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For the 12th consecutive season -- and 12th time in his 14-year career -- Dirk Nowitzki has been selected to the All-NBA team. Nowitzki, who statistically did not have a season up to his standards, was still impressive enough to garner a spot on the third team.

It's his third career selection to the All-NBA third team and first since the 2003-04 season. The Dallas Mavericks' all-time scoring leader was a first- or second-team All-NBA selection in each of the past seven seasons.

"It is an honor to make the All-NBA team again,” Nowitzki said in a statement released by the team. "To be named among the best players in this league is always still very humbling for me. I also appreciate the opportunity to represent my teammates and the Mavericks organization on this list."

LeBron James and Kevin Durant were named to the first team at forward, with Kevin Love and Blake Griffin receiving second-team recognition. Carmelo Anthony joined Nowitzki on the third team. Former Mavs center and current New York Knicks star Tyson Chandler was also named to the third team. (complete list is below).

Nowitzki was the NBA’s eighth-leading scorer (21.6 ppg) during the regular season. He and Kobe Bryant are the only two NBA players to be named to an All-NBA team each of the past 12 seasons. Nowitzki remains the only Mavs player in franchise history to be named All-NBA first team (four times: 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2008-09).

This season, Nowitzki moved into the top 20 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, surpassing Robert Parish and Charles Barkley for 19^th place. He also ranks third in scoring among active players behind Bryant and Kevin Garnett.

In four postseason games against Oklahoma City , Nowitzki averaged 26.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists in 38.5 minutes.

Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle had high praise for the Oklahoma City Thunder after being swept out of the first round, and his opinion was likely only reinforced after OKC's impressive dismantling and elimination of the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.

"No question that they got better," Carlisle said, comparing this OKC team that is 8-1 in the playoffs to the one the Mavs ousted in five games in last season's West finals. "When they went through what they did last year where they won two rounds and got in a tough series with us and basically were right there in every game, you take quantum leaps in terms of your emotional growth, understanding what it takes to advance to the highest levels."

It's been documented by the Thunder's coolness and effectiveness under late-game duress against the Mavs and Lakers, extinguishing the harshest criticism heaped on the kiddos a year ago.

If the Thunder, elevated by a core of four players age 23 and younger -- Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka -- beat the championship-pedigreed and re-invented San Antonio Spurs in the West finals, their path to the NBA Finals will have rolled through the three franchises that have represented the West since 1999, and that have won 10 of the last 13 championships.

It would certainly signal an official restructuring of the West hierarchy.

"Their players individually have gotten better," Carlisle said. "Westbrook is a better player this year. Durant’s a little stronger and a little bit better. Ibaka has taken a major quantum leap and (Kendrick) Perkins, last year he wasn’t the same player. He was coming off of a surgery the previous summer and there’s a huge difference in his body this year. He’s 20 to 25 pounds lighter, back playing above the rim again and was doing some good things offensively. He really brought toughness to their team. They’re in a great position."

If OKC goes on to win it all -- and for the sake of argument let's say it beats the Miami Heat in the Finals -- will a run through the Mavs, Lakers, Spurs and Heat be more impressive than the trail of superstar ashes left in the Mavs' wake as they bulldozed through the Lakers, Thunder and Heat?

With at least four more days until the start of this highly anticipated West final, let the debate begin.

DALLAS -- For years prior to winning the title last season, the debate has raged: Should Mark Cuban blow up the Mavericks?

Well, that point might actually be upon the Mavs' owner as his club faces the prospects of being swept out of the first round of the playoffs on the heels of winning it all. Not exactly the way a defending champion wants to go out, but it's a path that Cuban can't claim will have come as a total shock.

The owner decided to dismantle the title team and play the free-agent game in the summer. And once this season comes to a close, whether it melts away tonight or in Game 5 in Oklahoma City on Monday or somewhere stays alive beyond the that, the names on the jerseys are going to change.

