Game Four between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies provided the type of top-notch Playoff Basketball entertainment that can’t easily be topped, but fans are salivating over what Game Five might have in store for us tonight.

It took three overtimes and a whopping three hours and 52 minutes to finish, and tonight we’re going to get the encore of easily the most exciting game of the 2011 NBA Playoffs. It wasn’t the most technically-sound basketball game you’d ever watched, but fans would be hard pressed to name a more emotionally charged playoff game so far this postseason.

"It was a heck of a game," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "Those are the games where it’s unfortunate someone has to lose. Both teams played as hard as you could possibly play a basketball game."

The game, which lasted until well after 1 a.m. on the East Coast, kept fans glued to their TV’s and likely produced more than a few unproductive mornings at the workplace on Tuesday.

"It was a great basketball game for the fans and for the NBA and for television," Grizzlies’ coach Lionel Hollins said. "Both teams kept coming back and fighting and fighting and fighting…

"Nobody wanted to go out. Nobody wanted to lose."

What made the game so interesting was not just the way these two teams battled on the court, but the exciting nature in which the Thunder and Grizzlies simply refused to lose.  Although neither team shot particularly well from the field, or from behind the 3-point line, both Memphis and OKC hit timely shots when it mattered the most.

After getting down by as many as 17 points in the first half, Oklahoma City battled back to take its first lead of the game on a Russell Westbrook lay-in with 5:15 left in the third quarter. The Thunder would expand their lead to as much as 10 late in the 4th, before the Grizzlies came right back.

This culminated in a dramatic finish to regulation that saw Grizzlies’ point guard Mike Conley drill a deep 3 with just three seconds remaining to push the contest into overtime. Then, after the Thunder hit Memphis with another right hook late in the first overtime, Grizzlies’ reserve guard Greivis Vasquez was money on a long bomb with nine seconds left in the first OT; making sure the fun would last at least another five minutes of game action.

"They made some incredible shots and that wasn’t bad execution down the stretch," Brooks said. "That’s what NBA players do: they make tough shots. Both teams did that tonight."

Not to be outdone, Thunder reserve swingman James Harden drilled a contested 3 with 1:07 left in the second OT, and Westbrook nailed a leaner in the lane after two Zach Randolph free throws two secure yet another overtime.

This is what the playoffs are all about.

Clutch baskets are the icing on top that sets the most riveting of games apart from all of the rest, and this game was full of them on both sides.

Let’s also not take lightly the fact that Kevin Durant, after missing the go-ahead 3 as time expired in the first overtime,  scored six of the Thunder’s 13 points in overtime number three; willing his team to a 133-123 victory. The best player in the series taking over in the final minutes to win the game on the road is also something fans love to watch.

"This was probably the biggest game of my life and I wanted to try and take advantage of it," Durant said of the contest. "I wanted to leave everything on the floor, and be satisfied with the results."

Game Five, which is scheduled for tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET and can be seen nationally on TNT, has a lot to live up to. However, with two teams this hungry to advance, we’ve already seen the lengths they’ll go to in order to advance to the Western Conference Finals.

To put the kind of demand that’s now attached to watching these two teams duke it out in perspective: Tickets for Game Six in Memphis sold out in under five minutes after Monday’s epic Game Four.

Exorcising The Playoff Demons

Over the last few years, fans of the Dallas Mavericks knew there were two things you could bet your bottom dollar on happening in the postseason:

1.) Dallas being bounced from the playoffs in one of the first two rounds (usually the first) and

2.) Former Sixth Man of the Year Jason Terry not playing like his usual, more than solid, regular season self.

This year, the Mavericks have bucked both trends and it’s no coincidence that Terry’s high level of play thus far has been the key to Dallas’ postseason brilliance.

"It’s been huge," Terry said of his recent surge. "For me, it’s all about preparation. The last series, in the first round [against the Portland Trail Blazers], I had two games that weren’t very good, but we won. I looked at the tape and saw where there were opportunities for me to be more aggressive. The next three games I did better. [Game Four against the Los Angeles Lakers] was a similar situation."

Terry scored a game-high 32 points to close out the Lakers in Game Four, riding "breathtaking" shooting in the words of Rick Carlisle, as Dallas pummeled L.A. 122-86. The JET (Jason Eugene Terry) sizzled on 11-14 shooting from the field, including 9-10 from long range — an NBA postseason-record for made 3′s.

This game, and this postseason in general, has been a stark contrast from the way Terry’s played on the biggest stage in previous years.

