Luka Doncic Choked From The Free Throw Line In The Final Seconds And Now The Thunder Are Very Much Alive After Surviving Game 4

There was a time when both series in the Western Conference looked like they would be quick work. The Wolves got out to a 2-0 lead, the Mavs built a 2-1 lead with Game 4 at home, it felt as though both were in the driver's seat and were going to deliver their own death blows.

As we saw, the Wolves realized the champs aren't going to go down without a fight, and tonight the Mavs got to experience the resiliency of the young as hell 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder. Much like the feeling nowadays is that the Wolves blew their golden opportunity, the same must be said about these Mavs. They got off to a 22-8 start, had an 11 point lead at the half, and a small 4 point lead heading into the 4th. The Mavs were up 7 points with 6:36 left in the 4th. They had plenty of chances to put this game away and take a 3-1 series lead, effectively putting the Thunder on life support.

Instead, one team rose to the occasion, and the other choked. That's not something you expect to happen from the younger and more inexperienced team, but that's the beauty of playoff basketball. It's why we play the game as they say. 

To win playoff games, it all comes down to execution. When you have your opportunities, can you capitalize and make your opponent pay. If you do, chances are things are going to go your way. If you don't, you'll regret it forever. 

For the Mavs, everything about the final minutes of this game was a disaster. It started with the brutal THJ turnover down 3 with just a little over a minute left

then, after a bit of a prayer foul call when it looked like Luka simply slipped and lost his balance, he had the chance to tie this game with 10 seconds left and most likely get it to OT. This is it. This is the moment for your superstar player and MVP candidate to come through. 

Brutal. A gag job like you read about in the biggest moment of the game. It capped what was another poor offensive night for Luka (6-20, 2-9 with 7 TOs), and really was par for the course of this entire series

He's obviously banged up, but in that moment you simply have to knock down your FTs. They are important for a reason! You know who knew that? Chet Holmgren. When it was his turn to step up to the charity stripe for some pressure FTs, he was as pure as pure gets

The reason there was even a game to ice in the first place is mostly due to what SGA and Jalen Williams did down the stretch of this game. SGA certainly came through when his team needed it, with a massive 34/8/5/2/2 on 14-27 in his 41 minutes, including 10 points in the 4th by doing shit like this

You have to remember, OKC was 24-14 in the clutch this season, good for the 5th best win% in the NBA. This is a situation they are not only familiar with, they have shown they can execute with the best of them when the time comes. SGA said as much after the game

And now, two series in MIN/DEN and DAL/OKC that looked like they were going to be quick matchups without much drama are now anything but. Nuggets and Thunder regain homecourt advantage and get 2 of the next 3 at home, both teams have shown the ability to win on the other's floor, and both series are very much alive. It's quite possible both the Wolves and Mavs will look back and realize they both had golden opportunities to effectively end their series, but instead they chose to fuck around. The fear of course is you don't like what you then find out. 

Giving away playoff games is never a recipe for advancement, and now we have 2-2 series with every matchup outside BOS/CLE. This is the time when things start getting good, and if these games are any indication, the race to 4 is going to be incredible.

P.S.

Seriously though. 12-23 for the Mavs from the FT line in a game you lose by 4. That's the shit that will haunt you at night if you don't find a way to pull the series out. That's a tough pill to swallow when OKC on the other end was a pretty decent 23-24.