Check out the list of names that could be making their final appearances tonight:

* Shawn Marion
* Brendan Haywood
* Delonte West
* Jason Kidd
* Jason Terry
* Rodrigue Beaubois
* Ian Mahinmi
* Brian Cardinal
* Dominique Jones
* Yi Jianlian

The only player guaranteed to be back is Dirk Nowitzki. A few guys would seem likely to be back, such as Vince Carter, who has two more years left on his deal, Brandan Wright, who the Mavs would figure to pick up the team option, and Kelenna Azubuike, who they acquired late in the season and have under contract for next season.

Otherwise it's wide open, and much will depend on where super free-agent-to-be Deron Williams lands. It will be a busy July around here. The Mavs would like to at least keep things going a bit longer in May.

Series: Oklahoma City Thunder leads, 3-0

When: 6:30 p.m.

Where: American Airlines Center

TV: TNT/TXA 21

Radio: ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM/1270 AM (Spanish)

What to watch: Level of play. Coach Rick Carlisle continued to emphasize Saturday morning that the Mavs' effort was up to snuff in Game 3 and that it was their level of play that let them down. In that case, the Mavs' season must hinge on whether they can make baskets, hold onto the basketball and keep the Thunder from making more baskets. If they do that, then they should win and extend the series.

Key matchup: Kevin Durant vs. Shawn Marion
As terrific as Marion's defense was on Durant in the first two games, Durant got off early in Game 3 and scored 21 of his 31 points in the first half. Needless to say, that can't happen again. Marion will turn 34 on Monday. Depending on how well he can defend Durant tonight will determine if he's celebrating another year in Oklahoma City before a Game 5 or while on vacation.

Injuries: Thunder -- G Eric Maynor (torn right ACL) is out. Mavs -- None.

Up next: Game 5 -- Mavs at Thunder, 7 p.m. Monday (if necessary)

DALLAS – If Oklahoma City is savoring the sweet taste of revenge, the Thunder's players aren’t acknowledging it publicly.

PODCAST
Charles Barkley explains how he always knew Father Time would catch up with the Mavs. He also says Deron Williams alone won't help the Mavs win a title. Listen

Kevin Durant and Kendrick Perkins claim that payback hasn’t been on their minds this series despite the Mavericks dismissing the Thunder in five games during last season’s West finals. OKC hopes to complete a sweep of the Mavs on Saturday night, but the Thunder has much bigger goals.

“I don’t really think about it,” Perkins said. “They were playing at a high level last year, and it was a totally different team. You know, I don’t really look at it like that. At the end of the day, it’s just the first round. You just think about advancing.”

The savvy, old Mavs schooled OKC’s kids in crunch time last year. Game 4, when the Mavs erased a 15-point deficit in the final 4:48 of regulation en route to an overtime win, was an especially excruciating experience for the young Thunder.

But Durant can put a positive spin on that painful experience after the Thunder opened the series with two close wins in OKC and blew the Mavs out in Dallas to put the defending champs in danger of being broomed out of the playoffs.

“That was a great learning experience for us, even though it was tough to go through,” Durant said. “It helped us out. We’re just looking forward to getting better and growing. Dallas is a really, really tough team and we respect them a lot.

“We really weren’t worried about revenge. We were just worried about how we were going to win the series.”

DALLAS -- As far as Kevin Durant is concerned, he was due for this kind of game.

Oklahoma City’s scoring machine was confident that he wouldn’t keep firing bricks. All due respect to Shawn Marion’s defense, but Durant considered his 34.1 percent shooting in the first two games of this series a fluke.

“I knew that if I’d just continue to work, they’d start to fall,” Durant said.

Shots kept falling for Durant in Thursday night’s 95-79 win over the Mavs that put the defending champions in danger of being swept out of the first round. The three-time scoring champion lit the Mavs up for 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting.