In the 2008-2009 playoffs, after winning Sixth Man of the Year and averaging over 19.5 points per game on 46.3 % shooting in the regular season, Terry averaged just 38.9 % shooting and 14.3 points per game. Dallas was bounced in the second round in five games by the Denver Nuggets, and Terry’s disappearance was undeniably a deciding factor.

Over the course of the 2009-2010 postseason, Terry had the worst showing of his postseason career. Terry averaged just 12.7 points per game on a measly  37.7 % shooting as Dallas was bounced by the seventh-seeded San Antonio Spurs in round one.

This year, Terry has completely flipped the script, averaging both his highest postseason field goal percentage (52.4 percent) and 3-point percentage (50 percent), while scoring over 18 points per contest. This marks just the second time in his playoff career that he’s averaged over 50 percent shooting (2004-2005) or over 18 points per (2005-2006 Finals team), and Terry had never done both in the same postseason until now.

"First of all, I never lose faith in JET," former MVP Dirk Nowitzki said. "We have both been through a lot in the last six, seven years together. We always came back… We just want to win together and it’s been a fun ride so let’s see how far it can go this year."

The Mavericks’ leader at the point guard position, Jason Kidd, credits Terry’s willingness to continue to expand his game despite being an 11-year NBA veteran.

"I think he’s worked extremely hard on going left," Kidd said of Terry. "That was the thing, they weren’t going to let him go right because he’s deadly going right. But now you see him going left and he’s comfortable going left and you have to tip your hat because — being not young — he’s working on his game to get better. No matter what age you can always add something to your game, and that’s what he’s done."

Dallas looks as dangerous as ever heading into the Western Conference Finals, and it’s no coincidence that they’re spiritual leader has been key as the best player coming off the Mavericks’ supremely talented bench.

LeBron, Wade Gunning To Exorcise Postseason Demons Of Their Own

After falling to the Boston Celtics in six games last season, then Cleveland Cavaliers’ savior LeBron James walked off the court and jerked his jersey over his head in disgust in what would be his final game as the face of the Cavs’ franchise.

{AUTHOR_BOX}We all know what happened next.

This year, James and Dwyane Wade teamed up in Miami for the HEAT with the expectation of taking down the Celtics, and now have the chance to put Boston away in five games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Last season, both Wade (five games) and James (six games) were knocked out of the playoffs at the hands of the Celtics. Wade, in particular, had lost his last 11 games (including the regular season) at the Garden in the Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce era; a fact that was not lost on James and co.

"Me and D-Wade had a lot of conversation after Game Three, all the way up until the tip-ball today about how important this game is," James said after Game Three. "You know, I had heard a stat that D-Wade had lost 11 straight in this building, and I haven’t had much success in this building. So we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to come out and just try to do whatever it took to help our team win this ballgame."

In Game Four, Wade and James combined to score 63 of the HEAT’s 98 overall points (64 percent) and each did their job in crunch time to seal the win.

James scored the last six points of regulation to send it to overtime, while Wade scored five of the team’s 12 points in OT to seal the 98-90 win.

"We just tried to be more aggressive," James said of his performance. "I thought, me personally, was a little passive in Game Three…  I tried to get to the rim a little more."

"Me and LeBron talked about this last night at dinner, but this is the biggest game for us since 2006-2007 when he was playing against Detroit and I was playing in the Finals," Wade said, "and we had to approach it that way."

I think Cleveland fans, and others around the NBA, might disagree with that assessment from Wade (might even point to Game Six last postseason against Boston as the biggest game for LeBron recently), but there’s no doubt that the HEAT getting a W in Boston is huge for Miami’s mindset going into Game Five.

On the other side,the Celtics’ Garnett, who was so pivotal in the C’s Game Three 97-81 victory, continued to preach defense to a battered and beleaguered Boston squad.

"I think defense [is the answer]," KG said. "We’ve been preaching that this whole series that defense is where it’s going to be won at and we need the stops, but we didn’t get them."

Is this Boston’s last stand? Will LeBron and Wade finally get past the C’s, and into the Eastern Conference Finals?

Find out tonight,  7 p.m. ET, on TNT

HOOPSWORLD Twitter: Make sure you are following all of our guys to insure you are getting the very latest from our team: @stevekylerNBA, @AlexKennedyNBA, @jfleminghoops, @TheRocketGuy, @EricPincus, @joelbrigham, @alexraskinNBA, @stephenlitel, @TommyBeer, @DPageHOOPSWORLD and @YannisHW.