Durant's winner lifts Thunder past Mavs, 99-98

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Kevin Durant was determined to not let the Oklahoma City Thunder lose another playoff game at home to Dallas.

He scored 25 points and hit the winning jumper from the foul line with 1.5 seconds left to give the Thunder a 99-98 victory over the Mavericks on Saturday night in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series - a rematch of last year's Western Conference finals.

The Thunder trailed by seven with 2 1/2 minutes left before rallying to take the first step toward avenging a 4-1 series loss a year ago.

''It's the playoffs,'' Durant said. ''No matter how it gets done, you've got to do it.''

With his team trailing by one late in the fourth quarter, he forced his way toward the lane and found himself with defenders closing in and the clock winding down.

Durant maneuvered to the free throw line and got off a high-arcing shot over Shawn Marion that hit off the front of the rim and then off the backboard before falling through the net.

The defending NBA champion Mavericks, who were out of timeouts, could not get a shot off before the buzzer.

''If you have a timeout, you can move the ball (to half-court) and maybe have a look at it,'' said Dirk Nowitzki, who had hit two free throws with 9 seconds left to put Dallas ahead. ''But if you don't have a timeout, that's definitely a buzzer-beater.''

Nowitzki scored 11 of his 25 points in the final 5 minutes, going on a personal 7-1 run that made it 92-85 with 3:23 to go.

He then answered Russell Westbrook's layup with a foul line jumper to restore the seven-point advantage, but it didn't prove to be enough.

''It's tough. This is definitely as tough of a loss as you can get,'' Nowitzki said. ''But if a team can recover it, it's an experienced one and we definitely have a lot of older guys who have been through a lot.''

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Odom done playing for Mavericks

By STEPHEN HAWKINS | The Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) The Dallas Mavericks and Lamar Odom are done with each other.

The NBA's reigning Sixth Man of the Year and the defending NBA champions who are trying to make sure they get back to the playoffs made it clear Monday that the partnership is over after an underwhelming 50-game stint.

''We've got to be able to look down that bench and count on folks to be consistent,'' general manager Donnie Nelson said. ''Unfortunately with him in his state right now, he's just not capable of doing that. I say that with his best interest in mind. He's going through a very, very tough personal time. We certainly understand that. But we're in the thick of it in the West and we've got to win games.''

Odom will be on the inactive list and not play again for the Mavericks, who were seventh in the Western Conference standings with nine games left in the regular season.
Even when wife and reality TV co-star Khloe Kardashian was in the stands near the Mavericks bench, Odom never seemed happy or comfortable in Dallas. His averages of 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 20.5 minutes were career lows, and he was booed by the home crowd as the sluggish performances multiplied.

Odom agreed with Nelson that it was a mutual decision for him to step away from the team.

''I'm sorry that things didn't work out better for both of us,'' Odom told ESPN.com. ''But I wish the Mavs' organization, my teammates and Dallas fans nothing but continued success in the defense of their championship.''

Odom was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to Dallas in a deal just before the lockout-shortened season.

The Lakers seemed compelled to move the 6-foot-10 forward after trying to send him to New Orleans in a Chris Paul deal that was nixed by the league. For the Mavericks, it was considered a low-risk move to use the trade exception from a deal that sent Tyson Chandler to the New York Knicks.

The ending in Dallas came almost as abruptly.

''These things never come at the best of times, so we felt with the playoff push coming up it was probably in everyone's best interest,'' Nelson said. ''Look, it's been a frustrating situation. Lamar hasn't performed like he wants to perform, is capable of performing. ... We just need to move on.''

Nelson said the decision wasn't made sooner because there was hope at some point ''the light goes on'' for Odom. But that never happened, even after being away from the team for four games around the All-Star break for personal reasons.

Asked if the Mavs felted cheated by Odom, Nelson insisted they didn't ''because the player that he was last year, there's reasons for that not happening this year, some of which none of us will know.''

During the lockout last summer, Odom's 24-year-old cousin was murdered. Days after that, Odom was involved in a fatal car accident that killed a teen pedestrian after the car he was riding in as a passenger collided with a motorcycle.

Odom played only four minutes in a 94-89 loss at Memphis on Saturday night, his last game with Dallas. Asked afterward about the situation, Odom simply shrugged his shoulders.

Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, who defended Odom all season, simply said ''I'm done talking about that,'' after the Memphis game.

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Nowitzki, Terry lift Mavs past Rockets in OT

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Houston Chronicle / © 2012 Houston Chronicle


By CHRIS DUNCAN
Posted Mar 25 2012 12:16AM

HOUSTON (AP) Dallas coach Rick Carlisle told his team before Saturday night's game in Houston that the playoffs were starting right now, and the Mavericks responded with a pivotal victory.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 31 points, Jason Terry added 24 and Brandan Wright had a career-high seven blocks to help the Mavericks beat the Rockets 101-99 in overtime.
The Mavericks came into the game with only a half-game lead over Houston, Utah and Denver in the tightly bunched Western Conference standings. Carlisle emphasized the
importance of the game in his pregame message to his team, and the defending champions took it to heart.

Especially Terry, who scored 14 of his points in the fourth quarter and overtime.

"He said it was a playoff game," Terry said, "and that's all I needed to hear."

Shawn Marion had 12 points and a season-high 15 rebounds and Wright scored 14 points for the Mavericks, who beat Houston for the fifth straight time.

This meeting took on a postseason feel, with 17 lead changes, 15 ties and a rowdier-than-usual crowd at the Toyota Center split between fans of both teams. Nowitzki needed
four stitches to seal a cut over his right eye, another sign of the game's intensity.

"This kind of game, you have to grind it out," Nowitzki said. "But we hung in there and found a way at the end to win, even though it wasn't a pretty game."

Goran Dragic scored 24 points, and Luis Scola added 19 for the Rockets, who had all five starters in double figures.

"You can't expect much more than we had today," Scola said. "We needed this game. It's a shame we weren't going to have it."

Nowitzki split two free throws with 10.9 seconds to go to put the Mavericks up 91-88, but Chandler Parsons swished a 3-pointer over Jason Kidd to tie it with 3.3 seconds remaining. Kidd tried a lob to Wright on a set inbound play, but Courtney Lee swatted it away and Terry's last-second shot from the free-throw line bounced off the rim.
The Mavericks took a 97-93 lead in overtime. Scola sank two free throws to cut the deficit to two and Lee hit a long jumper that initially appeared to be a 3-pointer. But the officials reviewed the shot and ruled that Lee's foot was over the line, and the game was tied at 97-all with 90 seconds left.

Dragic then was whistled for an offensive foul for pushing off Nowitzki. The Dallas star was cut over his right eye and went to the bench for stitches and a bandage. Terry then hit a pull-up jumper with 36 seconds to go, and Wright blocked Lee's jumper on Houston's next trip.

Nowitzki sank two free throws with 18 seconds remaining to make it 101-97. With the points, Nowitzki moved past Charles Barkley and into 19th place on the NBA's career scoring list (23,758).

"That's obviously great," said Nowitzki. "Charles was always my hero."

Dragic drove for a reverse layup, and the Mavericks were called for a backcourt violation, giving the Rockets one more chance to tie it.

Chase Budinger missed a 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer, and the Mavericks beat Houston for the 12th time in the last 16 meetings.

"It was the biggest win of the year for us," Carlisle said.

The Mavericks won for only the second time in their last 10 road games, despite getting outrebounded 52-38. Houston went 9 for 25 from 3-point range (26 percent), but only 37 of 96 (38.5 percent) overall.

"We battled hard out there, but we just could not get it," Houston coach Kevin McHale said. "We just could not keep it going."

The Rockets led for much of the first half, but Kidd hit back-to-back 3s - one from six feet beyond the arc - during a 12-4 Mavericks' run in the second quarter. The Mavericks surged ahead with Nowitzki on the bench, and he returned for the final two minutes of the half.

Parsons just beat the buzzer with a layup then cut Houston's deficit to 56-54 at the break. Nowitzki scored 16 points in the first half, then made four shots in the first six minutes of the third quarter.

Notes: The Mavericks are 15-1 when scoring 100 points this season. ... The Mavs' bench outscored Houston's reserves 44-13. ... Yao Ming and his wife, Ye Li, sat courtside with 22-month-old daughter Yao Qinlei. The girl will turn 2 on May 21. ... The in-state rivals were meeting for the first time this season. They'll play again Tuesday night and on April 18, both times in Dallas.