The Mavericks Ripping Off An Electric 30-0 Run In The 4th Quarter And Still Losing To The Thunder Doesn't Even Seem Possible, Yet That's Exactly What Happened

Glenn James. Getty Images.

If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, and even to this day it remains true. 

The best part of watching the NBA every night is there's a strong chance you're going to see something insane. Sometimes it's a player erupting for 50+ or an insane triple double. Sometimes it's a wildly entertaining game where the two teams combine for 300+ points. Sometimes you get to witness history. The point is, no matter who is playing it's worth your time.

Take last night's game between DAL/OKC. That type of matchup alone is worth watching, SGA vs Luka, the current 2 seed vs the 6 seed, intriguing young rookies in Chet and Derrick Lively, it had it all. If you were to go back to the list in the paragraph above, you'd see we checked a lot of those boxes. 

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An insane triple double? May I present to you Luka's disgusting 36/15/18

NBA history? Well, as you can see in the tweet above that also came via Luka, but that's not the reason I'm writing this blog. That reason is because of what took place in the 4th quarter of this game.

I've watched a lot of NBA basketball in my life. A lot. I've seen almost all there is to see. What I can't ever remember seeing is a team rip off a 30-0 run in a game. That is not a typo! A real deal 30-0 run seems impossible at this level and yet….

I don't want to sound hyperbolic, but that's one of the craziest things I've ever seen on an NBA court. From 111-87 at the 10:31 mark to 111-117 at the 4:18 mark, I'm not even sure how this happens. How do you not score a single basket just by accident? Nobody on OKC could get to the rim and dunk it? Nobody could hit a jumper or anything?

Nope. No they could not

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Not only did OKC go 0-7 over that 6ish minute stretch, they also turned it over 5 times. You may be wondering, why didn't the Thunder call a timeout? Stop the momentum and regroup or something. Here's the thing, they did call timeouts. In fact, they called 4 separate timeouts during the whole 30-0 run. I know this might be hard for some to believe, but timeouts aren't these magic saviors where everything will immediately go your way once you call one. The players still have to go out and execute. 

Timeout #1 came when the Mavs cut it to 111-93 at the 10 minute mark. Nothing changed, and timeout #2 came with the score 111-98 at the 8:55 mark. At this point you'd think the players would snap out of it, but nope. Move of the same for the next few minutes before the Thunder were forced to call another timeout once the score was tied at 111-111 at the 5:30 mark. For those counting, this is now 3 timeouts in 5 minutes, with Mavs still on a 24-0 run. Even still, the Thunder couldn't snap out of this funk.

From the 5:30 mark, the Mavs went on another push to now extend their lead to 111-117, forcing the Thunder to call their final time out of the game at the 4:18 mark. Watching this live you almost couldn't believe what you were seeing. It's not like these things happen all the time, in fact, they almost never do

There are stoolies reading this blog right now who weren't even alive when this last happened. Shit, I was like 9 or 10 dealing with the Celts winning just 15 games that season, so it wouldn't shock me if they were the ones to let it happen. Now the Mavs have flirted with something like this before, back in 2021 they ripped off a 28-0 run againt the Warriors in a game they ended up winning. You would assume a 30-0 run to take a 4th quarter lead late would also result in a win right?

Well…

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Yikes. Talk about adding another layer to this thing. How do you rip off a 30-0 run and not close that game out? At home? In a 4th quarter where you only allowed 19 points, to still walk away with a loss there is pretty brutal. Finally, after the 4th timeout the Thunder actually responded, closing the game on a 15-3 run over the final 4:18. It was almost as if there was a complete role reversal down the stretch compared to what happened for the majority of the quarter. Just look at the Mavs shot chart to close and then go back up and look at OKC's during that 30-0 run

A 1-10 with 3 TO stretch to blow your 6 point lead after clawing all the way back is certainly tough to stomach. They say the NBA is a game of runs, and I'm pretty sure this game is exactly what those people are talking about. I would think that after you watch a team score 30 unanswered points against you to retake the lead, that's pretty deflating. In almost every situation with a big run like that, the team closes it out, especially when playing in their own building. The shit Luka was doing during that run was the stuff of legends, and now it's all for nothing. That's tough.

So like I said at the top of the blog, stuff like this is why you should be watching NBA basketball whenever it's on TV. I know there will be some hardos out there who say the league is trash, nothing matters before Christmas, and blah blah blah. Grow up. If you didn't think that shit was electric, I'm not sure you even have a pulse.