Analysis Of Spurs Vs. Thunder



The San Antonio Spurs held on to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 120-111 in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio will take a 2-0 series lead to Oklahoma City for Game 3 on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 9:00 EST and will be televised on TNT. In order for the Thunder to to make this a series, they are going to have to put a stop to the Spurs incredible winning streak. San Antonio improved to 10-0 in the playoffs and have won 20 straight going back to the regular season. Another loss for the Thunder would all but eliminate them from the playoffs, as no team has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit.

The oddsmakers are at least giving the Thunder a fighting chance in Game 3. Oklahoma City heads into Thursday's critical matchup at home favored by 3.5-points over the Spurs with the total set at 206. If you are looking for a more recent preview of this match, just double click here.

San Antonio

A lot of people had their doubts about San Antonio coming into the playoffs. Now those same experts are predicting the Spurs to win it all. The winning streak figures to be in jeopardy in Game 3, but playing on the road isn't going to rattle the Spurs. In the regular season finale between these two teams, San Antonio went into Oklahoma City and beat the the Thunder 114-105. A game in which they led by 27-points without the services of Manu Ginobili.

If the Spurs play like they did in Game 2, I have a hard time seeing Oklahoma City beating them. San Antonio is pretty much getting whatever they want offensively. They shot 55% from the field and were 11 of 26 (42%) from behind the 3-point line. Tony Parker was wonderful on Tuesday, scoring a game-high 34 points on 16 of 21 shooting. Manu Ginobili had another strong game with 20 points off the bench, while rookie Kawhi Leonard finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. San Antonio completely dominated the game despite a bad shooting night from Tim Duncan. While Duncan finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, he was just 2 of 11 from the field.

The one knock on the Spurs was the fact that they allowed Oklahoma City back in the game after they managed to take a 22-point lead. Oklahoma City went to smaller lineup that seemed to get the Spurs out of sync offensively late in Game 2. Look for head coach Gregg Popovich to draw up a game plan to exploit that lineup if the Thunder choose to use it more in Game 3.

Oklahoma City

Not to take anything away from the Thunder, but this is bad matchup for them. When Oklahoma City gets 31 points from Kevin Durant, 27 from Russell Westbrook, and 30 from James Harden, you expect this team to have no trouble winning the game. The Thunder were barely within striking distance in Game 2. They simply do not have enough scoring around their three stars to keep up with San Antonio.

Unless the Thunder get more production out of their role players, it's going to be hard for them to win a game in this series. If you take away the 88 points from Westbrook, Harden and Durant, the remainder of the team contributed just 23 points on a horrific 7 of 34 shooting performance. The only other player to score in double-figures was Derrick Fisher, but he had just 10 points on 2 of 11 shooting.

If the Thunder are going to win Game 3, I believe they have to do two things. First, they must incorporate a smaller lineup from the start. Scott Brooks can not play Kendrik Perkins and Serge Ibaka simultaneously. Second, Durant must be the one leading the Thunder in field goal attempts. In Game 2, Durant was 10 of 17, while Westbrook was 10 of 24.