The Dallas Mavericks finally delivered the Oklahoma City Thunder their first loss of the 2011-12 season. Unlike the rest of the season, Oklahoma City only led once in this game, after a Russell Westbrook layup to open things up, and Dallas forced their hand and finished the contest with a 100-87 win.

Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder
Wikimedia Commons

After opening the season with four straight 30-point games, Kevin Durant has now played two in a row without reaching that mark. However, the Thunder star led both teams in scoring in the game with 27. He wasn’t the only Thunder player to play well, the only problem being that the Mavericks were playing better.

Dallas shot 48.8-percent in the game, their best totals of the year and the highest anyone has shot against the Thunder so far this season as well. While the Mavericks have not been playing like defending NBA Champions, they are too good to continue to struggle. There are a number of new players in Dallas and it takes a little while to grow onto each other.

One player that is fitting in quite nicely in Dallas is Vince Carter. Look back to the last game that Dallas played the Thunder and it was Carter who hit what should have been the game winning three. This time around, Carter scored 14 points and the Thunder never had the chance for Durant to save the day.

For the Thunder, a couple of the newcomers who saw their first playing time against Phoenix played here as well. Lazar Hayward notched 10:14 in the game but went 0-for-4 from the field while rookie Reggie Jackson got limited playing time, missing all three of his attempts from 3-point land.

The stars were there, with Westbrook finishing with 18 points, James Harden adding 16 and Serge Ibaka having his second double-digit scoring game with 10 points and two more rebounds, pushing his season total to 13.

The Thunder hope to get back on track with a home contest with division rival Portland Trail Blazers. The Thunder and Trail Blazers used to be border rivals when the Thunder was located in Seattle but things have cooled on the rivalry since moving to Oklahoma City. Portland is currently 3-1, one game back from Oklahoma City in the Northwest Division.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and is an avid sports fan that has lived in Oklahoma for over 40 years. He used to religiously follow the Dallas Mavericks until Oklahoma City found a team to call their own.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

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