The Oklahoma City Thunder managed to steal a game on the road from the Dallas Mavericks, saving themselves from the brink of elimination with a Game 4 victory. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's huge performance led the way in a 100-96 win and the series now stands at 2-2.

SGA stuffed the stat sheet with 34 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks while shooting 14-27 from the field and 6-6 from the foul line. He scored or assisted on eight of OKC's 12 field goals in the fourth quarter, where they outscored the Mavs by eight and pulled ahead late to win.

In his postgame interview — surrounded by his teammates, as per usual for the Thunder — Gilgeous-Alexander said that the Thunder knew how to come back from big deficits. They trailed by as much as 15 and went into halftime down 11 but went on to secure the win.

“We just stuck to it. We just plugged away, took it possession by possession and eventually, the game turned for us,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We've been in this situation a lot. We've been down double-digits; I think we lead the league in double-digit comebacks. We've been there before and we just knew what it took and we got it done tonight.”

According to the stats website Champs Or Chumps, the Thunder indeed have the most comebacks from at least 10 points with 17. They’re also tied for 12th place in the most fourth-quarter comebacks (14) with the Charlotte Hornets and Sacramento Kings. Even though this is the first playoff run for this era of Thunder basketball, the youngsters know how to handle adversity and stick together.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder pick up pivotal Game 4 win vs. Mavs

The Thunder did benefit generously from the Mavs shooting a woeful 12-23 from the free-throw line. According to Stathead, that percentage of 52.2 is the worst that any team has shot over at least 20 attempts in a playoff game over the last five seasons. OKC, meanwhile, took care of business by making 23 of its 24 foul shots. Clearly, the Mavs didn’t know that they’re called free throws because they’re free points!

But even with Dallas' awful showing at the foul line, the Thunder fought hard and earned this win. They held Luka Doncic to 6-20 shooting from the field and limited Kyrie Irving to just 11 shot attempts and two foul shots. The Thunder shot poorly from the field (38.0 percent as a team) but scraped together enough points and stops, particularly on Dallas' stars, to tie the series at two wins apiece.

This Thunder team has a very deep rotation of players who can either score, shoot threes or defend (usually a combination of both) at a high level, and also starting guard Josh Giddey. Especially with underperforming midseason addition Gordon Hayward out of the rotation, they have plenty of players to turn to in the hopes of advancing to the Western Conference Finals.

Game 5 is back at home for the Thunder. They’ll host the Mavs at Paycom Center once again on Wednesday with tip-off scheduled for 9:30 PM EST. The winner will head back to Dallas with a chance to clinch the series on Saturday night.