Okay...I'm not gonna lie here - I turned this game off in the second half. Wait...before you go off all half cocked on me, I know what you're thinking - "Dude, you are the hella Thunder fan...what the heck were you doing NOT watching the game???" And for the most part, you'd be right...I am a huge Thunder fan, and that's exactly WHY I couldn't watch the game. It was too painful to watch the team I've seen wreck other teams all season get thumped on their way to a 120-111 loss. And I just found out that I've had Showtime at my house for almost 2 years and didn't know it...so since the King's Speech had just started, I figured I'd give that a whirl. And having seen the King's Speech once before, I figured I knew how it and the Thunder/Spurs game would both end.
On paper, this doesn't seem like a huge loss for the Thunder, but having watched the first half and most of the 3rd quarter, let me tell you - it was. If I said to anyone before the game that the Thunder would score 111, KD would drop 31 points on only 17 shots (31 on only 17 shots!), Harden would finally get on track and shred the Spurs for 30 on 10-13 shooting, and Russ would put up a 27-7-8 line with ZERO turnovers (and that the Thunder would only have 10 total turns as a team) that anyone would have said "holy crap, that's a Thunder win going away huh?" Only it wasn't. It wasn't anything even close to that.
First off, Tony Parker was out of his mind in this game. And I mean out-of-his-mind. Like he took 21 shots and only missed 5 all night out of his mind. And it wasn't even that he made a lot of shots, it was how and when that he made them that was the difference...everything was in the rhythm of the Spurs offense. Heck, even the wide open 3 he canned midway thru the 3rd quarter was the right shot to take (and TP doesn't attempt a lot of 3s at all) for that moment in the game. If I wasn't rooting for the other team, it would have been a beautiful thing to behold.
Ginobili was a little more pedestrian than he was in game 1, if only for the fact that Parker took his role of "single handedly killing the Thunder." Duncan had a relatively quiet double double, but once again it was the timely shots by Spurs role players that hurt. Kawhi Leonard dropped 18 points and Splitter and Diaw combined for 17 more. Mostly it was the obvious difference in the defensive mindset of the Thunder players from game 1 that hurt them the most. There was less activity on the defensive side, not as much of the bodies-flying-everywhere tactic to chase the Spurs off the 3 point line that I mentioned in my game 1 recap (which I know you already read). There was little if any rotational help from the Thunder interior players, and the number of wide open layups and jump shots the Spurs had because of it was staggering. This is a team that scored 120 in regulation! Another painfully obvious fact is the Thunders bigs can't really finish around the hoop. I think Steve Kerr pointed this out during the first half of the game...there is an obvious scoring ability difference between guys like Diaw and Splitter on the Spurs, and guys like Perkins and Collison on the Thunder. Getting a combined 11 points from Ibaka, Perkins, Mohammed, and Collison is NOT going to get the job done against the Spurs frontcourt, and this forced Scott Brooks to go small ball and play a lineup that includes Fisher or Sefolosha a lot more. Listen...I get not everyone has got an Andrew Bynum or Dwight Howard ready to go in their starting lineup. But looking at other basketball metrics tells us the real story...when Perkins and Ibaka are a -14 and a -9 respectively, while Derek Fisher (yes I said 37 year old former Laker Derek Fisher) is a +9, there are issues with OKC's frontcourt. To be fair, KD was a -6, Russ was a -3, and Harden (off the bench) was only a +3. But when you get a combined 88 points from your big 3, you should win most nights. And put simply, the Thunder didn't.
After having missed a golden opportunity to steal game 1 from the Spurs in their house, game 2 was more like a referendum on how to play basketball "the right way" and the Spurs sure did put on a clinic in that respect. I don't know that the Thunder could play better than they did on Tuesday night...and they still lost. But they are going home, and there is something to be said for that. All the Spurs did was what they were supposed to do...win games on their home floor. If the Thunder can get a win on Thursday night, they can breathe a little easier. Getting a win off a team that has won 20 in a row won't be easy, but there were moments in game 1 and game 2 where the Spurs could have been had. The Thunder have been tested in the playoffs before this, but have not faced a team like the Spurs before. Its going to take every offensive and defensive skill in their arsenal to get one at home against San Antonio. i think they will have to play mistake free basketball for 48 minutes at their highest level to get a W.
Can they do it? I damn sure believe they can. This Thunder squad isn't going down without a fight. For as good as the Spurs have been, they are heading now to a place called Loud City for a reason. And the Thunder are very, very good at home. Just ask the Mavs and the Lakers. As always, #ThunderNationRISE
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