Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

James Harden was named the NBA’s best sixth man yesterday to the surprise of no one. Harden was winning this award from the first game of the season this year and had little competition for it all season.

Harden averaged basically a 17-4-4 shooting 49 percent from the field and 39 percent from three. He did everything for Oklahoma City’s second unit and showed in Game 4 that he can be relied on to close out games for them as well.

Is Harden one of the best sixth men ever? Is he the best one ever?

The award wasn’t given out until the 1982-83 season. Bobby Jones of Philadelphia won it that year then Kevin McHale won it the next two. The Sixth Man of the Year award winner was on the NBA championship team in three of the first four seasons.

Sixth men have always been a crucial piece to championship teams. And it makes sense too. Being a sixth man often means sacrificing being a starter and hearing your name called out every night before the game. Winning a championship is about sacrificing for the team and for the greater good.

Before we determine if Harden is the best sixth man ever we need to figure out what are the best qualities for a sixth man to have.

Scoring off the bench is probably the most important. It is so valuable to have someone who can come in off the bench and score at a high level. And when you get to do this against a second unit it can sometimes become a deadly weapon like in the case of Harden.

Harden is really one of the premiere one-on-one scorers in the league and when he gets to play the first six minutes of the second and fourth quarters against bench units he is really able to take advantage of this strength.

Like I mentioned before being a player who is willing to sacrifice is also an important ingredient in a sixth man. Harden is easily able to do this because he plays with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. So it makes a ton of sense for him to play a lot of minutes without either of them so that the Thunder can maximize their three best players’ potential.

A great sixth man must also be able to close out games. We saw Jason Terry as a perfect example of this last year for Dallas and Harden is now showing signs of becoming that guy for Oklahoma City. Manu Ginobili was also the offensive closer in a lot of cases during his championship days for San Antonio.

What really makes Harden so special is that he not only can carry a scoring load for the second unit but also essentially is the point guard for the Thunder’s bench squad. When Eric Maynor was lost for the year with an injury earlier this season, Harden’s role increased. He had to create everything for himself and others on the bench.

I think this is where Harden separates himself from past Sixth Man of the Year winners is his ability to thrive in two crucial bench roles. He can do this because he has superstar talent and an incredible understanding of how to play the game and what’s important.

Harden is no right up there with ’08 Ginobili who played a similar role that Harden did this year and with slightly better numbers.

Other than Ginobili you have to go back to the 1980’s to find a better sixth man than Harden. In 1985, Kevin McHale averaged a 20-9 for the Celtics and he also shot .570 percent from the field. The year before McHale averaged 18.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game and they won the title.

Harden’s not on that level yet and may never be at least as a sixth man. Harden has a chance in the rest of these playoffs to get there though. If he becomes the closer for the Thunder handling the ball down the stretch of games then this Thunder team really has a chance to go all the way, cementing Harden as possibly the best bench player of all-time.

Harden was the easy choice for the award from the day the regular season started. He averaged 16.8 points, 3.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game during the regular season.

Harden had a breakout game in Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round proving just how valuable of a player he is, scoring 15 points in the final quarter to help Oklahoma City erase a 13-point deficit.

Lou Williams of Philadelphia finished second in the voting and received three first place votes. Don’t let those three guys watch basketball anymore.

Jason Terry finished third in the voting and Taj Gibson actually received one first place vote. Again, no more basketball watching for you sir.

The Thunder trailed 81-68 entering the fourth quarter and it looked like the series would be going back to Oklahoma City.

Then Harden took over the game. The Thunder offense went exclusively through him as it usually does when he’s out there with the bench unit and it also continues to when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook checked back in.

An interesting thing to note here too is that Scott Brooks took Durant out with a few minutes left in the third quarter and when he does that it usually means Durant will start the fourth quarter and play the rest of the game.

If Durant starts the fourth does Harden completely take over? Maybe not.

In the fourth quarter the Thunder would have 22 offensive possessions. Twenty of them came in the half court and 15 straight of them were Harden dribbling down, getting one pick and creating everything.

Let’s go through the entire fourth quarter for the Thunder.

The first three possessions, the Thunder run their Corner 2 set that featured Harden and Nick Collison in dribble handoff action.

Harden comes off a Collison screen and drives left to the paint and then finds Daequan Cook throwing a pass across his body for the three. When Harden makes passes, shooters make shots because the basketball Gods love his passes.

