Dallas won by 6 last time
out, can they take a commanding 3-1 lead tonight?
What a great way to bounce back for the Dallas Mavericks. They took
home the Game 3 win and will look to repeat that impressive defensive effort on
Monday night.
The same obviously could not be said for the Thunder, which
missed a golden opportunity to grasp control of this Western Conference final.
Dallas really stepped on the gas from the opening tipoff,
racing out to a 27-12 lead by the end of the first quarter.
From there, the Mavericks were able to hold off a late rally
to seize back the momentum in the series and to claim the win as the NBA betting underdog. The final score was 93-87 in favor of
Rick Carlisle's squad.
While the first two games of the series were high-scoring
affairs, defense was the name of the game in Game 3.
The Mavericks held the Thunder to just 36 first-half points,
limiting the hosts to just 36.5 percent shooting overall. Oklahoma City
connected on only one of its 17 3-point attempts.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined to score 54
points but the rest of the team accounted for only 33. James Harden was one in
particular who struggled, scoring only seven points on 2-of-9 from the field.
It was a much more balanced game from the Mavericks given
that four different players scored at least 13 points.
Though he had just eight points, Tyson Chandler was a man
amongst boys in the post, logging a game-high 15 boards (including six
offensive) in close to 36 minutes of action.
Thunder rebound from Game 3 set-back
The Mavericks have gone 6-0-1 ATS over their past seven road
contests while the Thunder are an even 5-5 ATS over their previous 10 overall.
Betting odds are out for Game 4 and at time of writing the Thunder
were favored by four points at the top sportsbooks. The total meanwhile was at
196.
Dallas has covered in two of the first three games of this
series and, including the regular season, has gone 4-2 ATS in six total
meetings versus Oklahoma City this year.
The Mavericks definitely benefitted from an uncharacteristically poor shooting night from Kevin Durant on Saturday. He
finished 7-of-22 from the field, missing all eight of his attempts from deep.
Nonetheless, the Durantula ended with 24 points, 12
rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks, so it wasn't exactly all
bad.
To little surprise, Westbrook did not put in a
second-straight poor performance, getting back on track with a game-high 30
points in the Game 3 loss. Still, he continued his careless play, turning it
over an unacceptable seven times. So far in three games this series, he has 15
total turnovers.
Westbrook will really need to buckle down and focus here in
a must-win Game 4, or else the Oklahoma City Thunder could be in real danger of letting this
series get away in a hurry.
He'll have to get some help this time around though, mainly
from sixth man James Harden, who has been simply way too inconsistent so far in
the postseason. When he's on his game, Oklahoma City is immensely difficult to
beat.
With that in mind, I do feel like Harden will provide some
much-needed scoring on Monday, supplementing the usual strong play of Durant
and Westbrook. It should be another fantastic game, but I see the Thunder
locking up the victory and subsequently tying up the series.
FREE Pick: The Thunder come through at home to grab
the ATS cover