Getting my Harden The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-100 last night at the Amercian Airlines Center, stealing home-court advantage in the Western Conference Finals.
Someone noted that one tactic the Thunder might take is the simple law of averages. That Russell Westbrook wouldn't shoot that poorly, that the bench wouldn't be that bad and that Dirk Nowitzki wasn't going to get 30 free-throw attempts per game.
On cue, that happened. The Thunder bench was phenomenal. Westbrook was loads better. And Nowitzki went to the line 10 times. It all evened out, much like the series itself.
The one constant is this: The Mavericks' inability to play defense. In that fourth quarter, with the game on the line -- and make no bones about it, this was a wide-open game -- the Mavericks could not get a stop. Period.
Some of it was the Thunder making some tough shots. A lot of it was the Mavericks' greatest weakness (defense) coming to light.
What was most shocking to me was how much time Jason Terry and J.J. Barea -- the team's two worst defenders -- were getting in this time period.
I thought they were abused. I was pretty much floored watching Barea get those fourth-quarter minutes. Seems like he plays 30 minutes a game. That's how bad he is defensively. Look at it this way, Barea's line:
15:40 minutes - 11 points -4 assists - 0 turnovers - -12 plus/minus
Consider that for a minute. He played 15 minutes of professional basketball. He scored 11 and was a helper in at least eight other points (this doesn't count for free throws and the extra point on a three pointer). He was responsible for at least 19 points while he was on the floor in 15 minutes. He did not personally turn the ball over.
Still, the Thunder outscored the Mavericks by 12 when he was on the court. That's remarkable.
I've never seen guards quite like Terry and Barea get so lost in a zone defense like they do on a nightly basis. The zone is a relatively simple proposition. You stay in a zone and guard anyone in it. However, you will regularly find Terry and Barea six feet from a guy in his zone while they are chasing a player in another zone. This, too, is remarkable.
Eric Maynor -- who was good last night -- is a legit problem for Barea and Terry. Problem is this: He's as quick and fast as they are. That's not something they saw against Portland and Los Angeles.
Rewatch the fourth quarter. Count the times Terry and Barea were scored upon. At will.
Another awful basketball player is Brenda "Brendan" Haywood. You can try and convince me that he's better than Erick Dampier. Go ahead. But I am not buying in. Dampier was not great. Haywood is awful.
For one, he was posterized by Kevin Durant. You could argue that Durant's facial on Haywood last night was worse than Tracy McGrady riding Shawn Bradley like a rented mule.
Haywood is seven feet tall. Durant was at least 12 feet from the tip of his finger in the air and Haywood stood there, limpy, getting beat like a red-headed stepchild.
Add in all the dumb fouls, the times he was beaten to a rebound and that dumb face running back down the court like he could give a shit, it was arguably the worst single game by a Dallas Maverick in playoff history. It was anti-Dirk.
However, again, this was a close game. The Mavericks had their shot. They failed. Nothing to get too discouraged about, but you must adjust and fine tune your game defensively. It was never going to be easy and now's not the time to sit still and expect the higher seed to simply roll.
