Mavericks at Thunder
All-Star small forward Kevin Durant will be on the floor when the third-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder attempt to close out their
first-round series against the visiting Dallas Mavericks on Monday. A flagrant 2 foul
got Durant ejected late in Saturday's 119-108 road win over the
sixth-seeded Mavericks but he avoided a suspension despite being fined $15,000 by the NBA.
Durant was called for the flagrant 2 after trying to contest a shot by Dallas guard Justin Anderson and smacking him the rookie in the face with his forearm. "I wasn't trying to hurt him," Durant told reporters afterward. "Plenty of plays this season where I blocked shots like that from behind. Just unfortunate I fouled him over the head. It was a flagrant, even though I wasn't trying to intentionally foul him. The refs had to make a decision and they made the right one. It was just bad timing." Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki is playing with a bruised knee and will be trying to keep his team alive after excelling with 27 points and eight rebounds in Game 4. "Hey, we've all got to enjoy it while we can," Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said after Game 4. "We're seeing one of the most special athletes in sports history and doing it at an amazingly high level at really an advanced stage in his career."
TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT, KTXA (Dallas), FSN Oklahoma
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS: Point guard Deron Williams (sports hernia) departed just 89 seconds into Game 4 after aggravating the injury and will miss the rest of the series. "I think he's done for the year," Carlisle told reporters. "That's what I think. I don't expect him to play in Game 5." Point guard J.J. Barea (groin) missed all seven of his shots while struggling through a scoreless Game 4 and Dallas will again rely heavily on Raymond Felton, who had 19 points and 11 assists on Saturday and is averaging 19.3 points over the past three games.
ABOUT THE THUNDER: Point guard Russell Westbrook was fined $25,000 for inappropriate language toward a fan but had 25 points and 15 assists on Saturday and has recorded double-doubles in all four games of the series. Westbrook scored 22 of Oklahoma City's 32 third-quarter points as he helped the Thunder maintain the quicker pace and not let the game settle into the low-scoring affair (85-84 in Game 2) that resulted in Dallas' lone victory. "The name of the game is come out and play basketball and that's what we've done the last two games, especially here," Westbrook told reporters. "We know a lot of their game is to kind of muck up the game and I think we're doing a great job of staying above it."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Thunder backup C Enes Kanter had 28 points on 12-of-13 shooting in Game 4 and is averaging 24.5 points on 18-of-20 shooting over the past two games.
2. Nowitzki is 15th all-time with 3,639 career playoff points after passing Elgin Baylor (3,623) in Game 4.
3. Durant had 19 points after scoring 20 or more in each of his previous 67 outings, including the first three games of this series.