11:38 – Dallas up 81-71

Harden drives left again off of a Collison screen and the ball is poked away out of bounds by Delonte West from behind. Cook then finds Serge Ibaka wide open for a dunk on a slip from the baseline out of bounds play.

10:56 – Dallas up 81-73

Before the ball can go to Collison on the next possession, Derek Fisher reads an opening to drive on the pick-and-roll and then misses the pull-up jumper.

10:11 – Dallas up 83-73

Durant checks back in. Now the Thunder are just having Harden bring the ball up usually to the right wing and bring a screen to him above the 3-point line. Harden drives hard left and gets fouled from behind and gets the continuation layup to fall and makes the free throw.

9:29 – Dallas up 86-76

Harden this time when he gets into the paint goes to his right and misses the tough layup. Ibaka follows up the offensive rebounds and misses the putback.

9:00 – Dallas up 86-76

Harden gets the pick-and-roll but nothing is there right away. He backs off then goes straight into West on the isolation drive and finishes with a tough eurostep from 10-feet away. Dallas fans wanted the travel.

Here are his last two buckets.

8:33 – Dallas up 86-78

Westbrook checks back in. Harden gets his screen again and goes hard to his left finishing with the layup.

8:07 – Dallas up 86-80

Harden gets the screen but there isn’t a lot of space to drive and kicks back to Durant who comes up some to the right wing and Durant drills the three. Again, shooters knock down shots when Harden is the passer.

7:26 – Dallas up 86-83

Harden gets the pick and splits the defenders on his way to the huge monster dunk.

6:39 – Dallas up 86-85

Dallas now decides to go to their matchup zone so that Harden can’t as easily attack the paint. It works in a way. Harden has to kick out to Westbrook on the left wing after the pick. Westbrook drives and kicks back out to Harden who swings it to Durant on the right wing who nails the three.

6:05 – Tie game 88-88

Harden gets the pick again and quickly kicks out to Durant on the right wing. Dirk comes up to close out on Durant and Durant drives hard baseline past him and finishes with the flush.

5:33 – Dallas up 91-90

Westbrook strips Dirk on defense then finds a trailing Ibaka for the fast break dunk to give the Thunder their first lead of the quarter.

5:16 – Oklahoma City up 92-91

Dallas still in the matchup zone. Harden waives off the Ibaka screen and goes one-on-one on Jason Kidd. He drives to his right and misses the layup over Ian Mahinmi.

4:37 – Oklahoma City up 92-91

Harden again isolates with Kidd on him and drives left this time but loses his handle on the way to the rim. He regains it then kicks back out to Derek Fisher who drives in for the layup.

4:05 – Oklahoma City up 94-91

Dallas is back in man. Harden gets the screen and drives left. Jason Terry helps on the drive and Harden kicks out to Westbrook on the left wing who misses the 3-pointer.

3:34 – Oklahoma City up 94-91

Harden in the pick-and-roll and Mahinmi doesn’t hedge creating a situation where Harden has momentum driving right at Mahinmi. Harden gets to his right and is fouled shooting the layup and makes both.

3:00 – Oklahoma City up 96-91

Thunder try and go pick-and-roll again with Harden. Nothing is there and Harden kicks to Durant. The ball goes back to Harden at the end of the shot clock and he goes one-on-one with Shawn Marion on him and scores going to his left with the layup.

2:30 – Oklahoma City up 98-93

Dallas is looking to go back into their matchup zone here but the Thunder are overloaded on the left side of the floor. Dallas gets confused and Harden swings to Durant on the right wing before the pick-and-roll comes all the way. Dallas is scrambling and Durant finds Collison diving to the rim and he’s fouled shooting a layup and makes both free throws.

2:01 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

Dallas in the zone and Marion ends up on Harden who decides to just isolate on him. Marion is playing off him and Harden knows he can get the stepback three off. He misses it.

1:27 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

The Thunder go to Durant isolating at the top of the key. He has space and elects to go for the pull-up straightaway 3-pointer. He misses it.

0:48 – Oklahoma City up 100-95

The Thunder go back to Harden in the pick-and-roll while Dallas is back in man. Harden gets Kidd to switch on to him and then easily drives by him going to his right and the paint is wide open for him to finish with the layup.

So Harden scores 15 in the quarter and dishes out three assists (all for 3-pointers). The Thunder ran the same basic play on 15 straight half court possessions and it worked incredibly well.

