San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker grimaces after taking a hit to the face against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second half of Game 5 in the NBA basketball Western Conference finals on Monday in San Antonio. The Thunder won 108-103.
Eric Gay/AP
Off they go to the unfriendly confines of the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City where a raucous crowd and a confident, talented opponent awaits them, suddenly looking a bit older, a lot more vulnerable and no longer anything close to the juggernaut they were just a week ago.
The San Antonio Spurs, the NBA’s gold standard while amassing a 20-game win streak, have now lost three straight along with any sense of invincibility.
It has been a dramatic turnaround for the Spurs, who waltzed through the first two rounds of the playoffs and the first two games of the conference finals.
But the younger, more athletic Thunder have put them on their heels, using a combination of ball-hawking defence (the Spurs committed an uncharacteristic 21 turnovers in Monday’s Game 5) and a wide-ranging set of offensive skills centred on the sublime Kevin Durant.
There is something to be said, however, for the guile and the heart and the will of the Spurs who are chasing their fifth NBA title in the last 13 years.
“If we can’t win on Wednesday, we’re not a championship-calibre team, it’s as simple as that,†coach Gregg Popovich said on the podium after Game 5 when his team lost 108-103 to the Thunder. “You look at anybody who’s won championships, and they’ve won on the road as the process goes along. It’s what you do.
“And they just did it. So we need to do the same thing to hold serve.â€
For weeks, the Spurs had been odds-on favourites to roll through the West, playing a beautifully-designed offence to near perfection and stories abounded about their ability to remake themselves from the defence-oriented champions of the past. They were a joy to watch, a great story to tell.
Now?
Well, they haven’t suddenly lost the ability to play, they’ve just run into a very, very good, young Thunder team.
Why has Oklahoma City taken control, if only for the intervening day between Game 5 and 6?
“Because they’re the Western Conference finalists and they’re a hell of a basketball team,†Popovich said in the post-game media session. “I don’t know what else to tell you. It’s not like we’re playing the Sisters of the Poor.
“These guys are hard to guard, talented, hungry, athletic, and the bottom line is you can look at whatever you want, but you can’t turn it over 21 times for 28 points against a team like that. They’re too good. And that’s what we did again. Turnovers have been a theme throughout this entire deal, and part of that is us being sloppy or not delivering the ball at the right time, and part of it is that they’ve played really good defence.â€
But in the push and pull of a playoff series, it’s folly to think one is over until a fourth win is in the bag. Yes, the Thunder need to win just one of two games to advance to the NBA finals for the first time in their existence but the Spurs aren’t going to simply sit idly by and let them do it.
“Do we have another choice?†asked Manu Ginobili. “It’s not that we have a Game 8 or 9 to recover, so it’s either win or go home. So we have to. It’s our job.â€
They done their job so well so many times in the past, no one should be surprised if they don’t do it again.
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