Both the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder won their first round series in a canter and should be refreshed as the Western Conference semi-finals get underway at the AT&T Center. But if the Spurs were looking to make a statement, consider it a mission accomplished.
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The Spurs – who defeated the Thunder in the 2013-14 Western Conference Finals having lost to Oklahoma City at the same stage in 2011-12 – were led by LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard.
Charlotte Hornets at Miami Heat (series tied 3-3), 1:00 p.m. ET, ABC: After forcing a Game 7, the Heat will try to move on to the second round on their home court. They punished Oklahoma City’s inattentiveness and conservative scheme by running countless pick-and-rolls and swinging the ball from side to side, always in pursuit of the best possible shot.
Spurs guard Danny Green had 18 points with five of his six three-pointers successful.
“Now we’ve got to get back to the drawing board and see what we’ve got to do better to get ready for Game 2”, Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook said.
After a long pause, he continued monotonously: “Not trying to be flip, but that’s what happened”. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant were enveloped by Spurs defenders everywhere they went on the court.
“A lot of my shots I missed at the basket against the bigs”, said Westbrook after the game.
Spurs: Aldridge’s postseason career high of 46 points came for Portland against Houston on April 20, 2014. Unfortunately for the Thunder, the rest of the Spurs were just as impressive early.
San Antonio shot 60% from three, in addition to the Thunder fouling three-point shooters on four different occasions.
Kawhi Leonard added 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in 22 minutes for San Antonio.
“It opens up the floor”, Green said of Aldridge hitting shots from the perimeter.
After watching film and getting some of the frustration out of his system in a Sunday practice (Monday, NZT), Adams told reporters in San Antonio that the mood in the Thunder camp ahead of Monday’s (Tuesday, NZT) game two was decidedly prickly. Then came this season, when Green’s long-range shooting dipped to 33.2 percent and his scoring to 7.2 points a game. No insane emotions. It’s not like we were upset and screaming at each other in the locker room after the game. I thought at times we had really bad spacing that made it easy for them to rotate.
The whole play took about 3 seconds.
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. They were up 73-40 at halftime.
That is the way the Thunder want to play, though.
Oklahoma on the other hand dropped one game to the Dallas Mavericks at home in what was a surprise loss. The Spurs – yes, the entire team – had missed only five.
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“I think he did get to the rim and he got to the paint”, Donovan said. That’s great basketball, don’t get me wrong, but we’re not that.
