How were we so close at the end of the game? At first I had no idea. It felt like we were losing by 50 from the time we lost the lead to the end of the game. The game started off so well. We were up by 7 points at the end of the first quarter ,but that certainly didn't last long. In my opinion we beat ourselves tonight. We worried to much about Dirk and not enough about making the right decisions. The Dr. Jekyle and Mr. Hyde, aka Russel Westbrook showed up tonight. Missed shot after missed shot was just killing his confidence. He never could recover and he is the guy that is supposed to be the difference maker in this series. We need him to play much better next game. The bench really didn't show up and Nate Robinson looked lost out there. Dequan Cook finally hit some three's which was nice to see ,but how in the world were we so close at the end? Answer: Kevin Durant. He carried this team ,but the team never gave him any love in return. The Mavericks punched us in the mouth tonight. You can talk all you want about Dirk going off or Jason Terry hitting three's ,but the real man for the Mavericks was Barea. He made our much younger point guards look slower than Charles Barkley on a good day. That can't happen again. If he is allowed to get into the paint like he did tonight you might as well kiss this series good-bye. Now to the question that everyone is asking, how do you stop Dirk? I'm not sure if you can ,but you can definatley make it a little harder for him. I think Durant is the best man to guard him. Durant was doing a good job ,but the refs called two very ticky tack fouls on him. As long as the refs don't make those calls again he is the man for the job. If we stay with Ibaka this is my advice to him; instead of trying to block Dirk's shot just put a hand in his face. Every time DIrk shot the ball Ibaka would go for the block and that is not going to throw off a shooter as good as Dirk. Just put a hand in his face and he will miss more than he did tonight. Don't double team him either; they have way to many shooters for us to do that and DIrk is to good of a passer. Terry, Barae, and Peja killed us every time we did that. We were the one's that looked old tonight. I expect the Thunder to come out with a lot more passion and energy in the next game. Have to put this one out of our heads because Dirk and the Mav's got a knockdown tonight.