Tuesday Bolts – 5.3.16

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com: “This is the Thunder. Many questions, for which they very often

have the answer. In the end, the Thunder blew another big lead and there will be many who will believe that San Antonio deserved to win — never mind that they still had every chance to do so — and that the Thunder once again collapsed in the fourth quarter. None of this changes the reality of where this series stands any more than head referee Ken Mauer’s admission that Waiters fouled Ginobili. This series is 1-1, and just when we thought Oklahoma City had no answers for the Spurs, the whole script has been flipped. This series suddenly has a lot more questions to answer, about that final sequence, about Donovan, about Westbrook, and about what all this means for Durant. The only thing we know for certain?”

Anthony Slater: “Aldridge, Ibaka, Westbrook and Kawhi Leonard all scrambled for the loose ball. But it was too late. Time had expired. Adams’ defense had saved the Thunder. A batch of strange no-calls didn’t hurt, either. Thirty minutes after the most frantic moment of his career, Waiters sat in stoned silence, ice packs on his knees, scrolling through his phone at his locker. Countless Vines and screenshots and opinions of the wild closing sequence had hit the web. Waiters was at the center of it. He scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and then saw something that piqued his interest.”

My ESPN.com story on last night.

Anath Pandian of CBSSports.com: “The Thunder were able to maintain a lead for the majority of the game by winning the rebounding battle. Oklahoma City grabbed 48 rebounds to San Antonio’s 28. The Thunder also had nine offensive rebounds, which led to Oklahoma City scoring 10 second-chance points. That, plus the Spurs’ 18 turnovers, is huge in a one-point game. Adams was just a monster on the glass on Monday. His 17 boards were 35 percent of OKC’s rebounds. And we talked about the rim rolls. A few of his dunks threatened to bring the backboard down. Energy. Toughness. Adams brought everything on Monday.”

Erik Horne: “Even as he watched the final half of the fourth quarter from the bench, his work on Leonard done for the night, Roberson believed in Waiters’ ability to keep up. Waiters acquitted himself with two monster plays on Leonard: Staying with the bigger Leonard on a drive and pullup followed by a Waiters rebound, then standing Leonard up and forcing a missed 3-point shot with 48.9 seconds left, the Thunder clinging to a three-point lead.”

KD was pretty excited to be name-dropped on Drake’s new album.

Rob Mahoney of SI.com: “Challenging the release is only the last relevant part of defending a shot attempt. The Thunder made it a point to close out but didn’t skimp on all that came before, a marked improvement from the hapless chain reactions that yielded open look after open look in Game 1. Playing actual, professional-grade defense then relieved the Thunder from the grind of working against the Spurs’ own set defense on an every-play basis. Fast breaks off misses gave Russell Westbrook and OKC’s athletes new life, not to mention the means to make runs and build leads.”