Russell Westbrook carried the Oklahoma City Thunder to a pivotal win in Game 5 of their Western Conference series against the San Antonio Spurs. Game 1 between the Thunder and Warriors is set for Monday at 8 p.m. Allen Iverson became a legend with his ability to carry the offensive scoring load for his Philadelphia 76ers teams on his small frame, and even got them to an NBA Finals.
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The Spurs’ vaunted half-court offense, so efficient and frankly lovely during the regular season, struggled to find shots, much less make them, against the Thunder defense.
If I’m wrong and OKC blows out the Spurs tonight, I’ll get mocked for this prediction and I will deserve it.
The Thunder flipped the script, and now they’re heading to the Western Conference finals. With the second best record during the season, the Spurs definitely have the tools, but they should dig deeper to be able to bounce back against a team like the Thunder.
The two-headed monster of Durant and Westbrook continue to shine in this series. Coincidentally, their foes that time around were these Oklahoma City Thunder, who deserve all the credit in the world for knocking off the Spurs.
Meanwhile, Westbrook has been playing like a man on a mission as he stays aggressive as he fills up the stat sheet and helps the team in any other way he can while on the floor. Aldridge has been phenomenal this series, but what we haven’t seen from the other superstar on the Spurs, Kawhi, has been a full 48 minutes of aggressive basketball.
The Thunder have been largely successful this series due to their ability to out rebound the Spurs on both ends of the floor.
A couple of things to think about, as unpleasant as they might be: Game 6 could still be Durant’s final home game in a Thunder uniform. Thanks to suffocating team-defense to go with ball movement on offense, the Thunder closed the quarter on a 17-to-2 run.
We can be sure that Gregg Poppovich and his veterans will not go down without a fight.
“Golden State’s a great team”, Donovan said.
In Game 5, the Spurs started atrociously. For the third time in four nail-biting games, the Thunder played as if their game was air-conditioned and the Spurs were the ones left sucking on their thumbs with regret.
Aldridge and Leonard have both combined to score better than 20 points per game this series, but Durant and Westbrook have both been doing the same. But as everyone’s dad always says, you gotta beat the best to be the best. Game 3, Spurs by a handful.
However, the 40-year-old – who has a player option – remains undecided over his future.
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The Warriors were a flawless 3-0 against the Thunder in 2015-16, although they needed overtime to win one. “Overall, we got ourselves in a hole and just couldn’t get out of it”.