“He had a good game tonight,” Shawn Marion said. “I’ve got to give him credit. It’s frustrating to see him do that. As many times as he shoots, he’s going to have a good game here and there. S---, it’s bound to happen, he shoots so damn much.”

Durant really didn’t shoot that much Thursday, which is what made his performance so impressive. He attempted fewer shots in a game only 12 times this season.

Durant drilled a couple of wide-open 3s in the opening moments and stayed in a groove the whole first quarter, finishing the frame with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting. He was outscoring the Mavs by himself for much of the quarter.

“He’s the best scorer on the planet,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “Marion did a phenomenal job for two games, and then tonight Durant picked his level up a little bit. He was making some of those contested shots.”

As good a defender as Marion is, it’s virtually impossible for a scorer of Durant’s historic caliber to struggle all series. The Mavs messed up by not taking advantage of Durant’s off nights early in the series, although he deserves credit for hitting a game-winner jumper in Marion’s grill in Game 1 and the go-ahead free throws in Game 2.

“If you look at Game 1 and Game 2, the way we defended him, we’ve got to steal one of them,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “He shot 34 percent from the floor in the first two games. That’s a time where we’ve got to steal one and we weren’t able to.”

Then, the Mavs weren’t able to slow down Durant in Game 3.

DALLAS -- How it happened: Oklahoma City built a 15-point lead in the first and second quarters, and the Mavericks could never keep a run going long enough to make it a game. The defending champions are truly up against it, down 3-0.

To avoid a humiliating sweep after an embarrassing, wire-to-wire Game 3 loss on their home floor, the defending champs must win Game 4 in Dallas on Saturday night.

The Mavs had two promising runs that got snuffed, one late in the second quarter to cut the deficit to seven and one early in the third that chopped it to five, 50-45. But a red-hot Kevin Durant (31 points on 11-of-15 shooting, 8-of-10 in the first half) and his running buddy Russell Westbrook (20 points on 8-of-19, 5-of-8 in the second half) kicked it back in gear to go up 60-48 with 7:21 left in the third quarter, and then it was quickly 66-50.

And then 83-58, and it was lights out.

Durant, after shooting just 34.1 percent in the first two games, was magnificent from the jump. On the Mavs' side, superstar Dirk Nowitzki never seemed engaged. He was 4-of-8 from the floor in the first half and finished 6-of-15 for 17 points. He even missed three free throws. Jason Terry was terrible, 1-of-6 in the first half, and he finished with just 11 points.

Dallas shot an abysmal 34.2 percent for the game.

The bottom line to it all, as much as the Mavs and their fans wanted to believe otherwise, is that this stripped-down version of the title team lacks essential parts to properly function. Gone: the fiery leadership, rebounding and defense of Tyson Chandler; the penetration of J.J. Barea; and the fierceness of DeShawn Stevenson.

These Mavs really are too old and too slow to keep up with the Thunder's remarkable foursome of Durant, Westbrook, Serge Ibaka and James Harden, all of whom have yet to turn 24. And to think this is the team most fans wanted over the Los Angeles Lakers. It probably didn't matter.

Things got off to a chaotic start in the first quarter with the Mavs believing they were on the wrong side of the whistle more than once. Nowitzki got nailed with a technical four minutes into the game, and then an absolutely irate Rick Carlisle got his own and was fortunate not to get ejected.

Durant and the Thunder came out throwing haymakers, and jumped out to a 28-13 lead. The Mavs closed the gap to 32-26 with a 13-4 run to close the quarter. But Dallas scored just 15 points in the second quarter and 16 in the third.

What it means: No team has come back from a 3-0 series deficit. If Dallas is going to avoid becoming the first defending champion since the 2007 Miami Heat to bow out in the first round, the Mavs will have to overcome decades of NBA postseason history. Miami, one season removed from rallying past the Mavs in the NBA Finals, was swept by the Chicago Bulls.

