NBA Playoffs: 3 keys for Thunder to win series vs. Spurs
By Tom West
Besides their superstars scoring, what less obvious factors can allow the Oklahoma City Thunder to close out their second round series against the San Antonio Spurs?
The San Antonio Spurs only lost one game at home during the regular season as they cruised to a 40-1 record at the AT&T Center, dominating their opponents on the way to the top home record in the league. Yet, after losing Game 5 to the Oklahoma City Thunder 95-91, the Spurs have now been handed twice as many home losses in a week than they endured through the entire regular season.
It’s a remarkable feat for the Thunder to take a 3-2 series lead as they head back to Oklahoma City for Game 6 with a chance to close the deal. Closing out games been a problem for them in the past. Their fourth quarter issues have been well documented and highly scrutinized this season, but they’re starting to overcome them in this series, while proving themselves in other areas, too.
Along with multiple factors that we’ll get onto in a second, finding key scores in the final moments and somehow hanging on despite turnover issues (that have still persisted in pivotal fourth quarter situations at times) has allowed the Thunder to close out the last two games. In Game 4, they dominated the final period 34-16 to pull away for a 111-97 win, and impressed again in Game 5 (somehow overcoming a far less impressive 20 turnovers), holding the Spurs’ offense to a measly 19 points in the fourth while scoring 26 of their own.
Even though the Spurs missed a couple of makeable shots in the final stretch during Game 5, a controversial and-one layup from Russell Westbrook sealed the victory (he was clearly fouled by Kawhi Leonard before the shot), which ended a night of sound defensive scheming and effort that saw them comeback from a 13-point deficit.
So, beyond the obvious matter of letting the superstars score a ton of points, how can the Thunder continue this two-game win streak and close out the series at home?
Next: Force the Spurs out their comfort zone with defense