I’ll go ahead and guess that-with so many people presuming they’re dead-the Spurs will find a way one last time to remain undead by knocking off the Thunder tonight in Oklahoma City to force a Game 7 in San Antonio.
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Since March 2015, the NBA’s “Last Two Minute Report” has provided a public report card of sorts on everything that happens in the final 2 minutes of games that were within five points or less.
There were years where the Thunder were without Kevin Durant and/or Russell Westbrook and yet, they were competing. In Game 4 Durant walked off the court with 41 points while in Game 5 Westbrook finished with 35.
Billy Donovan trusted Enes Kanter over Serge Ibaka, opting for offensive rebounding over defense, and the move paid off. Kanter had two big layups in the final two minutes and even made a huge defensive play – blocking a Tim Duncan floater to save two points. By series end, the Spurs seemed old and exhausted. But by series’ end, the Spurs were hard-pressed to slow the Thunder, San Antonio’s offense had become isolation-heavy with overreliance on its stars and the bench difference was mighty in OKC’s favor, thanks to the superior play of Kanter and Dion Waiters. Oklahoma City can close out the series Thursday in Game 6 at home. Along with Duncan, they combined for just 17 points.
According to oddsmakers at Bovada.lv, the Spurs are the slight road favorite tonight, as they are getting odds of -2 point against the Thunder.
As for Duncan’s future, San Antonio Express-News columnist Buck Harvey addressed it before the Thunder series.
All season long, analysts and experts have been expecting a Western Conference Finals featuring the Golden State Warriors and the Spurs, but the Thunder would actually be a much tougher test for the Warriors. “That’s the key of the series. We have to play defense like that throughout the whole game”. His averages through five games against the Thunder read like this: 3.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 0.8 blocks. This means that the Thunder are also going big, but they are doing it better that the Spurs in this series.
During Game 5 we got the full Russell Westbrook experience.
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Green scored 20 points on 6-of-9 from deep. Tony Parker, in the closing seconds of game 5, had the chance to bring the game into striking distance but missed a wide open jumper from the elbow, a shot he had made a living making. “It’s basketball. Once we play the right way and get the shots we take and play hard, that’s all we could do”.
