LaMarcus Aldridge had 38 points, and the San Antonio Spurs dismantled the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder 124-92 on Saturday night, never trailing in Game 1 of the second-round series.
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San Antonio led 73-40 at halftime while establishing supremacy over the Thunder but shooting guard Danny Green isn’t expecting things to be so easy in Game 2.
“It opens up the floor”, Green said of Aldridge hitting shots from the perimeter. Each game is different. It’s a new roster with younger, inexperienced players who had never walked into AT&T Center for a big playoff game. “So it’s not like it’s going to carry over to next game”.
It looked like it was going to be long night for the Thunder after the Spurs scored 43 in the first quarter. The Thunder have six more games to figure out the Spurs. The series victor advances to face either defending champion Golden State or Portland for a berth in the Finals. Here were the Thunder’s pairing of combustible Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals looking like they could hardly, well, bear it. Led by Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, the Spurs looked like a team that was determined to set the tone for this series.
Russell Westbrook had just 14 points, going 5 for 19 from the floor, missing all three of his 3-point attempts. With San Antonio having home court advantage at some point OKC has to win on the road in order to have a chance of winning the series.
San Antonio went to Aldridge on its next three offensive possessions and he responded with a left-handed jump hook after powering through Ibaka, a turnaround bank shot with Ibaka draped all over him and a jumper from the elbow, showing his combination of inside and outside prowess.
Aldridge (25 points) and Leonard (20) outscored the Thunder by themselves.
I don’t think it was an issue of us playing harder i think what they did was put us in some tough situations on the defensive end everybody was ready to play in this game the score definitely didn’t say that but it wasn’t like everybody came into the game not caring we all care we all want to win but they put is in tough positions we weren’t able to get out of them we weren’t able to in them so that’s what the playoffs was about.
“I think that after a game like that, you’re anxious”, guard Manu Ginobili said Sunday. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. Hopefully we don’t fall for that.
The worst part of the night for the Thunder was Westbrook’s shooting.
The Thunder returned to the AT&T Center on Sunday morning for a workout and met with the media afterward. We just got stretched out too much. “We have to make some corrections and find a way to play more competitively”.
His answer? “I’m not telling you”. No San Antonio starters played in the final 13:30 – Aldridge led the team in minutes with 30 – and only Westbrook (30) and Durant (33) topped the 30-minute mark for OKC.
Yes, the Thunder lacked the energy and effort required to stick with the Spurs.
The fourth quarter was left to the two teams’ bench players and Oklahoma City’s hope that this first game would not leave a hangover from which it can’t recover. But, I was also impressed with the steady leadership of Donovan following the Thunders’ Game 2 loss to Dallas.
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The Spurs are now 8-0 in Game 1s after a sweep in the previous series under Gregg Popovich.
