Avoiding elimination in game four with a 119-117 home win, the Dallas Mavericks managed to cut Denver’s Western Conference semi-final series lead to 3-1. Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs will now go back to Colorado for game five which will get underway on Thursday at 2 a.m. GMT.

Already being down 23-34 after the first quarter, it looked like Dallas had given up and accepted their faith of going out in the second play-off round. However, half-way during the second Carmello Anthony threw an elbow at Antoine Wright’s throat and all the sudden the Mavericks were fired up and started fighting back. Slowly cutting down the deficit, Dallas was able to tie the game at the end of the third. With a huge fourth quarter of Dirk Nowitzki the Mavericks finally took the lead with one minute remaining in regulation and came away with a win on their home court. Nowitzki had 44 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists while Josh Howard finished the game with 21 points and 13 rebounds despite playing with two injured ankles. All-star Carmello Anthony set a new personal playoff record and led the Denver Nuggets with 41 points and 11 boards.

Much like game three both teams played with a lot of energy and committed several hard fouls which resulted in a total of seven technical fouls and two flagrant fouls being called. Leading the series 3-1, the Nuggets are hoping to close out the series on Thursday at Pepsi Center in Denver. So far in NBA history no team has managed to come back from a 0-3 deficit in a best-of-seven series, but Dallas has shown that they are not willing to give up yet. Rick Carlisle might consider giving undersized Brandon Bass extended minutes at the center position since Erick Dampier appeared to be to slow to defend the Nuggets’ quick post-players. Defensive key player Chris ‘Birdman’ Andersen is projected to be back in the lineup for game five after being out with stomach flu earlier this week.

You can watch game five of this NBA Western Conference semi-final series right here on www.watchlivenba.com, the home of live NBA streaming.