The San Antonio Spurs easily handled the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of their second round playoff series Saturday night, which by itself is not all that interesting.
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Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge (right) scores over Thunder centre Steven Adams during Game 1 of the Western Conference semi-finals on Saturday.
Kawhi Leonard added 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in 22 minutes for San Antonio.
The Thunder will have to find an answer to the Spurs’ dominant play by the time game two starts on Monday night. Following losses of 20 points or more in the playoffs, the Thunder may be just 1-2 in its franchise history, but the margin of defeat is an average of 3.0 points per game. Kevin Durant scored 16 and Russell Westbrook added 14 points and nine assists for Oklahoma City. Leonard and Green, the NBA’s top defensive duo, suffocated Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook throughout the night.
Durant and Westbrook shriveled under the pressure of the Spurs’ formidable defense.
In ATS trends, the Thunder are 4-1 ATS in their last five games following a loss of more than 10 points and 5-2 ATS in their last seven road games, while the Spurs are 5-1 ATS in their last six games overall and 7-1 ATS in their last eight Conference Semifinals games.
That’s not to say that OKC just needs to come out in Game 2 with more energy and everything will be fine. On the other side of the ball Leonard and Aldridge couldn’t be stopped.
Aldridge’s outbreak in the mid-range – he was 13-of-15 from the mid-range area – led to the rest of San Antonio’ attack.
San Antonio is 72-15 on the season, 43-1 at home and 48-39 against the spread.
Adams was poor on defence, slow on his closeouts against the Spurs bigs and beaten a number of times off the dribble, but was not alone in a lead-footed display throughout the lineup. I ended up making some plays that I probably won’t make the next game, but it was enough for me tonight.
The Raptors won their first postseason series since a five-game triumph over the New York Knicks in 2001, ending the NBA’s longest active drought between playoff series victories. Parker had 12 assists through three quarters, then sat out the final period.
“We gotta come out with a little more intensity on both sides of the floor”, Westbrook said after Game 1.
“Our defense in the pick-and-roll has got to be a lot better”, Roberson said. There’s no difference between dropping Game 1 by one point or by 32.
The Spurs kept pouring it on in the early part of the second quarter with Green, who has struggled with his shot nearly all season, pouring in two 3-pointers and hitting a free throw to expand San Antonio’s advantage to 53-24 at the 9:14 mark. “We’ve got to continue to do that”.
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This is where things get dicey for the Thunder. Danny Green and LaMarcus muck up Durant’s passing lane here and Kawhi gets a pretty uncontested one-man-fast-break layup.
