-Pregame: Since people seem to love predictions, I’ll go ahead and make one: Spurs by six. I think Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are both going to bounce back strong from weak performances in game three. Parker will be more disciplined with the ball, and Duncan will assert himself on the block. Oklahoma City was excellent last game, but I think the Spurs will come out with a different kind of focus after the loss, leveling the emotional playing field.
-Pregame: “The help was helping. Everybody was getting help.” That’s Kendrick Perkins on OKC’s game-three success at the defensive end of the floor.
-Pregame: The whole same color t-shirt thing is played the hell out. They didn’t do it in Boston last night, and I got to thinking… that was probably the first playoff game I’ve seen this year where the crowd wasn’t outfitted with some corny saying on their matching shirts. You aren’t the We Believe Warriors, rest of the NBA!
-9:43 1st: Kendrick Perkins has taken Oklahoma City’s first three shots. Shockingly, they aren’t losing yet.
-6:47 1st: San Antonio is hot from the outside… and they’re scoring on the inside, too. Oklahoma City, on the other hand, has gone 2-8 with Kendrick Perkins as their number-one offensive option. It’s very early, but none of this bodes well for the Thunder. Danny Green is sticking step-back Js as Kevin Durant fires air balls.
-5:10 1st: Russell Westbrook sticks an exceptionally difficult three-point shot. Tim Duncan answers with a patient, five-foot hook shot. From a Spurs perspective, you’ve got to like how this game is developing. San Antonio is getting exactly what they want while OKC is taking tough shots.
-3:30 1st: Oklahoma City gets their first transition opportunity of the game off of a Tim Duncan miss, resulting in a Kendrick Perkins dunk. The Thunder will need to do a lot more of this if they want to win the game, and in order to do this they’ll need to force misses.
-0:00 1st: The Spurs remain tied at the end of one (26-26) despite a late-quarter cool down. Oklahoma City got out and running in the latter stages of the period, and their ball movement also improved. Quite honestly, they should probably lead by a bucket or two, but they effed up a couple of fast-break opportunities. I still like what I see from the Spurs; they’re getting good shots, they just missed a few.
-0:00 1st: Kendrick Perkins has already produced a game’s worth of stats with 9 points and 6 boards.
-8:27 2nd: The look of the game has changed a bit as Oklahoma City is now getting offensive contributions from guys like Nick Collison, Serge Ibaka, and Thabo Sefolosha. They’ve responded to San Antonio’s hot start and taken a 36-31 lead. If OKC can continue to get better production out of their role players than San Antonio gets from theirs, that would be huge. Doesn’t seem like that should happen, though.
-8:27 2nd: Thabo Sefolosha, Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka, and Nick Collison are a combined 13-16 from the floor. They’ve got 26 points between them.
-3:21 2nd: Serge Ibaka is now 6-6 with 12 points. Kendrick Perkins is 5-7 with 11. Boris Diaw misses a layup, Russell Westbrook hits a three. The Thunder are simply rolling right now.
-Halftime: Kawhi Leonard’s three-pointer didn’t beat the halftime buzzer, so San Antonio remains down 12 (43-55). Although the Spurs have been unable to shoot since the early going and the Thunder have looked like a machine for the last quarter and a half, OKC fans better hope KD and Russ have better second halves in store. Ibaka, Perkins, Collison, and Sefolosha probably won’t contribute 39 points in the rest of the series, let alone the next two quarters (unless the Spurs defense continues to be absolutely awful, that is).
-9:21 3rd: Maybe Ibaka and company will replicate their first-half offensive effort. I mean, come on, San Antonio… can’t be letting these dudes throw down so easily.
-6:08 3rd: Boris Diaw has just been called for the phantom foul of all phantom fouls. Spurs can’t worry about that, though. They need to find a way to stop all of these easy shots at the rim.
-1:15 3rd: A Manu Ginobili three has brought the Spurs to with a bucket, 71-73. San Antonio is on a 10-0/18-5 run.
-0:00 3rd: OKC lucks out as Nick Collison draws a BS charge on Manu Ginobili just before the buzzer. Gino should’ve been at the line for two… Collison moved underneath him after he left the floor. As it is, OKC leads 75-71. Durant, Harden, and Westbrook are a combined 9-28 going into the 4th. Ginobili, Duncan, and Parker are 14-30. These are likely the players who will have to step up and win this game. Who will get the job done?
-9:10 4th: James Harden nails a three to put OKC up 84-76. He was 1-7 coming into the 4th, but he’s 2 for his last 3. If he can continue to score it would be a big boost for the Thunder, obviously.
-8:14 4th: Serge Ibaka makes it 11-11 from the floor on a tip shot. The sequence kind of summed up the game, I though—Harden dribbled out the clock and took an awful shot, but the Spurs failed to collect the rebound. They’ve been unable to capitalize on all different kinds of opportunities throughout the evening.
-7:00 4th: Tim Duncan makes it a four-point game again with a sweeping left hook. If the Spurs want to win this game they need to box the f@ck out, be quick to loose balls, and hit open shots. They’ve done none of this since the first quarter.
-4:45 4th: With a chance to bring his Spurs within a bucket Tony Parker shoots a fairly-routine layup off the bottom of the backboard. This surprises me, but the Spurs continue to not look right.
-2:48 4th: This thing is as good as 2-2. Following a Tim Duncan air ball, Kevin Durant scores an alley-oop and a chance to make it a three-point play. It’s now a nine-point game with the Thunder having all the momentum.
-1:20 4th: Kawhi Leonard hits his second three in two possessions. Too little too late, but he was one of the few Spurs who came to play today—17 points and 8 boards on 7-8 for the rookie.
-Thunder 109, Spurs 103: The role payers got it done early and Kevin Durant took over in the end. The Spurs looked great for about six minutes, then… I have no idea what happened. That’s three of four games in this series that San Antonio has looked off, at least for the most part. Credit Oklahoma City; they played a much better game tonight.
