The OKC Thunder go fishing and start their offseason after overtime loss against the Spurs.
The Oklahoma City Thunder never lose at home. The odds were in their favor that they would tie the Western Conference Finals series tonight against the San Antonio Spurs and extend their hopes of reaching the NBA Finals. But all streaks come to an end. After five back and forth blowouts, fans finally got a close game that went to overtime. Unfortunately for the Thunder, it ended in a 112-107 loss.
Even with a Tony Parker ankle injury that sidelined him for the night, it looked like the game was slipping from OKC’s hands, until Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant channeled every bit of will to crawl back into contention after being down 12 points in the 4th quarter. Great defense from Serge Ibaka put the Thunder in position to win.
Then Durant, the league’s MVP, slipped and fell instead of knocking down the game winner. And that’s when the tide changed for the Thunder.
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Kevin Durant had zero points in overtime. Russell Westbrook was putting up shots like the one above when it counted the most. The Thunder were throwing up jumpshots like their lives depended on it, instead of driving to the hoop and trying to get to the line when they had the lead. And they died by the jumpshot.
Westbrook ended the game 34 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds, while Durant scored 31 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Reggie Jackson even contributed with 21 points of his own, but it wasn’t enough, especially since the Thunder bench combined for a grand total of 5 points between all players. Those five points came from a ready-to-retire Derek Fisher. Everyone else went missing in action.
On the contrary, the Spurs bench combined for 48 points on the night, led by the efforts of Boris Diaw, who lifted the team with a career-high 26 points. Manu Ginobli was also in double digits, with 15 of his own. Another unsung hero for the Spurs was Danny Green, who knocked down some huge 3’s in the clutch and scored 11 points. Tim Duncan held things down on the block with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Kawhi Leonard ended the game with 17 points and 11 rebounds on the night.
Not to mention the monster slam against Serge Ibaka.
P O S T E R I Z A T I O N.
The Spurs return to the NBA Finals on back-to-back seasons for the first time in franchise history and get a rematch with the Heat, who beat them last year in a heartbreaking Game 7 thriller. The NBA Finals start Thursday on ABC.
The curse of Based God is real.