SAN ANTONIO â€" Before the start of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals here at AT&T Center, Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks spoke some words of praise about his team’s opponent, the Spurs, who entered Tuesday’s matchup with a 19-game winning streak dating back to April 12 and a 1-0 lead in the series.
“It’s not like teams are trying to give them wins,†Brooks said. “We’re all trying to beat them. We’re trying to figure out ways to beat them. They’ve got a great inside player, smart, selfless, a protector at the basket. They’ve got an incredible number of 40-percent 3-point shooters, all throughout the team. They’ve got two
The San Antonio Spurs take a 2-0 series lead over the Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant scores 31 points but can't foil the Spurs' 120-111 win. (AP Photo)
of the best penetrating guards in the league. They’re a great team. It’s not a good team, it’s a great team.â€
If that sounded like a coach having a hard time finding some weak spots his team can attack, it was with good reasonâ€"the Spurs once again showed that their offense is humming at an unbeatable rate and that their defense is good enough to win a championship, taking a commanding two-game lead in this series with a 120-111 over the Thunder. The streak is now at 20 games, tied for the third-longest winning streak in NBA history.
Things looked bad for the Thunder from the get-go. Oklahoma City fell behind by a 10-2 margin just four minutes into the game, and never led in the first half. The Thunder were kept afloat by Kevin Durant (31 points total) and James Harden (30 points), who had 14 each in the half, but the rest of the team was just 6-for-29 from the field and OKC gave up seven turnovers in the half. Russell Westbrook finished the game with 27, but was just 10-for-24 from the field.
The Spurs, meanwhile, were unstoppable, and took a 55-44 lead to the locker room. Their offense, as it stands, is relentless, with ball movement galore setting up a variety of players for open shots. Led by the penetration of point guard Tony Parker, who was 8-for-11 from the field with 17 first-half points, San Antonio put on a clinic. Parker finished with 34 points and eight assists, spearheading a Spurs attack
that shot 55.1 percent from the field and had 27 team assists. Rookie Kawhi Leonard added 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Manu Ginobili had 20 points.
The Spurs broke things open in the third quarter, using a 10-2 run in the middle of the quarter to push to a 22-point lead. Brooks tried anything within reach to get his team back in the game, including attempting to foul Tiago Splitterâ€"who entered the game shooting 32.0 percent from the free-throw line in the playoffsâ€"but Splitter foiled that plan by going 6-for-12 from the line. It wasn’t until Harden got going again, though, that Oklahoma City was able to get back into the game, cutting the lead to single digits, all the way to six points with 5:40 to play in the fourth.
But the deficit, in the end, was too much to overcome, and the Spurs held off OKC down the stretch. Fittingly, it was a 12-foot floater from Parker at 3:39 that put the Spurs back up by 11 and sealed the game.
The backs of the Thunder aren’t quite yet against the wall, but there’s no question they need to take their two games in Oklahoma Cityâ€"Game 3 comes on Thursday and Game 4 is Saturday, and the Thunder
have not lost at home in the playoffs.
No comments:
Post a Comment