Tramel: Mavericks have been to this rodeo — and it showed

The old Mavericks beat the young Thunder 112-105 in overtime for the simplest of reasons.

The tortoise kept running. The hare, not so much.

Ahead 99-84 with less than five minutes left, the Thunder choked. Stopped short of the finish line in a game it had to win for any reasonable hope of reaching the NBA Finals.

Now, the Mavs have a three games to one lead in this series and seem perfectly capable of ending this with a gentle push in Game 5 Wednesday night.

In the last five minutes of regulation, Dallas outscored the Thunder 17-2. In the last 41 seconds of overtime, the Mavs outscored OKC 7-0.

The Mavs played smart and possessed. The Thunder played reckless and stupid.

Bad shots. Turnovers. Idiotic fouls. What-was-he-thinking decisions.

A despondent Kevin Durant claimed youth had nothing to do with it.

“This is basketball, man,” Durant said. “Our youth has nothing to do with what we were doing on the floor. We've showed we can play on this level.”

Better hope he's wrong. Youth means you can grow out of this kind of choke. If youth has nothing to do with it, a game like this could scar the franchise.

The Thunder lost its edge, then lost its mind.

“Was that youth?” asked Thunder coach Scotty Brooks. “I don't know. That's how we've had some success all year, playing with a young team.”

But for 60 years, NBA veterans have talked about how everything changes in the playoffs.

And while Durant technically was right — the Thunder has shown it can play on this level, it has not shown it can win on this level.

A few examples of the Blunder Up:

*Thrice in the last four minutes, the Thunder fouled in the backcourt, which meant the Mavs went to the foul line and could slice away at the lead with no time off the clock.