Mavericks badly need to square series with Thunder at home

Thunder at Mavericks

7 p.m. Saturday, American Airlines Center, Dallas

TV: ESPN, KTXA/Ch. 21

Radio: ESPN/103.3 FM; ESPN/1540 AM (Spanish)

Series: Thunder leads best-of-seven 2-1

About the Thunder: Oklahoma City took back home-court advantage from Dallas with a 131-102 victory in Game 3 Thursday. Kevin Durant (34 points), Russell Westbrook (26), Enes Kanter (21) and Dion Waiters (19) were scoring leaders for the Thunder. ... Up 2-1, the Thunder can close the series with wins Saturday night in Dallas and Monday night in OKC. The series winner faces the San Antonio-Memphis series winner. ... OKC’s 38-point win in Game 1 and 29-point win in Game 3 were the Mavs’ second- and third-worst playoff losses ever.

About the Mavs: Dallas can ill afford to go to Oklahoma City for Game 5 on Monday night trailing 3-1. ... The Mavs trailed all of Game 3. ... Coach Rick Carlisle on Friday accused the Thunder in general and Kevin Durant in particular of dirty play in Game 3. ... Carlisle said there’s no change in the health of point guard Deron Williams, who missed Game 3 with a sports hernia. He played in Dallas’ 85-84 Game 2 win. ... Dirk Nowitzki said the right knee bone bruise he suffered in Game 2 is no longer a factor.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Mavericks badly need to square series with Thunder at home."