DALLAS — Kevin Durant scored 24 points and James Harden added 23, leading the Thunder to a 106-100 victory over the Mavericks last night, knotting the Western Conference finals at one game each.
Durant was as tough to guard as ever, but the real difference was Harden and the bench coming up big, especially down the stretch.
The bearded, left-handed guard had a four-point play in the final seconds of the third quarter that put Oklahoma City up by one. Then he and fellow reserves Eric Maynor, Nick Collison and Daequan Cook teamed with Durant to outplay Dallas’ crew of closers in the final period.
The Thunder’s unusual set of finishers outscored the Mavericks’ by five. They broke the game open with a 14-5 stretch capped by a tough jumper by Harden near the foul line, and it put Oklahoma City up by 10 with 3:15 left. Dallas got as close as four points the rest of the way.
“They’ve been playing hard all year for us and this was another example,” Durant said of his team’s reserves.
Oklahoma City continued its streak of avoiding consecutive losses this postseason. The series shifts to the Thunder’s home court — about 200 miles up Interstate 35 — for Game 3 tomorrow night.
Dirk Nowitzki didn’t dominate nearly as much as he did in the opener, scoring 29 points. He had 16 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough as Dallas saw its seven-game winning streak end and dropped to 6-1 at home in the playoffs.
“We made it a little tougher for him,” Durant said, referring to Nowitzki’s 48 points in Game 1.