DAL/OKC Game Four: Age Before Beauty

When James Harden fouled out with 4:34 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Oklahoma City Thunder still had a 12-point advantage over the Dallas Mavericks.  But no one in a white jersey wanted to put the Mavs away and Dallas fought back.
The veteran Mavericks took advantage of a little momentum, a young Thunder team, and an incredibly hot shooting German and sucked life out the OKC Arena in overtime.  Dallas won Game Four 112-105 to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals.
Oklahoma City looked to put the terrible shooting of Game Three behind them and started off beautifully going 9-9 from the field and opening up an 18-6 lead to open the contest.  But wave after wave of Thunder scoring runs were patiently weathered by the older and more experienced Mavs.  And eventually the offensive meltdown caught up to OKC when Dallas closed out regulation with a 17-2 run, capped off by two Dirk Nowitski free throws with 6.4 seconds remaining.
When searching for answers about this game, the Thunder can also look at the 23 turnovers and missed free throws down the stretch.
Nowitski outdueled Kevin Durant 40-29 in points scored, but it was when those points were scored that told the story.  Nowitski lit up the basket once again in the fourth quarter with shots that looked physically impossible.  And Durant’s offense slipped quietly out of the building.
And the bench battle went to the Mavs again – Jason Terry’s 20 points were just a bit better than the 12 from Nick Collison combined with Harden’s seven.