs for some things that I think he has been forced to do because of Durants passiveness. Now that Westbrook was benched for almost giving away the game AND throwing a tantrum on the bench, more media will think he is a cancer and demand he be traded. *chuckle* it's going to be funny.

 

Westbrook is a great young talent, but he has "ball hog" tendancies and he didn't take the "benching" well. Got extremely angry and chattered too much on the sidelines. Good for Brooks, he sat him for the rest of the game.

 

Westbrook looks like he ready to explode..He got that "Im Russell Westbrook" attitude....Scotty dodged a bullet with the end of game strategy...

 

Harden will never be a low 12 point scorer again. He is going to take a big leap next year.

 

Their bench + Durant were rolling and Brooks went with the hot group. They were having great success with Durant as the first option. Sticking Westbrook in completely changes the dynamic IMO.

Great coaching job by both teams. Especially impressed with Brooks showing patience while Durant was being guarded by Kidd and Stevenson. That actually worked to OKC's favor down the stretch as it forced Dallas to show hard on double teams, opening up the game for Harden and others.

Besides the domination by the OKC bench, I thought the poor play of Terry, Peja and Marion did the Mavs in tonight. Dallas will not be able to win without these veterans stepping up.

 

Just saw the end of the 3rd qtr tantrum...Competitors want the ball and want to be in there during winning time but a nice little sit down meeting is probably necessary to calm him down a bit.

 

While Dirk did miss 1 key ft that may have given the Mavs a chance, he was absolutely HUGE in the 4th quarter for the Mavs. After being denied not only shots, (limited to 2) and touches in the third quarter, Dirk went 6-9 from the field and went 4-5 from the line for 16 4th quarter points!! To say that he choked, IMO is more than a bit ridiculous.

The reason the Mavs lost is simple (aside from OKC playing great), Jason Terry absolutely disappeared in the 2nd half after scoring 8 points in the 1st half. Not only
was he 0-3 in the 4th quarter, he was plain hesistant and passive in the 2nd half (as a few astute cfer's noted during the game). The Mavs already lacking in players who can create/make shots cant win if their 2nd best scorer JT, doesnt score a single point in the 2nd half.
Th