Cramp Game 2012? I’m completely kidding that in no way equaled Jordan’s flu game or Willis Reed coming out of the tunnel, but LeBron did have a huge game. Anyway lets bring it back to the beginning of the game. The Thunder came out of the gate on a mission, it seemed as if they thought the game was in OKC the way their energy was. The Thunder’s energy and hustle couldn’t be matched for the first quarter with them almost getting a 20-point lead at one time. A full NBA game is 4 quarters though and the second quarter is where the Heat woke up, but their slow start did result in two new stats. The Thunder for the first time all series didn’t finish the first quarter or the first half behind, scoring 33 points in the first quarter and 16 in the second, taking a 49-46 lead at the half.
Once again for the fourth game in a row questionable officiating did affect the game and I say that without taking any credit away from the Heat’s win(s). The third quarter was a series of back and fourths between the two teams exchanging leads. Russell Westbrook absolutely dominated the second half even scoring 11 straight points for the Thunder at one time. Westbrook and a quiet Durant cut the Heat lead to 4 points going into the final quarter as the game prepared to come down to the wire. Also I say a quiet Durant because he managed to score 28 points without bringing any real attention to himself.
The fourth quarter simply came down to who wanted it more, not saying the Thunder didn’t want to win just a couple of bounces didn’t go their way. The Heat benefitted from a bad play by Russell Westbrook at the end of the game, but I’ll get to that later. Now back to why I said the cramp game at the top of the article, with 5:35 seconds left in the game LeBron hit the deck before getting back up and hitting a jump shot to take the lead at 92-90. After the he got up it appeared that James was limping and later it was said by sideline reporters that it was cramps. Now if you played sports you know how painful a cramp can be, that being said LeBron came in and out of the game trying to rid himself of this cramp. He would go on to finish the game on the bench and not playing the final minute of the game, but he did hit what would be the dagger three pointer at the 2:55 mark.
Back to Westbrook’s late mistake, after a jump ball between Harden and Haslem the Heat retained possession of the ball with only 5 seconds left on the shot clock. Westbrook did not realize the shot clock didn’t reset and fouled Chalmers putting him at the line when there was no need to foul. Chalmers would go on to sink two free throws that put the game on ice. Now before we all start blaming Westbrook for the loss lets be real here because without his play in the third and fourth quarters that resulted in him scoring 43 points the Thunder would not have been in the position to win. Down 3-1 in the series can the Thunder come back and prolong the series to Game 6 bringing it back to OKC? Game 5 is on Thursday night at 9:00 PM ET on ABC.
Stats – Oklahoma City
Kevin Durant – 28pts, 3 ast, 2 reb
Russell Westbrook – 43pts, 5 ast, 7 reb
Miami Heat
LeBron James – 26pts, 12 ast, 9reb
Dwyane Wade – 25pts, 3ast, 5reb
Mario Chalmers – 25pts, 3ast, 2reb
-John McAuliffe (@John_Mac310)
