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Kevin Durant Gives The Thunder The Win Over The Mavs With A Last-Second Shot

You can’t count out Kevin Durant. Maybe he’s having an off night – as he did against the Mavericks in Game 1 of their Western Conference first round matchup, shooting 10-for-27 – but if he’s got the ball on his hands and the game is on the line, you are in danger, as the Mavs will tell you. Yeah, Durant missed 17 shots tonight, but he hit his biggest, which fell through the net with 1.5 seconds left after bouncing around the rim… and gave the Thunder a thrilling 99-98 win and sent the home crowd into a frenzy. Here’s how it looked:

On a day that featured a 33-point blowout and two torn ACLs, a game this good – and this free of serious injury – was especially welcome. For much of the night, the Mavericks looked much more like the team that beat the Thunder in last year’s Western Conference finals than the one that slogged through much of this season. In the end, though, the Thunder showed why they’re the favorites to come out on top this time around – and if Durant keeps hitting shots like that, it’s not just the Mavs who’ll have trouble beating them.

Video by CJ Fogler.