Sports Headlines

Mavs again having hard time against young Thunder

Posted: 9:13 PM May 2, 2012

That young up-and-coming Oklahoma City team is again making things difficult for the Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs.

This time, the Thunder might not let the defending NBA champions get past the first round.

Even though Kevin Durant has struggled shooting, and each of the first two games has gone down to the closing seconds, the Thunder have a 2-0 advantage in the best-of-7 series. The first-round series shifts to Dallas for Game 3 on Thursday night.

Last year, Dallas needed only five games to get past the Thunder's lineup of 20-something players in the Western Conference finals. But there was an overtime loss by Oklahoma City and every game was tight.

Mavs guard Jason Terry says "Game 3 is Game 7" for Dallas this time.