Tag: Oklahoma City

Time for Spurs’ other guys to shine

By Jeff McDonald

Sixteen months ago, Danny Green was back home in North Babylon, N.Y., in the midst of every 20-something’s worst nightmare.

He was living at his parent’s house, looking for work.

The Spurs had just become the second team to waive him in one season. Green was starting to wonder if this NBA thing would ever work out for him.

“I was at a point where I didn’t know if I was going to get back in the league,” Green said. “Sometimes, I think about where I was just a year ago, and how different it is for me now.”

Flash forward to tonight at the ATT Center, where Green will be starting at shooting guard for the Spurs in the Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City.

It is a series sure to be top-heavy with star power: the Spurs’ championship-tested threesome of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili on one side, the Thunder’s young and hungry trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden on the other.

Yet if history holds, a role player like Green could be the one to turn the series one way or the other.

“We expect a lot of different players to change a playoff series,” Duncan said. “It’s going to come down not only to how the main guys play, but also how the role players play.”

At the end of a series doubled up on Big Threes, a trip to the NBA Finals could come down to contributions from players best described as “The Other Guys.”

Oklahoma City’s Big Three was the highest-scoring triumvirate in the NBA during the regular season, accounting for 68.4 of the Thunder’s 103.1 points per game. Durant led the NBA for the third consecutive season by averaging 28.

The Thunder’s fourth-leading scorer was forward Serge Ibaka, who averaged 9.1 points. No other Oklahoma City player averaged more than 5.5.

“We’re as good an offensive team as they are, no question,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “We have good players. We wouldn’t be in this position if we weren’t a good team also.”

The Spurs’ Big Three combined for less than half the team’s offense in the regular season, accounting for 46.8 of the Spurs’ 103.7 points per game. That leaves ample scoring space for The Other Guys.

Among players who made at least 20 appearances for the Spurs, Gary Neal is King of the Other Guys at 9.9 points per game. Seven others averaged at least 6.6.

The Spurs can probably live with Durant, Westbrook and Harden all hitting their season averages in the series. They probably can’t survive if Derek Fisher (playoff average: six points), Thabo Sefolosha (3.9), or Daequan Cook (2.7) gets hot, too.

Meanwhile, the Spurs remain confident they can continue to spin scoreboards if one of their Big Three is contained. The Spurs’ bench produced an NBA-best 41.9 points per game during the regular season, and that number has dipped only slightly during the playoffs.

“We have guys that can come off the bench that can score, play good defense and do a lot of little things we need them to do,” Green said. “Hopefully, our bench can outmatch their bench and give us a lift.”

Eight games into his playoff run, Green has been doing much of the non-Big Three heavy lifting for the Spurs.

He is averaging 10.4 points, most of any player outside the Spurs’ highly touted trio, and is connecting at 45.7 percent from 3-point range.

It has been quite a playoff party for a player who, as recently as January 2011 was out of the league and looking into jobs in Italy.

“Just playing on the floor gets you more comfortable,” Green said. “I compare it to driving. The more minutes on the road, the more comfortable you are behind the wheel.”

Make no mistake. If the Spurs are to reach their fifth NBA Finals, it will be stars Duncan, Parker and Ginobili who drive them there.

But Green, and other guys like him, will be more than just along for the ride.

“We’re going to ask a lot of different people to play a lot of different roles,” Duncan said. “Those people who step up are going to make the difference whether we win or lose.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

X-FACTOR CANDIDATES

A look at key playoff statistics for the top non-Big Three players for the Spurs and Thunder:

Spurs
Danny Green, G: 10.4 points, 45.7 percent on 3-pointers
Kawhi Leonard, F: 8.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.5 steals
Gary Neal, G: 8.3 points, 50 percent on 3-pointers
Tiago Splitter, C: 7.6 points, 3.6? rebounds

Thunder
Serge Ibaka, F: 9.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.6 blocks
Derek Fisher, G: 6.0 points, 53.3 percent on 3-pointers
Thabo Sefolosha, G: 3.9 points, 38.9 percent on 3-pointers

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals (best-of-7)

Game 1: Sunday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

Game 2: Tuesday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 3: Thursday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday June 4 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday June 6 – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary

Up 2-0, Spurs on edge despite favorable history

By Jeff McDonald

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Spurs departed San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals in their pocket and the past on their side.

Throughout the Spurs’ postseason history, such a deficit has been hemlock to playoff opponents. Find yourself facing it, and summer vacation soon follows.

One player on the Oklahoma City roster knows better.

“I think we can beat this team,” Derek Fisher said.

What might otherwise be dismissed as a show of unwarranted bravado from a 38-year-old backup guard comes with a side of been there, done that.

When it comes to winning a best-of-7 series after taking a 2-0 lead, the Spurs are 18-1 all-time. Fisher was there for that one time.

In the 2004 conference semifinals against the Lakers, the Spurs carried a 2-0 edge into Los Angeles before coming undone. Eight years later, Fisher’s miracle 18-footer in Game 5, launched with 0.4 seconds left, remains the signature moment of one of the Spurs’ most disappointing playoff collapses.

As the Spurs prepare for Game 3 against Oklahoma City tonight at Chesapeake Energy Arena, Fisher’s shot — much like the shot-maker himself — is ancient history.

“That happened like 30 years ago,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said.

Yet the lesson it imparted endures in those who lived it. A series is not over until one team wins four times.

