Dallas 4 Wins Away From The Elusive Goal, OKC Not Ready For Prime Time
May 26, 2011 Leave a comment
~ This series had the potential to go seven games, it only went five. The Oklahoma City Thunder had the potential to make the NBA Finals, they came up three wins short. Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks for returning to the NBA Finals for the 1st time since 2006. The Mav’s knocked off the Thunder 4 games to 1 to win the series and move on. They now await the winner of the Miami-Chicago series over in the Eastern Conference finals.
For the Thunder, lessons will hopefully be learned from this series. They are a very young team that had their youth exposed in this series thanks to a series of late game mental mistakes in Games 4 and 5.
OKC blew a 15 point lead with 5 minutes to play in Game 4 and it cost them in overtime. In game 5 they blew a 6 point lead with a little over 4 minutes left to play. They are now headed home for the summer.
What the Thunder are going to have to determine for next season is who exactly is the point guard. This team was repeatedly outplayed in their half-court offensive sets and looked lost at times on what play to run next. This played a big part in their 4th quarter collapses in Games 4 and 5.
As good and talented as Russell Westbrook is, with the exception of his triple-double performance that helped knock out the Grizzlies, Westbrook was an enigma for this series against the Mav’s. Is he going to be a point guard? Is he a combo-guard? He’s also still growing up and the Thunder should hope that he will only grow from this series.
OKC has a solid 1-2 punch with Westbrook and Kevin Durant. The Kendrick Perkins trade didn’t exactly work out the way it was intended. They did though see James Harden take a step forward this season. Many said this team arrived to the big stage a year too early. If that’s the case, and it looked like it was, next season the pressure will definitely be on for this Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team.
The Mav’s move on and right now it is hard to pick against them winning the championship right now. Dirk Nowitzki is playing at his highest level right now and badly wants and needs a NBA title to put a stamp on his legacy. His Game 4 performance against OKC was historic and his go ahead three pointer with a little over a minute to go in Game 5 helped put the Thunder away.
It’s all coming together for a team that looks like a who’s who of flashbacks from post season’s past failures.Long time Phoenix Sun Shawn Marion has never been to the Finals. All his Suns teams did was make the playoffs while he was there.
Peja Stojakovic is headed to the Finals. Peja was such a huge part of the success for those Sacramento Kings playoff teams.
Jason Terry was with Nowitzki on that 2006 Finals team that loss to the Miami Heat.
Jason Kidd gets a chance to add to his legacy as one of the greatest point guards in history. Kidd has emerged as a clutch shooter as well and provided Dallas with something the Thunder did not have on the floor, leadership.
These are all players who are looking to make up for years worth of playoff shortcomings. They know that this maybe the last chance they’ll get. Thats what makes it all the more special that they are all playing so well right now at the right time. 4 wins away from a championship they have chased for so long as individuals. They have a chance to secure it as a team.