What did I just say eh? The points that I pointed out in the preview of this game came to past! Which you can find it here: http://my40cents.blogspot.com/2012/05/oklahoma-thunders-vs-san-antonio-spurs_29.html
But for now lets get down to business. Outstanding first three quarters by the San Antonio Spurs, they literally gave a basketball clinic to OKC in showing them how to play basketball. Outplayed, outclassed, out scored period! I wish I could write and describe what transpired in the first three quarters but man! You really have to watch it for yourself. Defensively almost perfect in the first three quarters, shutting Kevin Durant out and forcing him to take tough shots. Not just him only but forcing the entire OKC team to take tough shots. Offensively it was perfect in the first three quarters and especially in the third quarter. I was speechless with what I saw, great movement of the dribble, perfect timing of the penetration by the guards, outstanding pick and rolls, best usage of screens I have seen so far this season and the list just go on and on. In short, everyone stuck to their role, played to their optimum level, no unnecessary dribbles or passes just simply the best and that itself is also not a good enough description of what had happened. Trust me, try to get your hands on the replay of the game and watch the first three quarters and you will get what I mean. I don't want to write anything more about it otherwise I would just be disrespecting the offensive game the Spurs had in the first three quarters and especially the third quarter. Tony Parker had a tremendous game tonight with a game high 34 points in 16/21, 76 percent shooting. That my friend is what you call a man who is on fire tonight. Parker literally and I mean literally bulldozed past Russel Westbrook and Westbrook had no reply at all and looked lost. Throughout the game Parker steamrolled Westbrook, and taught Westbrook how to play point guard. It was an exhibition! A clinic my friend! Tony Paker, ladies and gentlemen is on a whole different level or class or whatever you want to call it than Russel Westbrook.
The third quarter closed out with a foul fest on Thiago Splitter which he did reasonably okay, good enough for Spurs to hang on. And in the fourth quarter, this is where all the experience the Spurs has come into play. And it was experience that finally led them past the young and courageous OKC. Duncan's experience both in the passing game and in inbound plays came up big and he made huge plays for the Spurs down the stretch. And when things start to get really feisty, there is always the good old Manu Ginobili. He made huge baskets down the stretch to calm the nerves down for San Antonio and kept OKC from getting too close.
I started off in this article saying the points I wrote in the preview of this game came to past, you might be wondering "huh?" Here is why it came to past.
1) James Harden should start. First of all, he literally almost played the entire game, second of all with him on the floor OKC is just better both defensively and offensively (tonight's game just further strengthens the point) and lastly OKC has NO BENCH TO TALK ABOUT. So seriously any suggestions or ideas that he should not start the next game should be thrown out of the window as of now.
2) I wrote all three players, Durant, Westbrook and Harden have to shoot at least 60 percent to 65 percent for them to have a shot at winning. Durant came in at 10/17 that is 59 percent, Westbrook came in at 10/24 that is 41 percent and Harden came in at 10/13 which is a whopping 77 percent. They were close tonight in achieving it. If all three of them were to fulfill that 60 to 65 percent criteria they would stand a great chance of winning Game 3.
3) Somebody should just tell Russel Westbrook to stop taking too many shots. Need anymore persuasion by me on why he shouldn't take so many shots?
4) I think it is either Kevin Durant who heard his coach's instruction wrongly or Scott Brooks (the coach) just swap his left side of his brain with his right side. Kevin Durant was non existent at all in the game! DO NOT LET the boxscore of 31 points fool you people! He started the first quarter well, but for some inexplicable reason he just TOTALLY DISAPPEARED in the second, in the third was no better! By the fourth quarter I was sure he had already left the stadium! You must be thinking I am crazy, trust me I am not. ONLY 3 shots attempted in the second quarter, ONLY 4 shots attempted in the third quarter and ONLY 3 shots attempted again in the fourth. That is a total of 10 shots, let me repeat it 10 SHOTS in 36 minutes and that is three quarters of the entire game! Come on OKC! Durant is an ALLSTAR who is a scoring machine, who can pass the ball almost as well as Lebron and dictates the game! This is completely UNACCEPTABLE people! Almost OUTRAGES to think about that he only took 10 shots in 36 minutes. Start making plays for Durant! From what I have seen today, the Spurs cannot stop Durant at all! I don't want play any blame game on anybody because I did not play the game myself or was at courtside myself. But what I want to say is this, the coaching staff of OKC better start making plays for Durant and Durant himself better start asserting himself on the floor. What I have seen today on the floor today by both parties (Durant and the coaching staff) was inexplicable, unexplained, mind blowing and out of this world and OKC better hope this does not repeat again if not I can tell you this with 100 percent guarantee, they won't win the series.
5) Spurs switched off. It happened from late in the third to the middle of fourth quarter. OKC didn't take enough advantage of it, yea they did manage a mild effort but it wasn't enough to punish San Antonio. San Antonio's experience manage to ride them past this time around but I am not so sure the next time they would be so successful if this happens again especially IF KEVIN DURANT STARTS SHOOTING! As you can see, I am terribly annoyed by the disappearance of Kevin Durant in this game.
Conclusion
The Oklahoma Thunders, I believe have seen and gain something from this game though they lost. Even I who is slouch is able to catch a glaring factor that would help boost their chances of winning Game 3, and I would probably touch on it more in the preview of Game 3.
Before I sign off, I would like to say one last thing, great job to Gregg Popovich for the outstanding coaching I have seen in this game. He even managed to flip the tables to Tony Parker who was by far the best player in the court just because of one bad play in an outstanding third quarter. My hats off and salute to you Mr Popovich!
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