Mavs Season Ends
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The defending NBA Champions are defending no more. The Dallas Mavericks lost at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder 103-97. With the win, the Thunder swept the best-of-seven first-round series with the Mavericks (4-0). It marked the first time in franchise history that Dallas was swept in a best-of-seven series. The Mavericks were swept once in a best-of-five series by Portland in 1990. Oklahoma City won its sixth consecutive game against Dallas dating back to the 2011-12 regular season.
Dallas moved to 17-17 (.500) all-time in playoff series (12-14 in best-of-seven series and 5-3 in best-of-five series). The Mavericks are now 86-93 (.480) all-time in postseason games, including 69-78 (.469) in best-of-seven series games. The Mavericks are 55-32 (.632) at home and 31-61 (.337) on the road all-time in playoff games. With the loss, the Mavericks moved to 15-17 (.469) all-time in elimination games.
Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki went 13-of-13 from the line in Game 4. With his sixth free throw at the 1:11 mark of the third quarter, he became the eighth player in NBA playoff history with 1,000 free throws made. Kobe Bryant (1,261) is the only active player with more free throws made in the postseason than Nowitzki (1,007). Nowitzki, who scored 17 points in Game 3, led all players 13 points and four assists in the first half of Game 4. He finished with a playoff-high 34 points (10-25 FGs, 1-1 3FGs, 13-13 FTs) in 41 minutes in Game 4 (previous high 31 in Game 2 at Oklahoma City 4/30/12). It was 45th career 30-point scoring effort in the playoffs.
Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd recorded postseason highs in points (16), rebounds (7), assists (8) and minutes (38). He scored in double figures for the third consecutive game. The last time he scored 10-plus points in three straight playoff games was in Games 2, 3 and 4 of the 2011 Western Conference Finals against Oklahoma City (5/19-5/23/11).
Mavericks guard Jason Terry made his first start of the 2012 playoffs (46th career postseason start) and managed 11 points, four rebounds and three assists in 43 minutes. Terry started just one game for the Mavericks during the 2011-12 regular season.
The attendance for Saturday’s game was 20,533. The Mavs have now sold out 60 straight playoff games at American Airlines Center. What’s more, Dallas has also sold out 432 regular-season games, which is an NBA-best sellout streak. The streak began on Dec. 15, 2001.