Bold play of the game: Early in the third quarter, the Mavs were desperately trying to keep a run alive, having pushed to within 50-45, but OKC was back up 54-45. Delonte West drove the lane, looking to score and maybe an and-1, but his shot was swatted away by Ibaka for his third and final block of the game. Westbrook pulled up for a jumper at the other end, and it was 56-45 with 8:51 to go.

Stat of the game: Since the Mavs beat the Thunder 4-1 in the Western Conference finals last season, they are 1-6 against OKC.

DALLAS – The Mavs would be up 2-0 in this series if the NBA played 10-minute quarters.

Unfortunately for the defending champions, that isn’t the quarters. NBA quarters last a dozen minutes, and the Mavs have been getting killed by the Thunder in the final couple minutes of those frames.

PODCAST
Senior NBA writer Marc Stein shares his thoughts on Game 3 between the Mavs and Thunder. Who needs to step up for the Mavs to win other than Dirk or Jet? Listen

With the two games decided by a total of four points, the difference in the series so far is that the Mavs have crumbled in crunch time while the Thunder have thrived. Oklahoma City outscored the Mavs by a 10-4 margin in the final two minutes of Game 1 and 6-2 in the final two minutes of Game 2.

But it’s not just the fourth quarter. Oklahoma City has outscored the Mavs by a 52-29 margin in the final two minutes of the eight quarters in this series.

“All these things are just attention-to-detail things,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Then you’ve got to make shots or you’ve got to put yourself in position to not foul or whatever the case may be. Ends of quarters in NBA games are difficult. Guys are skilled; they make plays. So you’ve got to be solid.”

Series: Oklahoma City Thunder leads, 2-0

When: 8:30 p.m.

Where: American Airlines Center

TV: TNT/TXA 21

Radio: ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM/1270 AM (Spanish)

What to watch: Can the Mavs get buckets in crunch time? Give the Thunder credit for closing, but the Mavs have also blown opportunities. The biggest culprit has been Dirk Nowitzki, who was such a dominant closer during the Mavs’ championship run last year. He committed two turnovers in the final 90 seconds of Game 1. In Game 2, Nowitzki missed a wide-open 3-pointer and had a baseline fadeaway roll around the rim and out. “It still comes down the stretch to make some big shots,” Nowitzki said.

Key matchup: Dallas defense vs. Russell Westbrook – Will Rick Carlisle make a major adjustment or just hope that Westbrook stops making so many midrange jumpers? Westbrook, one of the NBA’s most explosive penetrating threats, has lit up the Mavs primarily by shooting over Delonte West and Jason Kidd. Switching defensive stopper Shawn Marion onto Westbrook (28.5 points on 52.3 percent shooting in the series), but that would present a major problem defending three-time NBA scoring champ Kevin Durant. Marion said he will start the game on Durant again.

Injuries: Thunder – G Eric Maynor (torn right ACL) is out.

Up next: Game 4 – Thunder at Mavs, 6:30 p.m. Saturday

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mavs will not make the drastic move of switching defensive stopper Shawn Marion’s assignment in an attempt to slow down Russell Westbrook.

PODCAST
Senior NBA writer Marc Stein shares his thoughts on Game 3 between the Mavs and Thunder. Who needs to step up for the Mavs to win other than Dirk or Jet? Listen

At least, not at the beginning of Game 3.

“I’ve got the same assignment,” Marion said before Thursday morning’s shootaround. “It ain’t changed.”

That means Marion will continue to defend three-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant, who has averaged 25.5 points but shot only 31.4 percent from the floor as the Thunder opened a 2-0 lead in the series. Delonte West has opened the first two games defending Westbrook.

Coach Rick Carlisle left open the possibility of using Marion on Westbrook (28.5 points on 52.3 percent shooting) at points in the game.

“Possibly, but look, you’re talking about taking your best defender and a guy that was a real candidate for Defensive Player of the Year off of a guy off of a guy that he’s doing a great job on to put him on another guy,” Carlisle said. “We can look at it at different times of the games, but let’s not forget how great Durant is. He’s in the MVP conversation.

