Thunder Demolish Spurs 113-99, Advance to Conference Finals

By Travis Atkinson

Kevin Durant had 37 points and 9 rebounds, and the Oklahoma City Thunder crushed the San Antonio Spurs Thursday night, going up by as many as 28 points in the fourth quarter, to win the Western Conference Semifinal series 4 games to 2.  Russell Westbrook added 28 points and 12 assists as the Thunder advance to the Western Conference Finals for the fourth time in 6 years.

Steven Adams had another solid night, scoring 15 points (6/7) and grabbing 11 rebounds, and Andre Roberson came out of no where to add 14 points (5/8) as part of a dominate effort from the Thunder. Oklahoma City outscored the Spurs 55-31 in the first half while holding San Antonio to just 32% shooting from the field. It was San Antonio’s lowest scoring half of the season, and their 12-point second quarter was their lowest scoring quarter of the season. Behind this impressive defensive effort the Thunder built up a 26-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

It is a startling finish to a series that appeared to be headed a very different direction only 12 days ago. San Antonio looked to be in total control of the series after their 124-92 victory over the Thunder in Game 1. But Oklahoma City responded, winning four of the next five games, including two on the Spurs’ home court, to close out the series in six games.

“It was such a grind out series, playoff basketball every game,” Durant said after the game. “We came out and took on the challenge they presented to us which was tough. We just played our brand of basketball, the same basketball we have been playing all season.”

It should be a familiar feeling for the Spurs, who lost to the Thunder 4-2 in the 2012 Conference Finals after taking a 2-0 lead in the series. Oklahoma City would go on that year to loose to the Lebron James led Miami Heat 4-1 in the Finals.

You have to hand it to Thunder Head Coach Billy Donavan; he out-coached Greg Popovich in this series.  After being embarrassed in Game 1, a completely different Thunder team seemed to take the court the rest of the series. Donavan made the proper adjustments, consistently switching to a larger lineup that put Enes Kanter and Steven Adams on the floor at the same time, giving the Spurs fits.

“We had that game [game one] and we left it behind us,” Westbrook said. “We came out after that and had a different mind set. We knew what we had to do to beat this team.”

After allowing the Spurs to shoot 60% in Game 1, the Thunder tightened up their defense, forcing San Antonio to shoot an average of 43% through the final 5 games. The main reason for this of course was the mismatch down low that Adams, Kanter, and Serge Ibaka proved to be. Their strength and height neutralized the Spurs smaller post players like David West and Boris Diaw, giving the Thunder a huge advantage on the boards. Through the last 5 games the Thunder outrebounded San Antonio an average of 46.8 to 36.8.

Nowhere was this improvement more obvious than Ibaka’s defense on Lamarcus Aldridge.  Aldridge looked unstoppable in Games 1 and 2, scoring 79 points on 75% shooting. But since then Aldridge has disappeared, especially in the 4th quarter, as the Thunder have forced him out of the paint and into contested jump shots. In the final 4 games Aldridge had 82 points and shot just 40%. Not good enough for someone expected to be the heir apparent to Tim Duncan.

Game 6 proved to be a microcosm of the series as a whole. Oklahoma City blew the game open late in the first quarter after San Antonio jumped out to a 19-13 lead with Leonard, Duncan, and Aldridge scoring all of the Spurs points. San Antonio came out with a lot of energy early, but was unable to keep up with the explosiveness or athleticism of the Thunder. Oklahoma City went 6-12 from the field with 4 assists on a 14-0 run from 3:50 in the 1st to 10:20 in the 2nd completely overwhelming San Antonio. During the same stretch the Spurs went 0-9 from the field with 5 turnovers as the Thunder expanded their lead to double digits.

Kawhi Leonard led the Spurs with 22 points, 5 assists and 9 rebounds, and Tim Duncan added 19 points on 7/14 shooting. It was a strong performance for Duncan, who struggled for much of the series, in what could the future hall-of famer’s final game. Duncan has a 1-year player option remaining on his contract, but didn’t say weather or not he would be back.

“I’ll get to that after I get out of here and figure life out,” Duncan said after the game.

Oklahoma City moves on the face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals starting Monday in Oakland.

“Golden State’s a great team,” Donovan said. “It will be a great challenge. We’ve got a little bit of time to prepare before we play, but right now, for us, it’s just to enjoy the opportunity to move on, get a chance to continue to play and get as prepared as we can going into Game 1.”

The Thunder lost all three of their regular-season matchups with the Warriors after leading heading into the fourth quarter, including the February 27th instant classic that featured a 35-ft buzzer beater from Stephen Curry to win the game.