OKLAHOMA CITY—One questions the mettle of those playoff teams that don’t bring championship-level intensity to the court on a regular basis. One doubts the alleged contenders that have a way of fading into the night sooner, and more often, than they should.
The Thunder are far from having proved they’re everything Scott Brooks cracks them up to be.
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The coach says his team plays hard every game. He says he never questions his players’ effort. And yet they took one game from the Spurs on Thursday night—admittedly, in spectacular fashion—and the conversation in both locker rooms was about a team that had just raised its level of commitment in a big way.
“We were focused from the beginning,” said Thunder guard James Harden.
We’d like to think that comes with the conference finals territory.
“They played with more energy,” said the Spurs’ Stephen Jackson. “Let’s give them their props.”
Sure. Congratulations for really caring.
Look, we’re not foolish enough to think there isn’t an ebb-and-flow to every team even in May and June. The Spurs certainly looked their age in falling 102-82 in Game 3, their 20-game winning streak over and their series lead suddenly much less convincing at 2-1 than it was at 2-0.
But the Thunder—unlike four-time-champion Tim Duncan and the Spurs—still have the look and feel of an immensely talented young team that may not have the killer instinct to raise a trophy.
“We never thought these guys had an advantage over us,” Kevin Durant (game-high 22 points) said.
But the Spurs did have an advantage: a commanding 2-0 lead in the series because they had the resilience to come from behind in Game 1 and the commitment to run essentially flawless offense throughout Game 2.
And they still have an advantage. As OKC’s Nick Collison put it, “They’ve still won 20 out of 21.”
The Thunder? They’re still the team that blew two games at home to Dallas in the 2011 West finals, that blew Game 1 in San Antonio last weekend, and that probably shouldn’t sound so impressed when they play up to their potential.
The Oklahoma City Thunder snapped the San Antonio Spurs' win streak at 20 games Thursday in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. (AP Photo)
“We’re not going to lay down,” Durant said from the winner’s podium.
Sheesh. Isn’t that supposed to be obvious?
Collison sparked a second-quarter stretch that may have been the first step in remaking the Thunder’s identity. The veteran reserve big man hit a jumper on one end, then grabbed a rebound on the other and started a fastbreak with a beautiful outlet pass. OKC ended the half on a 32-14 run.
Harden was at his sixth-man finest during a two-minute burst in which he scored nine points—but he and his teammates all made their biggest marks on the defensive end with hustle plays. Thabo Sefolosha had six steals and led the game plan to make Spurs point guard Tony Parker miserable. Russell Westbrook had four steals and two blocked shots. Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins each had three blocks. The rattled, tired Spurs committed 21 turnovers—three times as many as the Thunder.
Westbrook called it “Thunder basketball,” which fails to address why it is that his team doesn’t always employ it this time of year.
“We used our hands,” the point guard said. “We used our athleticism. We got the 50-50 balls.”
This, of course, is how it’s meant to be.
Collison gets this. We suspected it already, but he confirmed it with the wisest statement of the evening: “You never know when you’re going to make a run, but you’re not going to make one unless you’re engaged on every play.”
Not every game—every play. Let’s be honest about this: If the Thunder play every possession as intensely as they did Thursday, they’ll come back to win this series. In Durant, they have the series’ best player. In Westbrook and Harden, they have a much younger, more explosive version of the Parker-Ginobili twosome. They have interior defense that few teams in the league can match—and San Antonio isn’t one of those teams.
Do you get what we’re saying? The Thunder can beat the Spurs—can win it all, for that matter—if they just keep doing what they’re supposed to do.
“They played like it was a close-out game,” Jackson said.
They’re all close-out games now.
The Spurs will play much better in Game 4. We know it. You know it. Both teams know it.
“We’re going to be ready,” Duncan said. “We’re going to bring it.”
It was a message meant for all the Thunder’s ears.
And here’s another one: Don’t you dare fade into the night too soon Saturday. We’ve seen that act before, and it fails to impress.
Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2012-06-01/okc-thunder-san-antonio-spurs-streak-game-3-score-kevin-durant#ixzz1wWegatVf