“They present a lot of problems, and we’re looking at solutions.”

DALLAS – Oklahoma City’s four best players are all younger than Rodrigue Beaubois.

That fact puts into perspective just how much room the Thunder have to grow if the core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka sticks together. And it indicates just how unlikely it is that Roddy B. ever develops into the star the Mavs once expected him to be.

At this point, it’s probably time to stop talking about Beaubois’ potential.

“Roddy’s made a lot of improvement this year,” coach Rick Carlisle said, “so I’m not sure what you’re suggesting.”

I’m suggesting that, in his third season, Beaubois is a player who has stepped foot on the court for a grand total of five minutes so far this series. If the Mavs aren’t ready to rely on him now, why believe he’ll ever be anything better than a role player?

Carlisle countered by saying that Beaubois “did OK when he was in there,” adding that the Mavs cut into the Thunder’s lead with Beaubois on the floor. Sorry, but it’s a stretch to believe that had much to do with the missed field goal and foul that were the only stats he registered while Dirk Nowitzki was dominating in that second-quarter stretch.

Beaubois, touted on billboards put up by the team last year as a superstar in the making, shouldn’t be considered a kid who needs to be coddled. He’s seven months older than Durant, a three-time NBA scoring champion. He’s 10 months older than Westbrook, a two-time All-Star who has been the best player in this series. He’s 18 months older than Harden, an easy selection for Sixth Man of the Year. And he’s 19 months older than Ibaka, who finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

Meanwhile, Beaubois averaged 8.9 points, 2.9 assists and 2.8 rebounds while bouncing in and out of the rotation. There were brief flashes of brilliance, usually against lottery-bound teams, but never enough sustained success to provide any realistic hope that he can be a future foundation piece.

“I don’t look at the situation quite the same way you do,” Carlisle said. “I like the progress that Roddy’s made, and when he has opportunities in this series, he’s got to give us what he can give us in terms of his quickness, his energy off the bench. His length is something that’s a positive factor for us. We want him to be aggressive and play his game.”

Beaubois has to get off the bench first, and that only happened once in the first two games of the series. That’s a far cry from what the Mavs expected when Mark Cuban declared a couple of years ago that the kid was close to untradeable.

And his age isn’t an excuse, as evidenced by the young bucks beating the Mavs.

DALLAS -- The Oklahoma City Thunder's ultra-dynamic All-Star duo of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook raised their shooting percentages this season to career highs.

Durant hit for 49.6 percent; Westbrook for 45.7. In seizing a 2-0 first-round series lead over the Dallas Mavericks, Durant has stumbled to 34.1 percent; Westbrook has rocketed to 52.3.

An explanation?

There's one: The Matrix.

Mavs small forward Shawn Marion is again applying defensive clamps to one of the league's top scorers -- in fact, the No. 1 scorer the past three seasons. The 6-foot-7 Marion might give up four good inches to the incredibly long-limbed Durant, and a decade-plus on the birth certificate, but there's nothing old about the game Marion is delivering in this series.

He has been so good in forcing Durant into 15-of-44 shooting -- which to Marion's frustration includes, as he put it, the "tough-ass shot, lucky bounce" Game 1 winner that overshadowed Durant's 10-of-27 night -- that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle hasn't ruled out shifting Marion at times onto the explosive Westbrook during Thursday's Game 3 in Dallas.

Read the full story here.

DALLAS – For the most part, the Mavericks have done a decent job executing their defensive strategy on Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook.

He’s lit them up anyway, averaging 28.5 points on 52.3 percent shooting in the first two games of this series.

The question now is whether the Mavs make significant strategic adjustments or just hope Westbrook stops making so many midrange jump shots.

