The Mavs Closed The Deal And Won A Game 6 Thriller To Send The Thunder Home And Advance To The Western Conference Finals
Cooper Neill. Getty Images.WHAT. A. GAME.
While it's unfortunate we won't be getting a 3rd Game 7 in this round of the playoffs, what we did get was an incredible Game 6 between the Thunder and Mavs. SGA and Luka both throwing haymakers all night, it looked like the Thunder were going to steal the win after they closed the first half with a 24-6 run and were up by as much as 17 in the second half only for the Mavs to storm back. Some of the most ridiculous shot making you'll ever see in a high pressure playoff game on both sides
The final 4 minutes of the 4th quarter was everything you don't just love about NBA basketball, but basketball as a sport in general. The shotmaking down the stretch of this game was as special as it gets and everything that makes playoff basketball so awesome. Huge threes, massive OREBs and buckets, neither team backing down and everyone executing on every possession. Given what was at stake, it doesn't get much better than that.
It's also not surprising that everything pretty much came down to a final controversial play. What do you think, foul or no foul?
The issue here is the NBA has never been consistent with this shit. There have been plays just like this where there's clear contact, but the defender makes contact with the ball first, the refs say the following contact is marginal, and it's not a foul. Tonight, it was a foul. Depending on who your favorite team is, you probably interpret that play differently. Me? I've always been told by NBA refs that any contact to the ball first makes everything else irrelevant, so I assumed this challenge was going to be overturned. Then again, when Tony Brothers is involved you can't ever be sure about anything. Down is up, up is down, fouls are not fouls and not fouls are fouls when it comes to that guy. Apparently, because the ball wasn't released then the contact didn't matter? OK sure, whatever you say Adam Silver.
What we shouldn't do is discredit what the Mavs did in this win. When you have the chance to bury a team, a 1 seed at that, you have to find a way to get it done. To do that, it usually means your stars are going to have to carry, and once again those players delivered
Luka and Kyrie did their jobs to get the Mavs back into the game down the stretch, and then came absolutely GIGANTIC buckets by DJJ and PJ Washington late in the 4th as well as perhaps the best performance of Derrick Lively's life to pull out the win
All year we wondered if the Thunder's lack of size was going to be an issue in the postseason, and make no mistake, their (really Chet's) inability to keep Lively off the offensive glass was a HUGE determining factor in this game. Once you get late in the 4th quarter, you need to finish defensive possessions off cleanly and if you don't, you usually pay the price. With the way momentum was starting to swing in the Mavs' favor, their dagger buckets felt predictable after Lively kept earning them extra possessions. To be down 17 and claw your way all the way back is impressive as hell, because the last thing you want to do is get back on a plane and head to OKC. But when the time came for the Mavs to come through and bury the 1 seed, that's exactly what they did.
And while this was a bit of a choke job for OKC, this is part of the journey. Everyone has to go through their playoff pain and earn those postseason scars, and for this group that's what this series was. They had their chances and will probably be sick over letting this series slip out of their fingers, but that's playoff basketball baby. They'll be better for it, and don't forget they have a shit ton of cap space to add to this roster to take it to another level. It's a bummer to lose like this, but I don't think anyone would argue that the Thunder aren't about to be a problem for a very, very long time.
Looking ahead, no matter who wins between DEN/MIN tomorrow night the WCF is shaping up to be another fantastic matchup. I'll take Luka vs Jokic or Luka vs Ant any day of the week and twice on Sundays without question. Especially if the Mavs are going to play like we've seen from them over these last two wins.
That's a team that can give either DEN or MIN all they can handle in what is hopefully a 7 game series.