San Antonio Spurs vs Oklahoma City Thunders (Game 3 Western Conference Finals)

Well well well... Here we go again! Preview of game 3 of the Western Conference Finals! This time the Spurs will travel to Chesapeake Energy Arena (Thunders's home court name if you are wondering) and try to secure Game 3.

I will focus more on OKC this time around, seriously for the Spurs there is nothing much to write about.

What OKC have to do to win tomorrow's game?

1) I am putting this point first as I was annoyed by the fact that OKC so far have not "use" him yet and guess what? He is their marquee player. That's right, "USE KEVIN DURANT MORE". I know you might be going like "Oh you don't say" kind of expression. But seriously man, your team have a superstar in the name of Kevin Durant and you are hardly even using him at all? How obvious OKC needs this point to be? I don't know whether the coaching staff is not making plays for him or he is not asserting himself into the game, honestly I don't care! All I know is this, KEVIN DURANT HAVE TO SHOW UP TOMORROW AND GET THE JOB DONE.

2) I have pointed out in my reactions to the aftermath of Game 2 that i spotted something that would help OKC in this game and I would like to elaborate more about it now. The thing I spotted is this and I know it might sound stupid but anyway here we go. For OKC to have a higher advantage in terms of stopping the Spurs offense strategies is this, it is either to go zone type defense (I have not seen OKC played this before, Boston did it late in Game 1 against the Heats) or to play defense "messy". As you can see I am lost for words here, basically it is to disrupt the flow or the rhythm of the Spurs offense. I realized that the more OKC played "orthodox" defensive basketball (with all the defensive strategies) they seemed to get taken apart so quickly but when late in the Game 2, OKC seem to be just playing with their instincts to protect their basket and in all honesty Spurs seemed to have struggled against that kind of instinctive play style. I think one commentator put it like this "Street Fight", that would probably be the best description of what I am trying to illustrate here.

3) Stop passing the ball the Russel Westbrook. Nah.. I am kidding, but you get my point, he has to stop taking so many shots.

4) Start James Harden.

5) Go small, with the only big man coming in the form of Serge Ibaka. Perkins, in all honesty is quite useless in this series.

These are the main things OKC have to do to stand a better chance of winning, the rest of the other points would be in my previous posts of the series which meant that I have mentioned it before.

Alright enough of OKC, now what Spurs got to do to win the game and probably secure the series?

Three main things.

1) They have to stop their once a game switch off habits.

2) During the last day or so of rest, Thiago Splitter had better train overtime on his free throws.

3) Play like how they are playing right now.


I know in the previous game, OKC came up with the hacking Splitter strategy to draw near to the Spurs but there is two ways to counter it. Before I proceed I must say this, I have not seen this from anywhere and if there are similarities out there in terms of how to counter the hacking strategy I DID NOT COPY OR COMMIT ANY FORM OF PLAGIARISM. I will touch on it briefly here and we can discuss more about it in the "Comments" section below. Basically it is to make Splitter do the in bounce pass and ask Splitter not to enter the court until the ball has travel to the OKC half. Only when the ball has traveled to the OKC half then Splitter would then enter the court. By doing this, though the hacking foul will still come but at least by doing this it eats into the clock and the number of times OKC can do this will be lessen by 1 or 2 (1 to 4 points lost). But there is a perfect way to prevent the hack strategy, I would be glad to share it in the "Comments" section below upon request.

Alright before I sign off, I would say one thing, it is not that OKC has no chance at all to win tomorrow's game but the odds are stacked against them even though they have home court advantage. But I would like to see OKC taking victory tomorrow to make the series interesting. They have a chance but they have to grab the chance with both hands when it presents itself, if not there won't be a next time. Chances like the Spurs switching off for a brief moment in Game 2 have to be taken full advantage off.

That's it for me, see ya~!