Friday Bolts – 5.30.14
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “The Thunder knew this was coming. They talked about before the game, bracing themselves for the Spurs to put forth a dominant performance in this moment of truth for their waning dynasty. You knew it was coming, too. You knew the back-to-back beatings the Spurs absorbed in Oklahoma City were not going to be the outcome in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. Not here; not in San Antonio, where the Spurs have reigned as the model for championship-level basketball for so long.”
Ben Golliver of SI.com: “Oklahoma City took some solace from the fact that it will be home for Game 6 on Saturday, but there is no longer any escaping the task that stands before it now that its season is once again on the brink. Holding serve would only guarantee the Thunder a daunting Game 7, a fourth chance to keep things competitive at the AT&T Center.”
J.A. Adande of ESPN.com: “It’s not that the Spurs needed to change — they needed to revert. It just took them a little while to figure that out. Popovich’s reaction to the two losses in Oklahoma City, in which Serge Ibaka turned into a shot-eating monster in the middle, was to start Matt Bonner, a forward who has made 736 career 3-pointers. Not only had Bonner not started all season, he wasn’t even a part of any of the Spurs’ 20 most-used lineups all season. This qualified as a drastic measure.”
Kirk Goldsberry of Grantland with a great Westbrook breakdown: “Yet Westbrook’s essence necessarily involves that inconvenient stochastic truth; you can analyze him all you want, but you can never predict him. And while his best performances are truly magnificent basketball spectacles to behold, they’re not reliable, and anyone projecting the future of the Thunder based upon consistent performances akin to his Game 4 masterpiece is being either naive or wishful. Westbrook’s brilliance is always awesome, but never dependable; still, the future of the Western Conference certainly depends upon it.”
Jenni Carlson: “Listen, the Thunder bench is never going to be as productive offensively as the Spur bench now that Jackson is part of the starting lineup. He was the only bench player who could match what Manu Ginobili gives the Spurs off the bench. But still, the Thunder reserves can’t get out done like this. Guys not named Durant and Westbrook don’t have to score 40 points, but having a few in double figures is critical.”
Zach Harper of CBSSports.com: “It’s not that we need Durant to validate himself with the basketball world; it’s that his teammates need him to be that unstoppable force to help keep their season going. Plenty more has to happen in this series for the Thunder to stay alive and then win a Game 7 on the road. Westbrook has to be great. The role players have to step up. The defense has to be tighter, more aggressive, and capable of ending possessions by grabbing rebounds or forcing turnovers.”
Berry Tramel: “Duncan is an example. In two games in OKC, with Ibaka slapping San Antonio shots in every direction, Duncan had four shots blocked and made just 10 of 25 attempts. But in Game 5, Duncan made eight of 13 and scored 22 points. Helps when Ibaka has to sprint 15 feet, not just five feet, to get within range of bothering the Big Fundamental. The Spurs played with the same crispness they displayed when Ibaka was missing. After Game 4, Popovich decried his team’s decision-making, saying it challenged Ibaka far too often instead of passing out to the open man. That changed in Game 5.”
Kelly Dwyer of BDL: “The problem with that sort of further inspection is that four full days off before Game 5 may not have mattered for Oklahoma City. Bonner’s starting nod didn’t produce much for him personally, but the shift to always pair a shooter alongside Duncan opened so many things up for San Antonio, and it forced Durant to try to follow the quicker Ginobili around the court. Boris Diaw started the second half in place of Bonner, and he continued his fantastic play carrying over from Game 4, when Popovich went with Diaw, Marco Belinelli (who appears to have been demoted in the rotation) and Cory Joseph (who was never going to play much anyway) down the stretch of a bench-led comeback.”