According to NBA.com’s advanced statistics, Westbrook is 14-of-26 on midrange jumpers in the series and only 5-of-11 on shots from inside the restricted area. By comparison, Westbrook shot 41.4 percent from midrange and 58.6 percent from inside the restricted area during the regular season, attempting virtually the same amount of shots from the two zones.

“You’ve got to pick your poison,” said Delonte West, who has started both games on Westbrook. “He’s got an explosive first step. He’s not an All-Star for no reason. Based on the past, you can live with him shooting contested jump shots. What you don’t want to do is open up the lane and give him driving lanes where he can score, pass, get fouled and get some momentum plays.

“I’ll guess we’ll live and die with contested jump shots.”

The problem is it’s tough for a guard like West or Jason Kidd to contest Westbrook’s shot because the freakishly athletic 23-year-old gets up so high. As expected, coach Rick Carlisle is playing any potential adjustments close to the vest, but he acknowledges that one possibility is using 6-foot-7 defensive stopper Shawn Marion on Westbrook more often.

That, of course, would open up a whole other set of problems with NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant, who the Mavs have held to 34.1 percent shooting in the series with Marion doing most of the dirty work.

Would Vince Carter start instead of West and defend Durant? Stick with the same lineup and ask Kidd to guard a superstar who is listed at 5 inches taller and 16 years younger?

“We’ve got to find a way to make him a little more uncomfortable,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “He’s just dribbling up and raising up at the foul line. There’s nothing you can do, because if you guard him with smaller guys – with Kidd or West – he jumps like 40 inches on his shot and you can’t touch it. He just raises up over them and gets it in.

“Yeah, it’s tough. But we’ve got to do a better job of making him a little uncomfortable.”

And hope Westbrook reverts to form from midrange.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has a decision to make as to how to defend Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook, who has averaged 28.5 points on 52.3 percent shooting in the first two games.

None of the Mavs' guards, including Delonte West, is having much luck and the zone isn't stopping him either.

"He’s playing great, he’s playing great," Carlisle said. "And you know we started off the game double-teaming him, he split us and broke us down and got to the rim and took us out of that, so it’s been tough. He’s hitting shots and we’ve done a decent job of keeping him out of the paint, but he’s stroking it. So we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and cook something else up."

Could the next recipe include defensive player of the year candidate Shawn Marion moving over to defend Westbrook and leave the cold-shooting Kevin Durant to someone else? The 6-foot-7 Marion would have the height advantage on the 6-3 Westbrook and might have better luck defending the mid-range jumper that Westbrook is so quick to pull up and launch.

"Look, there are options," Carlisle said. "There are different things. We’re in and out of zone, sometimes you’ve got different guys guarding different guys, that’s how zone is, it’s kind of a scramble. Look, we’ll look at it. We come away from these two games disappointed but not dismayed and you tip your hat to the fact that they have made some big-time plays."

It probably doesn't make much sense to take Marion off Durant for one simple reason: Who do you put on a 6-foot-11 freak of nature?

But with two days to think of something before Thursday's critical Game 3, the Mavs are desperate for answers. Marion said he'd be ready if that's the direction Carlisle wants to go.

"I’m going to make him take a tough shot the best way I can," Marion said. "I feel like I can use my lift a little bit when he’s shooting it I can get in the way of his shot. Everybody else he’s jumping so high on his shot, it’s like he’s by himself up there."

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - The Dallas Mavericks can’t win in the playoffs on nights when their bench gets outplayed.

Feel free to use Monday night’s 102-99 loss in Game 2 of the Mavs’ Western Conference quarterfinal against Oklahoma City as evidence.

The Mavs expect James Harden to score 15 points with seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. They don’t expect Derek Fisher to score 11 first-half points on five of six shooting and help the Thunder build a 16-point lead.

Contrast that to Jason Terry, who scored 13 points, but was a non-factor most of the night and Vince Carter, who kept taking jumpers instead of attacking the basket.

