Thunder Notebook: Super Serge, Dirk Is Human, Doodle Jump

Grant Belcher, News9.com

Everything But The Kitchen Sink

Almost every team in the NBA, including the Thunder, has tried nearly everything to stop two players on the Mavericks: Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry.

And for the first half of Saturday's playoff opener, nothing worked on Terry. He scored 14 points in the half and ended up with 20 points in the game on 8-of-10 shooting. But for the final few minutes of the game, OKC found something that seemed to work, even if it might not be sustainable.

Thabo Sefolosha and James Harden had been doing the majority of the defensive work on Terry, but Westbrook took over the job at the end and denied Terry from catching the ball altogether. It's no surprise that Westbrook is a capable defender. After all, he was the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year in his second and final collegiate season.

But since reaching the league, Westbrook's energy has been mostly exerted on the offensive end. It will be interesting to see if Brooks will allow Westbrook to re-direct some of his focus in the series to stopping Terry as he did at the end of Saturday's game, but that would likely result in complete exhaustion if he had to keep it up for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

Nowitzki, meanwhile, can be even harder to stop, but the Thunder did a pretty decent job overall. He scored 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting, but those numbers are quite ordinary compared to his opening playoff game against the Thunder last year. In Game 1 of the 2011 Western Conference Finals, Nowitzki went off for 48 points on 12-of-15 shooting and an unheard-of 24-of-24 from the free throw line. So 25 points, comparatively, might be a good sign.

Though it's impossible to completely shut Nowitzki down, OKC coach Scott Brooks said he thought center Kendrick Perkins was surprisingly effective at the end of the game in isolation defense. Most people don't think of Perkins as being able to keep up with a forward like Nowitzki, but Brooks said he would be willing to put Perkins on almost any 4 or 5-man in the league.

Advantage Thunder

While the Mavericks were already at a disadvantage coming into the series because of Oklahoma City's home court advantage, there are even more in trouble now.

The winner of the first game of a playoff series goes on to win that series 78 percent of the time. Dallas must now win four of six games, with a maximum of three of them coming at home.

However, coming back from losing the first game isn't impossible, and the Thunder have shown that firsthand.

Last season against the Grizzlies, OKC lost game one at home and came back to win the series in seven games. But losing at home in the first game means the reversal of home court advantage: the higher seed must then win at least one road game to win the series. Something the Thunder are happy to avoid for as long as possible this year.

Down To The Wire

Something about games in Chesapeake Energy Arena this season bring out the exciting finishes between the Thunder and Mavs.

The two teams have played in Oklahoma City three times this season, and the final margins were two points, four points and one point.

Luckily for the Thunder, they came out on top in all three of those finishes after trailing late in all of them.

If nothing else, it's certainly a confidence booster for Oklahoma City to show that it will never count itself out of a game in this series, especially at home.

Super Serge

Slightly overlooked in the midst of Durant's game winner and Westbrook's solid night was perhaps the best game of Serge Ibaka's young career.

He ended up with 22 points, six rebounds and five blocks, and was a huge part of the offense when other players were struggling. Ibaka hit several long jumpers in the game, shooting a remarkable 9-of-12 from the field, and finished a number of and-ones.

Ibaka also drained a 3-pointer at the end of the first half that turned out to be crucial in the big picture.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

It's probably no coincidence that a recent commercial from Kevin Durant seemed to get some extra air time on Sunday during the playoffs, following Durant's game winner on Saturday.

A couple of months ago, Durant first starred in a commercial for Sprint describing a game-winning shot over a tough double team.

"Man I was double teamed, with no one to pass it to, so I pulled up and hit the shot for the win," Durant said in the commercial, which started airing back in February.

In Saturday night's game, Durant pulled up for a game winner over a double team from the Mavericks' Ian Mahinmi and Shawn Marion.

In the commercial, Durant goes on to explain how cell phone users used up their limited data on a game called Doodle Jump, not allowing them to stream his game-winning shot.