Thunder played like a team just happy to be invited to the party

Physical. Energetic. Proud. Willful. Determined. Hungry. Tough. Deadline nears, so I better stop. But the list is long of words to describe the Mavs' 93-87 victory Saturday night in a game that was both huge in magnitude and in decisiveness.

“I know one thing,” Perk said in that low drawl that echoed around a near-empty Thunder locker room. “They're a veteran team. Their window is short. I knew what kind of team we were facing tonight.

“We were going to get a veteran team with their eye on the prize. You can't take no possessions off.”

The Thunder has this series' young legs and had this series' momentum and, heck, maybe this series' karma. But Dallas came to play, which makes up for bone and joint deficiencies.

“They came out and had a lot more energy than we did,” said Nick Collison, who usually is the Thunder's Mr. Hard Hat and I suppose was again. “They had more of an edge. I think they were the hungrier team.”

Which is inexcusable, even for these baby Boomers. In a game that determined which team was driving the Western Conference bus, the Thunder arrived unfashionably late. Aren't words like “energy” and “edge” just code for “wasn't ready to play”? Code for, withered at the challenge?

This game was similar to Game 1 of the Memphis series. Either because of fear or ignorance, the Thunder failed to adequately compete.

Scotty Brooks' boys finally got serious in the fourth quarter, but that meant virtually nothing except self pride.

Pay no attention to the final score behind the curtain. This was a blowout from the early moments on, made interesting late only because NBA Providence demands a late rally.

“We can't sport ‘em a 20-point lead and come back,” Collison said. “Eventually, they're going to get some stops, get some points.”

The truth is stark and sobering for a Thunder squad that with a victory would have been halfway home to the NBA Finals. No matter how much the players deny it, the Thunder played like a team just happy to be invited to the party, while the Mavs played like they were in the Roman Coliseum.