El Conclusion: San Antonio Spurs 112, Oklahoma City Thunder 77

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Oklahoma City Thunder 77 FinalRecap | Box Score 112 San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan, PF 29 MIN | 5-12 FG | 4-4 FT | 12 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 2 TO | 14 PTS | +32
Another double-double. The shot wasn’t there tonight, but as usual Duncan didn’t force anything and he and Tiago Splitter just closed off the paint.

Kawhi Leonard, SF 16 MIN | 2-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 4 PTS | +23
He had four dimes, so that was good. And after picking up two early fouls he made Durant work for every basket he defended him on. Sure, more offense would’ve been good, though it wasn’t necessary, but keeping off the free throw line is probably the most important stat.

Tiago Splitter, C 24 MIN | 2-4 FG | 5-5 FT | 10 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 3 BLK | 1 TO | 9 PTS | +17
As MySA’s Dan McCarney said, we didn’t expect Tiago to turn into Bill Russell defending the rim. He was all over the place tonight. Aggressive on both ends of the court. Would Ibaka being there change things? Sure, but the way Tiago’s playing on defense, the Spurs would still be in good shape.

Tony Parker, PG 28 MIN | 10-17 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 5 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 22 PTS | +32
For the first couple of minutes of the game it looked like he was going to settle for jumpers, but then he kept finding his way into the paint. Great game for him.

Danny Green, SG 28 MIN | 7-11 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 21 PTS | +24
Keep shooting, Danny. And keep making Westbrook work. Perfect series for him so far.

Aron Baynes, PF 12 MIN | 2-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | +6
Initially I think we thought the Spurs bigs would play less of an important role, but it turns out every big guy has played such an important role because the Thunder bigs seems to keep getting in foul trouble.

Matt Bonner, PF 7 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | +5
Get those boards, Bonner.

Boris Diaw, PF 24 MIN | 4-6 FG | 2-4 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 11 PTS | +10
He creates such a match up problem for the Thunder, even if the Spurs defense seems to struggle when he’s on the court. He always finds a way to capitalize on a mismatch.

Patty Mills, PG 16 MIN | 0-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | +2
Probably the only Spur to have a bad game. I can only think of one of his shots that was wide open or not rushed. And then he passed up a couple of open looks. The hustle will always be there and I imagine he’ll re-examine the shot selection in between games.

Cory Joseph, PG 9 MIN | 3-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 6 PTS | +7
It was garbage time, but he just kept attacking the basket.

Manu Ginobili, SG 21 MIN | 2-4 FG | 6-6 FT | 3 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 11 PTS | +14
The whip pass to Green in the second quarter off the hammer set was a thing of beauty. He also go to the line, which is so important this series. Now he gets four days to recharge.

Marco Belinelli, SG 19 MIN | 3-9 FG | 2-2 FT | 7 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 8 PTS | -2
I’m not sure I ever expected him to pick up seven boards, but I’ll take it. His shot is still hit and miss, but nine shot attempts shows he’s still getting his shot off.

Gregg Popovich
The best thing he’s done is not alter his game plan when Scott Brooks tosses random line ups to the wall to see what sticks.

  • Filemon

    There were some concerns about the Spurs’s laziness in the 3 quarter. Done. Any other concern?

  • Gomezd

    Its going to suuuuuuuuuck having to do the margin for this game

  • David Donnel

    At this rate “The Margin” is going to have to be one bullet for every 2 or 3 points the Spurs win by

  • Jon Richey

    The Spurs philosophy……

  • lvmainman

    2 turning points in the game for the Spurs.
    1) Tim Duncan getting a technical. It caused the refs to stop calling those you’re breathing on Durant fouls.
    2) Kendrick Perkins cheap shot. The Thunder had been fouling like that the entire game up to that point. But, the refs realized it was going overboard. It helped the Spurs get into the bonus. It turned it back into a basketball game and not a rugby scrum. Adams chest bumped Duncan on defense 3 times before a foul was called. Westbrook attempted to break Ginobili’s nose on offense with a 3 point shot. If Perkins hadn’t got a cheap shot in earlier, I doubt the refs would have called that foul on Westbrook.
    After these 2 points, a basketball game broke out and the Spurs won.

  • SAJKinBigD

    My only problem was changing Perkins’ foul from Flagranté to common. That was clearly Flagrant.

  • camnpat

    You can never count the Thunder out so a 2-0 series against them is good but not great great (yet). But I don’t think you can ever just compare, like it was said on the broadcast, this series to the series two- three seasons ago. Both teams went through many changes both in terms of personnel and evolution of that personnel.

    Take a look at how Leonard, Green, and Splitter are playing. All three were skilled already, but a couple of years ago Danny wasn’t making plays and executing needle passes in traffic (it happened 2-3 times last night), handling the ball across the court and driving to the basket with confidence, or crashing the boards to get rebounds (both him and Kawhi are doing a great job rebounding).

    Kawhi, on the other hand, wasn’t fearlessly going for fast break points every chance he got, shooting mid-range jumpers with precision, or dribbling, spinning, and finishing in his best impersonation of Parker or Manu. Teach this guy how to run the point and people will need to drop the “poor man’s” label every time he is compared to Pippen.

    And Splitter wasn’t as quick moving, so focused on both offense and defense, he wasn’t making passes that put most point guards in the league to shame, and certainly not making his presence felt at both ends of the floor. AND he can shoot free throws fairly well.

    And then let’s not forget about the bench. Mills may not hit 20 points every night but is a good defender and he seems to be all over the court by his shear energy. Bonner, who a few years ago was coming off the bench usually right after Manu, is not coming at the end of the bench which means we have even better players on the team and that there are many more options to fit different play styles. Then you have Diaw who is arguably the Swiss Army Knife of players, Joseph , who reminds me a lot of George Hill (tall point guard, good defender, good ball handler, good shooter, not that great at creating plays for others yet), and even the surprise that has been Baynes. At the beginning of the season I believe we all thought “how many fouls will he accumulate and how fast?” every time he stepped on the court, but now it is more “what play will he be part of?”.

    Again, one cannot be foolish to believe this series is over, but when people bring up what happened years ago I am reminder of that hilarious, and coherent, Pop reaction when, after a loss, somebody made the comparison to what had happened against that team two years prior.

  • foose

    Love how Pop engineered a blowout AND managed to corral the minutes played.

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  • freeworld81

    There will be no repeat of the 2012 Playoffs between these 2 teams. OKC is still feeling the effects from the James Harden trade. The Spurs have 10 players that can score 15 - 20 points on any given night, plus OKC can not outrun the BALL!!!

  • spurs10

    6!

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