I’ve said before that the Thunder are at their best doing exactly this. With Harden as the playmaker and Durant and Westbrook off the ball they are maximizing the three’s potential. We saw Harden of course do that in Game 4 and Durant too showed us how good he can be off the ball.

Westbrook’s greatest impact came on defense but he’s shown before how effective he can be off the ball when Harden has it.

It was so important for Oklahoma City to get Harden playing well in their first round series and that’s exactly what happened. The sweep of the defending champs proved that the Thunder are serious contenders and they will go as far as Harden takes them.

The Thunder lead Dallas 57-50 at halftime behind 15 points from Russell Westbrook and 14 from Kevin Durant.

Dirk Nowitzki is again looking like 2011 Playoffs Dirk with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Dirk had some chippy moments in the first quarter as well with Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins.

The Thunder went on a 21-4 run starting with 1:22 left in the first quarter and led 42-27 with just under seven minutes to play in the half. Dallas fought back some when Dirk checked back in.

Derek Fisher helped give the Thunder second-unit a nice lift scoring eight points on 4-for-5 shooting.

Jason Terry who was very hot from the start in Game 1 didn’t score until the final 30 seconds tonight and has just three points.

The Thunder are executing pretty well overall tonight and if they can turn up the defense some in the second half they should be able to come away with the victory. This game feels like the only way they’d let it slip away is if they suddenly went cold from the field.

A 2-0 lead heading to Dallas will be extremely important for the Thunder in this series.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder came back to win Game 1 at home against the Dallas Mavericks Saturday night thanks to Kevin Durant doing this.

Durant struggled in the game however going 10-for-27 from the field for 25 points.

The Thunder relied more on Russell Westbrook and his midrange game which was on point. Westbrook scored 28 points to lead the Thunder but his best work was his defense on Jason Terry in the fourth quarter.

Terry was 8-of-9 from the field with 20 points in the first three quarters before Westbrook switched on to him and held him to 0-for-1 shooting and 0 points in the fourth.

Dirk Nowitzki came alive in the fourth after a slow start and the Mavericks were truly looking like the team that win the NBA title last season. Nowitzki scores 11 points of Dallas’ final 13 points but Kendrick Perkins slows him down in the final minutes to help allow the Thunder to come back.

Oklahoma City played with a much better defensive intensity in the second half and they will need to repeat that in the first half of Game 2 to ensure another victory.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Serge Ibaka played great offensively with 22 points but can the Thunder expect that again from him tonight?

Durant will need to be more efficient and Westbrook will need to continue hitting his jump shot. But the Thunder need to get to the line more too only attempting 20 free throws in Game 1.

Westbrook only attempted one free throw and when he’s hitting his jumper sometimes becomes more one-dimensional in his approach. He needs to find a better balance with attacking and looking for his jump shot.

Dallas made 10-of-22 three-pointers and they shouldn’t shoot that high of a mark in Game 2 tonight.

It felt like Dallas played great and Oklahoma City was scrambling to get back in the game Saturday night. It is then very fortunate the Thunder are able to pull out the win and be in position to go up 2-0 tonight.

James Harden continues his strong play against Dallas in Game 1 with 19 points and 9-of-10 free throw shooting. He is the key for this Thunder team to go far in the playoffs and will be especially vital in this matchup with Dallas.

Kevin Durant made a fading 15-footer over two defenders with a second left on the clock to give the Oklahoma City Thunder the 99-98 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of their first round series.

Durant was just 10-for-27 in the game and scored 25 points to go with six rebounds, four assists and four blocks.

The Thunder trailed 94-87 with 2:31 left in the game following a Dirk Nowitzki jumper. Nowitzki would score 11 of Dallas’ final 13 points in the game but once Kendrick Perkins switched on to him after this jumper, he would only score two more points. Nowitzki finished the game with 25 points.

Durant was struggling mightily from the field but found other ways to affect the game. He made a great pass inside to Serge Ibaka for an and-one finish with 1:47 left in the game that cut the score to 94-92.

On the next possession with Perkins bodying up hard on Nowitzki, Harden helped and stripped the ball from Nowitzki for a steal. Harden then found Durant filling the lane for the dunk to tie the game at 94 with 1:27 left.

The Thunder played great defense the following possession but the ball bounced the Mavericks’ way at the end of the shot clock and Ian Mahinmi got fouled and made two free throws to put the Mavericks back on top by two.

Scott Brooks called timeout with 1:02 left and the Thunder went to one of their best sets that they’ve run all year. Durant got into the paint and found Ibaka again for an and-one finish.

