Oklahoma City did the unimaginable and is on the verge of knocking off the Spurs. The Thunder went to San Antonio and won Game 5, their second straight road win in the series, against a team that lost just once on its own floor during the regular year. OKC looks poised for a date in the Western Conference finals.
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LOOK AHEAD
Whatever the league’s officiating report turns up, it won’t change the predicament in which the Spurs now find themselves: facing elimination on the road, and needing to put together their best performance in two weeks to stay alive long enough to hope homecourt advantage can be the difference-maker in Game 7 that it wasn’t in Games 2 and 5.
Again, some questionable officiating late in Game 5 changed the direction. Not that two blown calls against the Spurs were the deciding factor, but they did result in five points for OKC in a game that ended with a four-point margin, 95-91. And now facing elimination San Antonio is in for another tough game – one that, over the years, hasn’t been particularly friendly to coach Gregg Popovich. In his career, Pop is just 2-10 when facing elimination on the road.
INJURIES
There are no physical ailments affecting Spurs center Tim Duncan, but the future Hall-of-Famer is a shell of his former self in this series. Popovich has often turned to Boris Diaw or David West instead. Duncan scored his only basket in Game 5 on a dunk late in the second quarter, ending a personal scoring drought of 92 minutes and 30 seconds of game time.
KEY MATCHUP
Most young players are taught to play until the whistle is blown. That’s what Russell Westbrook did on Tuesday and he has the Thunder on the verge of upsetting the Spurs. Westbrook couldn’t be stopped down the stretch, not even when the Spurs were trying to foul him. His three-point play with 6.3 seconds remaining, scoring after Kawhi Leonard grabbed him around the waist but the officials refused to call a foul, sealed the victory.
Those points were the last of Westbrook’s 35 on the night, to go along with 11 rebounds and nine assists. “Russ was a maniac tonight, keeping us in it,” Kevin Durant said of his teammate. When Westbrook plays with controlled emotion he’s nearly unstoppable. He settled in after an erratic first half in which he committed six turnovers. He had two after halftime. Besides scoring at least 28 points for the fourth time in the series, Westbrook had four offensive rebounds and two steals in 39 minutes.
QUICK PICK
Not taking anything away from the Thunder, but Game 5 was very winnable for the Spurs. And in fact it’s a game they should have won. But in very un-Spurs like fashion, they made mental errors, gambled recklessly on defense and endured scoring droughts like we just haven’t seen from this group.
It’s almost as if the Spurs are spooked by the length of OKC and they’re getting punished by Steven Adams and Enes Kanter down low. Now San Antonio is forced to win two straight, and that’s a tall order for any team, let alone one playing is most puzzling basketball of the season.
NBA Odds: Oklahoma City 103, San Antonio 98
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