San Antonio Puts On A Clinic, Then Withstands OKC’s Star Power

Even the best teams normally give you a chance to steal one of the first two games on the road. OKC had their chance, up double-digits in the fourth quarter of Game 1, and blew it. Did it surprise anyone at all that the Spurs jumped out almost immediately to a 13-4 lead last night? Not really, at least not us. What did surprise us though was how out-classed the Thunder looked in San Antonio’s often-dominant 120-111 Game 2 win. It felt like someone tossed the jayvee out there to get eaten alive in a scrimmage against the varsity at times. Despite a nice run by OKC, there isn’t much to say for the Spurs because they’re almost laughably good. In San Antonio’s 9-for-17 start, Tony Parker (34 points, eight dimes) lit a match underneath Russell Westbrook‘s ass, making five of his first six shots, including a couple deep twos that never used to drop for him. We still remember when the dude first came into the league and there were questions whether he’d ever be able to outshoot his own forwards and centers … Thank God for Kevin Durant (31 points), or else this thing would’ve been over quicker than Rihanna and J.R. Smith should be. By the first timeout, every player on the court had taken a shot… besides Durant. But by the end of the first quarter, he had a dozen points while the rest of his team had eight, consistently wide open off screens and fades against Kawhi Leonard (18 points, 10 rebounds). Between Durant, and then James Harden (30 points) in the first half, we’re almost positive the Thunder wrote underneath “Gameplan” on their scouting reports: Let KD and the Beard do everything. At one point in the second quarter, Harden hit a couple of pull-ups after driving left and Steve Kerr pointed out how San Antonio needed to force him right. By the way, why is every basketball player/fan/analyst in America SO obsessed with trying to force lefties to go right? We do realize no one hardly ever says something like that about righties… right? It’s not like if you were born lefty, it automatically makes you allergic to going right. More often than not left-handed players are more inclined to go to their strong hand. This is true. But the same thing can be said for right-handed players. No one freaks out over that though. No one ever screams, “Hey force him left! He’s a righty!” We don’t get this at all, and it’s been going on for a while and the double standard makes literally no sense. If you’re going to constantly call for a lefty to be forced right, then you better be doing the vice versa with a righty. Every time. … San Antonio then made eight of their first nine shots in the second quarter, and for the first half, check out this shot chart for the Spurs. Some teams attempt to take smarts shots. Some teams have J.R. Smith and Nick Young. And then there’s the Spurs, who appear immune to taking bad shots. This is just a scary shot chart … In fact, the entire first half went perfectly for the hosts, right down to the final moments when Tim Duncan packed one on Serge Ibaka‘s mug. All of Africa/Spain cried after that one … Keep reading to hear about the funniest photo we saw all night …

At the start of the second half, it was quite obvious OKC left their defense in the locker room as Danny Green, Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and then Boris Diaw again all got wide-open shots that even Derek Fisher could’ve converted. By that point, they had indeed gotten surgical by removing the Thunder’s heart and ordering Stephen Jackson to stomp all over it. There was one possession halfway through the quarter where Parker split a double-team, drove right down the lane, drew two defenders and then kicked it out to Leonard (who probably took more corner threes in this one than Bruce Bowen did over his entire career). He promptly splashed it to put the Spurs up 75-58. About two minutes later, the Spurs got a stop, came down and got a triple from Parker (in the corner again) after Manu Ginobili (20 points) pump-faked and then threw a behind-the-back pass. Even on the sidelines, it was a mismatch. Gregg Popovich has spent his time asking the Spurs to “get nasty” and to start playing “big boy basketball” while Scott Brooks had to start the Hack-a-Splitter just so people realized he existed … In the fourth quarter, the Thunder cut a 22-point deficit all the way down to six, but it was never seriously in doubt because OKC was literally playing three on five. Seriously, outside of one Derek Fisher errant jumper, the Thunder went close to 12 minutes without anyone besides the Big Three even taking a single shot. For the game, Westbrook (27 points), Durant and Harden shot a combined 30-for-54 for 88 points. The rest of the Thunder? They were 7-for-34, and scored 23 points … Will DeJuan Blair ever get PT again? As Skip Bayless would say, “He’s the Thunder killer (because he had a couple of decent games during the regular season against them)!!” We’re starting to think Pop banished him to his “no play” zone. Either that or Boris Diaw ate him … And we’re going to leave you with this. It’s a photo of DeShawn Stevenson, swagged out in his living room. All good. Except for the fact he has an ATM machine in his kitchen … We’re out like DeShawn’s withdrawal fee.

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