NBA Playoffs 2011: Brandon Roy Propels Blazers To Miraculous Win Over Mavs
Offensively, they were the NBA version of the Butler Bulldogs’ NCAA championship game performance. A lid was continuously on the basket. But then they came alive. Brandon Roy turned back the clock.
The guard, playing on two surgically repaired knees, began by nailing a three-pointer to end the third, giving Portland a shred of confidence entering the fourth. The deficit was still 18. They would need an implosion by Dallas and an amazing offensive display. It just didn’t seem likely.
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“They won’t score 40 in the fourth,” I said to my friend. That’s what they would need to win, I thought.
Dallas went away from everything that had worked. This was due in part to Portland’s heightened defensive intensity and the constant energy from the crowd. Dirk Nowitzki, who had tormented the Blazers with an array of baskets, wasn’t looked for by his teammates. To face such a deficit, Portland was jump-shot happy. This was now the Mavericks.
The tables were starting to turn, but the Blazers would need to be nearly flawless. The on-switch couldn’t just be turned on, could it?
Roy did his part to make sure it would, and he received plenty of help to chip away. Five different Blazers scored over the first three-and-a-half minutes of the fourth, with Roy hitting a jumper in the lane to cap the 13-6 run. Down 11 with over eight minutes to go. Coming back suddenly wasn’t out of the question. The crowd was on their feet, sensing what moments earlier was thought unimaginable.
After Nowitzki hit his patented rainbow leaner, LaMarcus Aldridge took Roy’s pass in the pick-and-roll and made a jumper. Still down 11 with seven minutes left. And they were still down by that amount with under five to go.
Roy connected on a mid-range two to pull within seven, but then Terry nailed a three-pointer. Three and a half remained, Portland down 80-70. The crowd groaned. There was still enough time. Everything had to go just right.
This is when Roy became the player he was prior to his knee problems. He transformed back into Mr. Fourth Quarter. No specific plays were drawn up by head coach Nate McMillan. The plan was to give the ball to Roy and watch him work. What transpired was hard to fathom.
Roy fed Aldridge for a basket. Dallas missed. Roy made a basket. Dallas missed. This was a recurring theme. Roy did everything for the Blazers and the Mavericks couldn’t stop him.
Favored Dallas, looking to go up 3-1 in the series, had no offensive flow. They were stunned. A six-point deficit turned to four. Now, with two minutes left, too much time remained for their opponent. That opponent was Roy and Roy alone. Five against one, and they were overmatched. The resurgent former All-Star was in the zone, flashing back to seasons past and taking his team on a wild ride.
The most pivotal of his many fourth quarter shots came with just over a minute left. The lanky and taller Shawn Marion drew his assignment, and proceeded to fail miserably. Roy pulled up from beyond the three-point line at the top, released, took a hack from Marion, and watched the ball kiss off the window and through. One-point game, as he was hugged by Wesley Matthews. The crowd was going ballistic. The Blazers could sense it. The Mavericks were terrified. Roy made the free-throw. Tie game. The comeback from 23 points down was almost complete. Then it was.
Terry missed a heavily contested three-pointer battling the shot-clock, and Roy followed by capping his remarkable final quarter. He shook off his defender and calmly swished a mid-range jumper, a shot that will haunt Dallas’s nightmares. The Blazers held the lead. His teammates standing on the bench could hardly contain themselves. Andre Miller, sitting because of Roy, was head cheerleader, running up and down the baseline in a euphoric state. It was remarkable, and difficult to comprehend.
Dallas had one last chance, and it went awry. Down three, Jason Kidd launched a pass downcourt to Terry, who was guarded by a lunging Roy. The Mavericks guard watched his attempt clang off the rim and depressingly to the floor. The game was over. Portland, scoring 35 fourth-quarter points to Dallas’ 15, had won.
Roy outscored the Mavericks by himself, tallying 18. The team made 15 of their 20 field goals, scoring 18 points in the paint to Dallas’ none.
Mobbed by his teammates with the emotions flowing out of every Portland player and Blazers fan, Roy tried to put into words what had just happened. “We scrapped,” he said. “Everybody scrapped. Rudy [Fernandez] and Nic [Batum]…we cut that lead from 23 to nine because of their defense.
“What happened was special. I will remember this for the rest of my life.”
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