The Thunder placed third behind San Antonio and Golden State and trailed those two teams by 5.7 points per 100. By the time the first half ended, San Antonio had a 33-point lead on 69-percent shooting against Oklahoma City, the largest halftime lead so far in this year’s playoffs. The Thunder as a whole will need to figure out how to stop Aldridge and Leonard if they want to survive Game 2. The best shooting percentage the Spurs have ever produced in a playoff game under Gregg Popovich was 87 percent, in Game 3 of the 2014 NBA Finals against the Heat, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Tap the button below on your phone to add!
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The Spurs are loading everything on Durant and Westbrook because they can.
A vast minority of spectators going in gave the Thunder the advantage in this series against an objectively superior Spurs team in terms of overall ability, and while the series deficit isn’t surprising at this stage, the point differential between the two teams is. We’ve just got to go out there and play better.
“I think our defense ignited our offense”, Spurs guard Danny Green said. Everybody was ready, everybody is ready to play in this game.
Thunder-Spurs III is no undercard, especially in the final year of Kevin Durant’s contract, with San Antonio quietly discussing what kind of cap gymnastics it would take to get into the Durant derby, per several league sources.
Not everything came that easily for San Antonio in the opener of the Spurs’ Western Conference semifinal series against Oklahoma City.
Aldridge promptly hit his first 3-pointer of the season (he’s now 1 of 17 from beyond the arc), Leonard made a technical free throw and a bucket and Tim Duncan drove the lane for a layup off another Parker assist and any question about the game’s outcome had been answered.
With the luxury of resting their starters in the fourth quarter, they will try to build on their hot start when they host Game 2 of the best-of-seven series today (tomorrow morning, Singapore time).
The Thunder’s Steven Adams had no success slowing San Antonio Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge in game one.
Kawhi Leonard added 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in 22 minutes for San Antonio. “Those guys are good not only in the open court, but attacking the basket, turning the corner, and I thought we did a really good job protecting the paint, but not fouling and putting them on the free throw line”.
“Just an fantastic all-around effort”, Duncan said.
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Thunder: Memphis held the previous record for most postseason points against Oklahoma City, scoring 123 in a 10-point loss in triple overtime on May 9, 2011…. “We’ve got to do a lot of things better than we did yesterday”. It’s far from over, even if Saturday night’s result certainly made it feel that way. “We’re not going to make 30 passes in a possession”.
