While the Oklahoma City Thunder finished the job against the Dallas Mavericks with a game 5 win, both the Charlotte Hornets and the Portland Trail Blazers made sure their series will run a little longer, winning game 4 to make it a 2-2 tie.
Miami Heat 85 Charlotte Hornets 89 (Series tied at 2-2): The Heat seemed to focus on stopping Frank Kaminsky and Al Jefferson, but got torched by the guards. Kemba Walker scored 34 points on 28 shots while Jeremy Lin turned in another spectacular performance with 21 points off the bench. The Hornets shot just 4-for-17 from three, but they made the most of going to the line, taking 30 shots and making 83.3% of them. The Heat shot just 39.5% from the field, led by 16 points from Joe Johnson.
Dallas Mavericks 104 Oklahoma City Thunder 118 (Thunder win series 4-1): The series remained chippy through the game with Justin Anderson hitting both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook with elbows and after with some comments made from both sides. But in terms of basketball, there wasn’t much to figure out: The Thunder are much better. Russell Westbrook scored 36 points to go with 12 rebounds and 9 assists while Kevin Durant added 33 points in an impressive shooting night. Nowitzki scored 24 points to lead the Mavericks, who are knocked out in the first round of the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
Los Angeles Clippers 84 Portland Trail Blazers 98 (Series tied at 2-2): The Blazers won and tied the series, but the big news is Chris Paul breaking a bone in his right hand and once he left Portland were able to pull away. Griffin, struggling since his return from his own broken hand, didn’t finish the game due to some pain in his quads. Al-Farouq Aminu shocked everyone with 30 points, helped out by 19 from C.J. McCollum. Suddenly, the Blazers look like the favorites to end up winning this series and play in the conference semifinals, probably against the Golden State Warriors.