2020 Western Conf Finals GM 7 "Enough Said" - darkwolf80's Blog

darkwolf80's Blog

2020 Western Conf Finals GM 7 "Enough Said"

Posted on February 21, 2014 at 07:26 PM.

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Game seven, those are words that lead to legends in the sports world. Our young Mavs team didn't have any experience with game sevens as a whole. But walking through the locker room before the game you wouldn't have been able to tell if this was game seven or game one. The locker room was as loose as it had been all playoff run. As for me personally, I was as tight as could be. Not since the 2016 NBA Finals game seven had I been this nervous. That night the Bobcats made history by being the first team to come back from a 0-3 series deficit to win 4-3. Jabari Parker had been a part of that team and was one of the leaders of our team now. He was as cool as the other side of the pillow in pre-game. And the rest of the team was following his lead.

The first quarter started off really strong for us as we jumped out to a 24-17 lead. Parker was able to get Durant in early foul trouble by causing him to pick up a quick 2 fouls 5 minutes into the game. The Thunder pulled him for the rest of the quarter. Our defense played very well that first quarter limiting Westbrook to only 4 points. Ray Ray got off to a quick start as well by hitting his first four shots. Things were looking very good headed into the second.

However, the second quarter is where this game started to turn into an epic game. Our offense became stagnant with the bench players getting minutes, and the Thunder gained the momentum. The Thunder went on a 15-0 run during the second quarter to close the gap and take the lead by 8. After only playing five minutes in the first, Durant came out in the second and had 15 leading their effort. He did pick up his third midway through the period but stayed in and didn't pick up any more. So after outscoring us 38-23 in the second the Thunder now led 55-47 at half.

As I walked into the locker room at half I expected to see some yelling and screaming after that ugly second. But as usual, it was calm and collected. The discussion was more on just doing what got us here and not trying to do too much on your own. Parker in particular was at his locker just drinking Gatorade and chilling. It was quite unnerving to me how they could be so calm at a time like this. But coach ensured me that was just how this team was. And going into the second half they would need everything they had to finish.

The third quarter was again ours. The starters came back out and took control with Ray Ray leading the way. He was hitting every jumper he put up it seemed. We outscored them 36-21 to take that 8 point deficit and turn it into a 7 point lead going into the fourth, 83-76. This setup a legendary fourth quarter that I will not forget in my lifetime.

In the fourth Westbrook was starting to hurt us on his drives as Lavasai had gotten hurt early in the third causing us to switch Lawson onto him. When Westbrook would drive Ray Ray would rotate to help, which left Steve Adams to clean up any misses. In addition, Durant kept up his hot shooting. The last four minutes of the fourth was a whirlwind affair that will be shown on ESPN classic over and over.

We looked to have the game wrapped up with 4:20 to go in the fourth as we led by 12 after a Lawson three. Both teams had been going toe to toe with basket after basket being made. Durant couldn't be stopped, and Westbrook was still killing us on his drives. On our side Ray Ray was shooting lights out, and Parker was providing the drives and getting to the line. It was fun to watch.

Then things got really interesting in the last two minutes...

The Thunder flipped a switch and went on a 6-0 run to get within one (104-103) at 1:43 mark.
Ray Ray hit an elbow jumper to put us back up 3 (106-103) at 1:26 mark.
Durant came down and hit a contested 3 to tie the game (106-106) at 1:02 mark.
After a missed shot by Parker, Durant hit another contested jumper to put the Thunder up by 2 (106-108) at 0:39 mark.
Lawson then came down and hit a cold blooded three to put us back up by one (109-108) at 0:25 mark.
Westbrook ran right through Lawson for a layup to put them back up by one (109-110) at 0:17 mark.
We called timeout and advanced the ball to the froncourt. Ray Ray spotted up for his elbow jumper and nailed it to put us up by 1 (111-110) with 0:07 left. Looked like we had it in the bag.
As they didn't have another timeout the Thunder gave it to Westbrook who raced up the court. And lo and behold as he pulled up for a three was fouled by Lawson in the act. He hit all three free throws for a 2 point lead (111-113) with 0:01 left.
We used our last timeout and coach decided to go with the hot hand.
- Ray Ray came through and hit another jumper at the buzzer to tie the game (113-113) and force OT. It was unbelievable.
In the first OT we went up by 4 right off the bat then the Thunder came back and went up by 1. After some back and forth the game was tied (125-125) with 0:28 left. Both teams had a shot at the basket to win, but neither could make it. So we went on to the second OT.
Guys were starting to get cramps by this time and foul trouble reared its head when Lawson fouled out in the first minute on another Westbrook drive. This led the coach to put in Augustin in his place for another ball handler and some length to hopefully slow Westbrook down. Not only did Augustin slow Westbrook down, he took over in the last OT. He scored 10pts on 3 threes and hit a FT down the stretch to ice the game as we finally pulled the game out 141-137.

For the Thunder Durant had 39/5 and Westbrook had 34/3/7. Steven Adams lived off the Westbrook drives for putbacks going 15/16.
Our team had a couple of stars but none bright than Ray Ray 38/11 on 17/22 shooting. Parker went 28/6/4 and Augustin with his 2nd OT explosion had 23/2/8. Lawson before fouling out had 17pts, and Randle was usual solid self with 14/8. It was an overall team effort and one that wouldn't soon be forgotten.

After this game the national media was calling it the game of the decade. And they were finally giving us our due.

The icing on the cake that night was we learned the Bobcats had also won their game 7 and we would get to matchup against them for the 2020 NBA title. It was going to be our storybook ending if there ever was one.