Little five-minute stretches of crunch time, like one that closed out regulation in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals in Oklahoma City, can act as a mechanism to separate good teams from truly great ones. There are certain games in which identities are formed.
On Monday night at Oklahoma City Arena, we all discovered the Thunder's identity — at least for now. They're a raw, untested team whose best players are still only 22 years old. In the most important minutes of those young players' professional lives, that identity showed all too clearly.
The Thunder orchestrated one of the biggest chokes in playoff history in Game 4, blowing a 15-point lead in five minutes for the first time in 15 years. They led the Mavericks 99-84 with 5:05 to play, but they let up a 17-2 run in those final minutes, capped off by two free throws in the final seconds by Dirk Nowitzki. The Mavs went on to pummel them in overtime, pushing their 2-1 series edge to 3-1 and threatening to slam the door on OKC's season.
The Thunder didn't blow that led for lack of talent. It wasn't because of effort, either. They blew it because in the final minutes of a pivotal game, they just didn't know what they were doing.
They rushed shots. They turned the ball over unforced. James Harden foolishly fouled out. Russell Westbrook foolishly made mistakes with the ball in his hands. The Thunder forgot how to move the ball, they forgot how to rebound and they forgot how to stop Dirk.
Wait, scratch that last one. They just never knew how to stop Dirk.
Point being, as remarkable as this breakthrough season has been for Kevin Durant, Westbrook, Harden and the rest of the Thunder, they were exposed Monday night as a team that doesn't yet have that championship know-how. They've got talent and passion for the game, but those final five minutes in OKC came down to mental toughness and discipline, things the Thunder are still trying to discover within themselves.
The Thunder are young. They'll have plenty more cracks at this. The Mavs are old, they're desperate and they can't afford to blow it this year.
It's a tired, old sports cliche to fall back on and to say that one team won because they "wanted it more." But in this particular case, it makes a lot of sense.
Dirk, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Shawn Marion and Peja Stojakovic are all veteran players with zero championships to their names. They've all come close before. They know the pain of losing on this stage. They don't want to feel it again.
It takes years of that pain to truly feel the pleasure of finally winning it. The Mavs have been through that pain already.
The Thunder? They've got a ways to go. Monday night was a start.
Are the Thunder still alive, or is Wednesday's Game 5 the end of the road? Share your thoughts below.
