Duncan’s been rendering that question moot for years now, simply by being more consistently productive than a big man over the age of 35 has any business being.
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Biggest keys for Golden State: Slowing down Westbrook or Durant and staying close to the Thunder on the boards.
On Thursday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the San Antonio Spurs from the NBA Playoffs, winning 113-99 to take the series 4-2.
Adams was a revelation in the Spurs series, setting the tone and matching the Spurs’ physicality in the paint. “We are confident in ourselves”.
“We played hard every minute, and just tried to stick to that”.
Fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson, who carried the load on both ends of the floor during Curry’s absence for much of the first two rounds, is counting on it.
Duncan, Parker and Ginobili are the first set of at least 3 teammates to win 4 titles together since the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers’ combination of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Cooper and Kurt Rambis. Can Durant and Westbrook outgun Curry and Thompson? The Spurs missed 24 of their final 30 shots of the first half. We’ll see if he and the Thunder can stay hot against the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. After that disastrous performance in Game 1, the Thunder was locked in for the vast majority of the remaining five games of the series, often making San Antonio – a team that won a franchise-record 67 games this season – look lost offensively.
“It really didn’t matter to us”, Durant told The Vertical (via Yahoo Sports). “I think throughout the season, we stood by who we were as a team”.
Curry gave the Thunder problems in all three of their regular-season meetings. The Thunder aren’t completely upside down in their upcoming scrap versus Golden State, but the Warriors deflated Oklahoma City’s hopes all throughout this past year by sweeping the season series. Watching the Thunder hammer San Antonio in Game 6, that didn’t seem possible.
Draymond Green anchors the Warriors defense and has proven to be, if not the best, one of the best defensive players in the National Basketball Association.
Pride they had. The Spurs trailed by 26 points after three quarters but didn’t give up.
But Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant are the guys here. In the regular season, the Spurs cruised using all types of players to beat teams.
Oklahoma City opened up a 47-29 lead late in the second quarter after a 3-pointer by Westbrook that brought a roar from the crowd.
Steven Adams prepares to shoot a free throw.
Portland knows what made it go the way of the Warriors Monday night.
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“The one thing that’s happened for our team, which has been good, is Dallas and San Antonio”, Thunder head coach Billy Donovan said. Popovich shot back. “You should try not to do that”.
