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The Dallas Mavericks entered Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on a seven-game winning streak with a chance to go up 2-0 for the third consecutive playoff series. The Oklahoma City Thunder and its bench had other ideas, as they carried most of the weight en route to a six-point win and 1-1 series tie.

The Thunder once again avoided consecutive losses this postseason and earned their first Conference Finals win since 1996 -- when the franchise was the Seattle SuperSonics led by Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp.

The 2011 team is lead by Kevin Durant, who finished with a team-high 24 points, and Russell Westbrook, who bounced back from his 3-for-15 performance in Game 1 with a 7-for-15 effort in Game 2. Durant earned his 12th 20-point game this postseason, but was 0-for-5 from three-point range (his first career playoff game where he didn't make a three-pointer). Westbrook, an All-Star this season, did not play at all in the fourth quarter in large part because the Thunder’s bench was rolling.

After being outscored by 31 points in Game 1, the Thunder’s bench got 50 points, led by James Harden (23) and Eric Maynor (13). The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that the Thunder are the first team to get at least 50 points from substitutes in a road playoff win in over six years. The last team to do that was the Cleveland Cavaliers, with a 57-point effort from their bench in an overtime win at the Washington Wizards in May 2006.

Harden's 23 points were a playoff career high as the Thunder improved to 5-0 this postseason when Harden goes for 15 or more points (4-5 when he scores less than 15).

This loss was the Mavericks first home loss of the postseason (6-1).

Dirk Nowitzki wasn’t as dominant in Game 2 as he was in Game 1, but he did finish with 29 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter. Nowitzki, who was perfect from the free throw line in Game 1, missed a free throw late in the fourth quarter which ended a streak of 39 consecutive free throws made, dating to Game 2 of the Conference Semifinals. The 39-for-39 streak is the second longest of Nowitzki's playoff career (42) and the longest free-throw made streak in a single postseason since Chauncey Billups made 41 straight for the Detroit Pistons in 2006.

The series now shifts to Oklahoma City where the Thunder are 6-1 this postseason. Durant has feasted at home averaging 31.7 points per game while leading the game (not just team) in scoring on six of those seven occasions.

With the economy in shambles over the last year, many had predicted owners would slash payrolls like crazy. If you were willing to spend, the thinking went, you'd have all kinds of premium players available, because most of the league lacked the cash to pay them.

And yet, we have not seen many desperation moves. Plenty of teams carried a player or two fewer than normal. Teams played hardball with a free agent here or there. Some players who would have become free agents in any normal year instead avoided the open market by exercising their rights to stick with their current teams. Players like Jerry Stackhouse got to sit out half a season before somebody decided to employ them.

But if there was one move that was entirely about the money, as Marc Stein explained in December, it was Utah's trading of promising guard Eric Maynor to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Utah saved a ton in luxury tax as part of a bigger, more complex deal, while Oklahoma City got a young player both teams liked.

And watch the highlights above. There's Eric Maynor connecting on a huge fourth-quarter lob to Kevin Durant in a win in Boston Garden. It's not like he's an MVP candidate at this point, but he's a rookie not just getting minutes but also producing at point guard for a really good team that also has blue-chipper Russell Westbrook at that position. Maynor's a young player the Thunder trust, and he shows a ton of promise.

Meanwhile, check the standings, and you'll see something that I'm certain Maynor has noticed, too. It's entirely possible that the Thunder will face the Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. If such a series were to occur, Maynor would be eager to make the Jazz ownership look foolish for being frugal, and he'd have a decent chance of doing just that.