Nowitzki would finally get the best of Perkins on an up-and-under on the next possession but there was enough time left after Nowitzki’s free throws for Durant’s final heroics.

Durant was the MVP of the final minutes but it was a huge team effort for the Thunder to come back in this one.

They didn’t have enough defensive intensity in the first half and Russell Westbrook carried the offense and finished the game with 28 points and five assists.

Most importantly on Westbrook’s part was his defense on Jason Terry down the stretch. Terry had scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting in the game but did not score in the fourth quarter with Westbrook on him.

Ibaka was also great scoring 22 points in the game to go with six rebounds and five blocks and of course the clutch free throws and finishes down the stretch.

Things didn’t look good for the Thunder early in the fourth quarter. They were playing small with Durant at the four and they couldn’t protect the paint that way.

Harden helped lead the comeback too making seemingly every smart play including a few steals. He would finish with 19 points on just seven shots.

The Thunder showed in this game how they could let the Mavericks beat them and how they could beat the Mavericks. Perkins matched up with Nowitzki seems much better than Ibaka covering him and Westbrook did a fantastic job on Terry.

Dallas shot five more free throws than Oklahoma City in the game with Durant only shooting five and Westbrook just one.

Game 2 will be played Monday night at 9:30 p.m. EST.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder have been slow starters quite often this year and that was the case tonight in the first playoff game of the year against the defending champs.

Kevin Durant started the game 0-for-4 but he Thunder were still close with Dirk Nowitzki starting the game 1-for-6.

Jason Terry gave the Mavericks a lift when he came into the game making his first six shots on his way to a 14-point first half.

Russell Westbrook carried the offense early for the Thunder. At the half Westbrook leads the Thunder with 13 points while Durant has 12.

Serge Ibaka scored 11 points including a three-pointer at the end of the first half, his first of the season. Ibaka and Durant each blocked two shots as well.

The Thunder are allowing Dallas to shoot 48.8 percent from the field so far and have attempted just five free throws compared to 11 for Dallas.

James Harden has scored 10 points in his first game back since the Metta World Peace elbow.

The Thunder seem to reliant on the jump shot thus far with the Mavericks allowing them space and enticing the attempt. Oklahoma City needs to get into more sets and attack the Dallas defense.

The game feels very similar to what these teams did last year in the Western Conference Finals and that is not a good sign for the Thunder.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook couldn’t throw it in the ocean and Dirk Nowitzki took over in the fourth quarter. Oklahoma City still hung on to win 95-91, good for their 13th straight home win this season.

Nowitzki scored 12 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, all of which came off three-pointers. His final three put Dallas ahead 91-87 with 2:46 left in the game. The Mavericks wouldn’t score the rest of the game.

After a scrambled possession by Oklahoma City, James Harden found Westbrook on the right wing for a three-pointer to cut the Thunder deficit to a point with 2:24 to play.

With 46 seconds left, Durant drove by Jason Kidd and dished off in the paint to Serge Ibaka who drew a foul by Nowitzki and proceeded to hit both free throws to give Oklahoma City the lead.

The Thunder played great defense on the next possession shooting passing lanes and forcing Jason Terry to throw up a desperation jumper over Kendrick Perkins as the shot clock expired.

The Thunder made enough free throws the rest of the game to come away with the victory.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Durant shot 6-of-18 in the game and Westbrook 6-of-20. Harden was the key in the fourth as he scored 12 points in the first four minutes of the final quarter.

The Thunder have traditionally had turnover problems when playing Dallas but tonight turned it over 15 times compared to 12 for the Mavericks.

The Thunder held a huge advantage at the line going 29-for-33 from the stripe while Dallas only got there 10 times.

Oklahoma City really played great defense all night as Nowitzki was visibly frustrated for most of the game with the kind of physical contact he received. Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison did a solid job on Nowitzki as Ibaka made six blocks in the game.

It seemed like a game the Thunder really wanted to win from the start. Durant and Westbrook looked focused and were maybe too intense and not loose enough for the game. Dallas has Oklahoma City’s number in some regard despite the Thunder taking the season series this year winning three of the four matchups.

The Thunder can feel good after this one though. They definitely have exercised some demons beating the Mavericks tonight and weathering the Nowitzki hot streak from beyond the arc in the fourth.

Oklahoma City (30-8) will host Phoenix (17-20) Wednesday night for their next game.