The Oklahoma City Thunder showed their toughness
By Joshua Lea
The Oklahoma City Thunder showed their toughness against the San Antonio Spurs. It would seem that they’ve collectively appeared to have turned a historic page in this season.
Game 1 in this series versus the San Antonio Spurs was brutal, awful, horrendous, and yet; not dead in the water. Now many people assumed the Spurs would either sweep or win in five games (myself included). However, the Oklahoma City Thunder did the impossible: They won in San Antonio during a playoff series. All they have to do protect is home court and win out to meet either Golden State (most likely) or Portland in the Western Conference Finals.
San Antonio has two losses at home this entire season. The only other loss was at the hands of Golden State on April 10, a game in which Stephen Curry dropped 37 points. San Antonio, Golden State, and Oklahoma City make up the Western Conferences elite teams. However, questions surrounded the Oklahoma City Thunder like a swat team concerning fourth quarter giveaways and mental toughness. Game 2 was no different, and the lackluster performance in Game 1 left a bad feeling drizzling down from the Thunder players to the fans. However, in Game 2, the Thunder rose to the occasion. Oklahoma City had a one point lead after three quarters, and fans thought for sure this is when San Antonio would blitz the Thunder and take a 2-0 series lead going to Oklahoma this Friday.
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The Thunder went with a 4th quarter lineup that we’ve never seen before with Dion Waiters running the point and Andre Roberson, Kevin Durant, Enes Kanter, and Steven Adams filling out the rest of the lineup. The Oklahoma City Thunder started the 4th quarter with masterful defense. What I have yet to hear anyone take note of is that the Oklahoma City Thunder held San Antonio scoreless until the 7:09 mark of the 4th quarter. San Antonio didn’t score a basket or a free-throw for almost 5 minutes to open the 4th quarter.
Roberson’s defense was exceptional on Monday night, and collectively the Thunder made tough shots and held San Antonio to only 21 fourth quarter points, which is five points below their team average at 26 a game. Mentally, the Thunder remained steadfast in an otherwise grim situation. They pulled together as a team and made the plays needed to gain an unorthodox victory in San Antonio.
Now, with the focus of this series shifting back to Oklahoma City, the true test with be the mental toughness for this Thunder team. There’s no doubt San Antonio will come out fired up on Friday. Oklahoma City will have to rely on its fans and veterans to protect home court.
The only problem is the Thunder do not have a veteran core coming off the bench like San Antonio, Golden State, or Cleveland. In Oklahoma City’s case, the veteran core is the starting five. You could even argue that head coach Billy Donovan doesn’t meet the standards that a veteran coach does. Sure, Donovan has an outstanding college career under his belt. However, pulling Durant before the end of the first quarter has continuously baffled me.
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The lesson here is the Oklahoma City Thunder showed they have some heart; many teams wouldn’t be able to rebound from a loss of Game 1’s magnitude. However, this Thunder team did. They rebounded and elbowed their way to a victory in San Antonio. Giving them “a new hope” to win the series.