Terry made five of 12 shots, but the Mavs were outscored by 17 points, when he was on the court. Carter was-2 of-9 from the field and the Mavs were outscored by 12 points when he was on the court.

Ridiculous.

Terry and Carter are supposed to be two of the Mavs’ assets, players who relieve some of the offensive burden from Dirk Nowitzki.

Ian Mahinmi gave the Mavs a strong effort off the bench with nine points and five rebounds, but it was offset by his five fouls, which limited his playing time, and Brendan Haywood’s ineffective performance.

Haywood, benched to start the second half, had two points and no rebounds in 10 minutes.

The bench must improve. The series won’t last much longer if it doesn’t

Here are three more areas of interest heading into Tuesday's day of rest:

1. Catastrophic turnovers: You could say the Mavs lost this game during a seven-minute stretch spanning the end of the first quarter and the start of the second quarter, when Oklahoma City turned a 24-23 deficit into a 46-30 lead. They did it by converting a plethora of Mavs’ turnovers into transition baskets. Oklahoma City turned 16 turnovers into 21 points. No way the Mavs can win like that because Oklahoma City is a younger, faster and quicker team. Letting them score in transition, especially considering the haphazard nature of their half-court offense is disastrous.

2. Containing Kevin Durant: Shawn Marion has done a phenomenal job guarding Durant by contesting every shot he takes and making it tough for him to get to his sweet spots on the court. Durant was only 5-of-17 in Game 2 but still scored 26 points because he made 14 of 16 free throws. Durant, the NBA’s leading scorer, has made only 15 of 44 shots in the series. It’s a testament to his skill level that he’s still getting his points, but imagine what trouble the Mavs will have on the night he goes off -- and he will have at least one good shooting night in this series.

3. X-Factors are no factors: Based on the regular season, there was plenty of reason to believe Brandan Wright or Rodrigue Beaubois could have an impact on the Mavs’ series with Oklahoma City. Well, it hasn’t happened and there’s no indication it will. They played a combined 10 minutes -- five each -- and totaled one point and one rebound.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has invoked the basketball gods a time or two this season. After a second gut-punch playoff loss to the Thunder in Monday's Game 2, Carlisle channeled a friend of his in another sport.

"As my good friend Ron Washington would say, that's how baseball go," Carlisle said.

The Mavs have dealt with two losses by a total of four points in the first two games of this first-round series. If Kevin Durant's jumper in Game 1 doesn't get the sweet bounce, Dallas holds the 1-0 lead. If Dirk Nowitzki's baseline jumper with 27.9 seconds to go in Game 2 doesn't bounce off the rim, the Mavs might have had a 2-0 lead.

Instead they are in an 0-2 hole with critical Game 3 in Dallas two days away on Thursday night.

"You've got to give them credit for what they're doing and we've got to just; we can't dig ourselves a 16-point hole in the first half," Carlisle said. "That's something that's tough. I love the way we fought back and it was great. Guys hung in, they kept their poise, all that. But, hey look, they held serve and we've got to go home and hold serve, too."

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Frustrated after watching Kevin Durant shoot so many free throws, Shawn Marion cut short his postgame meeting with the media.

“I’m making it tough on him,” Marion said. “I think he ended up shooting like 20 free throws tonight. Shoot, somebody shoots 20 free throws, that’s hard to stop that. I’m cooked. I don’t want to say nothing that’ll get me in trouble.”

Durant actually attempted 16 free throws, making 14, including a pair for the go-ahead points with 50.4 seconds remaining after Jason Terry was called for a foul for slight contact while trying to prevent Durant from catching the ball.

Durant scored 26 points despite shooting only 5-of-17 from the floor. He is averaging 26.5 points in the series despite shooting 34.1 percent from the floor, making only 15 of 44 attempts.

“Honestly, if you look at Durant, I think we guarded him as well in the first two games as anybody has over the whole season,” Dirk Nowitzki said.