San Antonio didn’t need Tim Duncan’s usual playoff heroics in this game as his heir apparent, LaMarcus Aldridge torched the Thunder with 38 points in three quarters in the wire-to-wire victory.
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“It was one of those where we had a great night and (Oklahoma City) had one of their bad nights”, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
“They did what they did and they did a really, really good job, and our guys – as competitive as I think, and I know, they are, I know they’ll want to come back tomorrow to make corrections, get better and try to improve”. “That’s exactly what the whole team’s feeling, but then you have your little tantrum and then you just get over it. You’ve just got to let it go, learn from it”. The average margin of those six losses: 25.1 points.
Parker took advantage, handing out 12 assists with only one turnover as the Spurs came within eight points of matching the franchise’s highest postseason production. This was a long, long night for those trying to make that sale to him, and the Oklahoma City Thunder have to hope that Game 1 was merely an aberration, that there isn’t such a gulf between them and the Spurs. With Duncan’s retirement looming, San Antonio won’t have the same Dark Age that the Lakers are facing in the wake of Kobe’s retirement. “We’ve got to do a lot of things better than we did yesterday”.
“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. They were overwhelmed by their opponents early and failed to recover as the game progressed. They’ve beaten the Spurs once in six games at the AT&T Center in the postseason – Game 5 in 2012, when James Harden hit a dagger step-back 3 in the final minute. The performance was by far the home team’s most complete since near the end of March, as the Spurs once again showed that strong defense can serve as the catalyst for hot offense.
Thunder superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were held to just 16 and 14 points, respectively. No news of retirement after this season has been reported, but it figures if this team wins another title, he could ride out of town knowing there is nothing more he could have done in the game. It was just way too loud, but we’ve got to somehow start speaking (with more base), I guess.
Head to head, the Thunder are 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings overall but the home team is 18-8-1 ATS in the last 27 meetings overall.
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. So it’s not like it’s gonna carry over to next game. Leonard spent much of Game 1 guarding Westbrook, helping force him into a 5-for-19 night from the floor.
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“We got our work cut out, for sure, but that makes it fun. But you have to take the opportunities when they come”. 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.
