San Antonio ends two game slid with big home 117-89 victory over Oklahoma City
In 2012, the San Antonio Spurs blew a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, losing 4 consecutive games. Following consecutive blowouts, the Spurs were visibly shown frustrated with the return of Serge Ibaka in game 3, after previously being ruled out for the rest of the duration in this post-season. The Alamo City squad wasn’t aiming for the same end result 2 years ago, ensuring the series would have to be won on their home court with a potential game 7 on Monday night. The first quarter featured the back-and-forth style action this series had mentioned with each game being a blowout.
Before the period ended, Oklahoma City would have a brief 6 point lead before role players Patty Mills and Danny Green hit back-to-back late three pointers before the quarter’s end.
Hit the jump for video highlights and more breakdown from game 5.
During the middle of the 2nd quarter was when San Antonio would start to pour in the points for the Thunder (pun intended) to take a double digit lead. Russell Westbrook would drain a last second three before halftime to bring the game back to 10, but the damage was already done for OKC heading into the 2nd half. Gregg Popovich used an interesting tactic inserting Matt Bonner into the starting lineup, which would free up inside paint space for Tim Duncan.
The big fundamental would lead all scorers with 22 points also grabbing 12 rebounds, which opened up the gates for the Spurs to regain their confidence and momentum. Now with the San Antonio retaking the lead, the head back to Chesapeake Energy Arena with some cushion. The story of this series has been blowouts and no road victories. If Oklahoma City wants to win the series, they’ll have to end the streak of road losses to advance back to the NBA Finals next week. Both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had poor shooting percentages, but we’re not expecting that to happen again in their must-win game 6 at home Saturday night.