May 11, 2016 4 min read Featured

Thunder do the damn thing again in San Antonio, 95-91

SAN ANTONIO — Something about even years for the Thunder in Game 5’s San Antonio, I guess.

Four years ago, I sat in that press room at the AT&T Center, trying to figure out how in the hell the Thunder just won that game to pull within one win of the NBA Finals. James Harden hit that dagger 3. They made every play down the stretch. They defended like crazy.

And here we are again, one round earlier, left wondering the same thing. This time it was behind the force of will that is Russell Westbrook, with some Kevin Durant, Enes Kanter and Steven Adams mixed in. The Thunder beat the Spurs in Game 5 not because they morphed into offensive execution experts, but really because they completely locked the Spurs down, and just found enough ways to stuff the ball in the basket themselves.

Westbrook hit some wild shots. He flew everywhere, snaring offensive rebounds and setting up teammates on broken plays. The Adams-Kanter frontline overwhelmed the Spurs on the glass again, forcing Gregg Popovich to play Tim Duncan down the stretch, something very in favor of the Thunder.

Let’s talk about this Adams-Kanter thing. People act like this is some new revelation. They actually started a number of games together last season when the Thunder were hit with a rash of injury. And Billy Donovan played the duo on opening night against the Spurs, to very solid success. It’s not something new. It’s a strategic deployment of resources, and one the Spurs can’t sort out.

It’s easy to get ahead of yourself after a win like this. To think ahead, to assume you’re advancing as the series goes back to OKC. I can tell you this: The Thunder aren’t thinking that. The way they walked off the floor and into the tunnel, there wasn’t any kind of remote celebrating outside of Royal Ivey yelling, “To the house!” There’s much work to be done, and even if it seems they’ve got the Spurs on the run, they’re going to have everything thrown at them in Game 6. It’s going to take Westbrook. It’s going to take Durant. It’s going to take the whole thing.

“It’s a team game and we do this together,” Durant said. “In the playoffs, any given night, someone has to step up and tonight Russell did a huge job of scoring for us when we needed it.”

Tonight, Westbrook took over. In Game 4, it was Durant. Everyone knows it already, but these two games reaffirmed it. They’ll go as far as those two guys take them.

NOTES:

Westbrook on the crowd chanting he sucks: “Yeah, I heard ’em. I heard ’em. But at the same time I’m trying to figure out the best way to help my team win the game. It’s fun to play in an environment like this and I embrace moments like that and my team did a great job of embracing the moment too.”

So many things that fans and critics have feared all season about the Thunder have gone the opposite way in this series.

Look, on Leonard’s non-foul at the end: It’s amazing to me that a ref decision is somehow the talking point, as if the Thunder weren’t in complete control of the game at that moment. Call gets made, Westbrook (probably) makes two free throws, and the Spurs still have to hit a 3 in the final six seconds. It’s not as if Leonard’s non-foul completely swung the game. Sure, no denying that it effectively ended it. If the call gets made, the Spurs retain a chance. But I just don’t like the idea that that call was what screwed the Spurs out of a win.

Westbrook on the play: “I just played until I heard the whistle throughout the whole game. My job is to play. The refs will call the game. My job is to play until I hear the whistle.”

Durant took exception to being asked about the fourth quarter again: You guys are so up and down. One game it’s this, and the next game it’s that. We can’t control that and that’s you guys’ job and we respect that, but we always knew we were one of the better teams in the league and we’ve been locking in all season.”

The first half was one big bowl of regret. Thirteen turnovers as a team, six from Westbrook alone. I thought it would be what would cost the Thunder, especially as they fell behind in the third.

Donovan on Westbrook: “He’s so competitive, and there’s a fine line, because when you’re that competitive you’ve also got to be able to control and lead your team. You don’t ever want to take away that competitiveness from him, but the one thing I admire so much about him is he just lays it on the line. He’s flying around, throwing his body — even the play Kawhi [Leonard] dunked, the effort to try and go make the play the length of the floor, the loose balls, the offensive rebounds … He plays with such force and such passion,” Donovan said, “I think he’s doing a really good job of realizing when he gets so intense, so competitive, so emotional, he’s doing a good job of kind of bringing himself back together and understanding there’s four other guys out there depending on him.”

The Thunder have defended the Spurs so well the past couple games. Danny Green basically admitted it after the game that OKC’s got them pegged: “I think they’re doing a great job of scouting us. They’re taking away what we’re looking for.”

Andre Roberson’s tag was out of his sleeve the whole game and it bothered me the whole time.

Dion Waiters has been so good in this series. Allow me to pat myself on the back, but I said Waiters had X-factor potential in it. Mainly because I thought he’d put the Spurs in a bind as to who they’d stick Parker on. I didn’t really anticipate he’d play this kind of lockdown defense, though. He’s just been so solid.

Once again, Ibaka was on the bench for the fourth quarter. He did not have a very good game. But there’s also this to consider: Aldridge was 6-21 shooting tonight.