The Spurs take the floor in Oklahoma City with numerous reasons to feel confident. Their franchise-best winning streak of 20 is climbing the charts, equaled or surpassed by only three teams in NBA history.

They haven’t lost in roughly the length of a Kim Kardashian marriage (50 days) and have won 10 in a row to start the playoffs, one victory shy of the NBA record.

“It’s pretty incredible what they’ve done,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “To win a game is hard. To win 20 in a row and 10 of them in the playoffs, it’s quite an accomplishment.”

To wary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, the series could just as easily be 2-0 in Oklahoma City’s favor.

In Game 1, the Spurs trailed by nine heading into the fourth quarter before exploding for 39 points and a 101-98 win. Two nights later, they squandered nearly all of a 22-point lead before locking up a 120-111 victory in the final minutes.

In Game 2, the Spurs survived an 88-point eruption from the OKC trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, in part thanks to 34 points from Tony Parker and the team’s highest-scoring playoff game in six years.

“Our offense saved us,” Popovich said. “We scored, and that’s the only reason we won. Because our defense wasn’t very good.”

Oklahoma City would kill for such problems now. In order to avoid elimination, the Thunder must win four out of the next five against a team that has beaten them eight out of the last 10.

Then there’s this: Only three teams in NBA history have fallen into a 2-0 hole in the conference finals and recovered to win the series.

“What we’ve done up to this point doesn’t matter,” Spurs forward Stephen Jackson said. “If we lose tomorrow, it all goes down the drain.”

If the Spurs ever had any doubt about the fragility of a winning streak or playoff edge, Fisher stands as a living reminder.

In 2004, the Spurs had won 17 in a row heading into Los Angeles, matching their longest winning streak until this season. A 2-0 series lead quickly became 2-2, and 0.4 seconds followed in Game 5.

Two nights later, the Spurs’ season was over.

“We did not assume that we’d win four games in a row, which is basically what we ended up doing,” Fisher recalled. “We just focused on winning Game 3.”

Beginning tonight, Fisher hopes to play Sherpa on another such climb. The Spurs aim to keep that part of history from repeating.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals
(Spurs lead best-of-7 series 2-0)

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3: Thursday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary

Ginobili heeds coach’s call, sparks Spurs in comeback

By Jeff McDonald

Manu Ginobili looked sharper Sunday than he had at any other point throughout the playoffs.

And that was before he ever set foot on the floor at the ATT Center.

A few hours before tipoff of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, Ginobili — whose sartorial style might best be described as slacker chic — strolled into the locker room wearing a dapper gray sport coat over his button-down dress shirt.

It wasn’t until later that night, after he had Pied-Pipered a come-from-behind 101-98 victory over Oklahoma City, that Ginobili began to regret his choice of threads.

“It’s probably going to be the first and last time of the season,” Ginobili said, squinting in the glare of the TV lights. “I’m sweating like a pig.”

In all other respects, Ginobili proved ready for his close-up. With the chips down in the fourth quarter, the Thunder did not.

Ginobili broke from his playoff scoring slump — (alternate take: what slump?) — for a season-high 26 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, to help the Spurs overcome a nine-point deficit and deny OKC a golden ticket to the first lead of the series.

It was vintage Ginobili, at a moment when the Spurs desperately needed it, their 19th consecutive victory in dire jeopardy.

“We started to count on him for a long stretch there,” Tim Duncan said. “He really did it for us.”

In his first game against OKC this year — he missed all three meetings in the regular-season — Ginobili showed the Thunder what they had been missing.

He was 3 of 5 from the 3-point line and 5 of 5 from the foul stripe, all his free throws coming in the fourth.

Two classic Ginobili drives in the final 1:57 essentially finished off OKC. The capper, in which he split a pair of defenders before finding the rim, put the Spurs up 96-89 with 1:11 to go.

“That’s Manu’s game,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He’s somebody we depend on to create and make things happen.”

Tony Parker added 18 points, six assists and a season-high eight rebounds, while Duncan had 16 points and 11 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the postseason.

Harder-earned than most, the victory gave the Spurs claim to one of the fourth-longest winning streaks in NBA history. Heading into the fourth quarter, with the Thunder up nine and rolling, that streak seemed on life support.

OKC already had forced 14 first-half turnovers, undermining any chance the Spurs had of generating offense, and Kevin Durant was heating up on his way to 27 points and 10 boards.

His team down seven, Popovich called a timeout and uttered the phrase soon likely to show up on bootlegged T-shirts across the Alamo City: “I want some nasty.”

Popovich got what he asked for, most obviously from Stephen Jackson, who spent every second of the final frame mugging Durant, then threw in a game-breaking 3-pointer for good measure.

But the Spurs also got a dose of nasty from Ginobili, who helped engineer a 30-11 run that flipped the game.

“Manu, I’m never worried about him,” Jackson said. “When it’s nut-cutting time, when we need him, we knew he’s going to be there.”

Ginobili came into the night averaging 11.3 points and shooting 25 percent from 3-point range in the postseason. There were signs early a breakout was in play.

Not long into his initial shift of the first quarter, Ginobili slithered for a few Ginobili drives. At the horn, he threw in an off-balance 3-pointer, then opened the second quarter with another.

“That’s when we knew,” Jackson said. “He was rolling.”

The last time Ginobili scored this many points: Game 5 against Memphis last postseason. He had 33 in an elimination game.

At times, Sunday had that feel. Had Ginobili been saving himself for this moment?

“I’m not that good,” he said. “It just happened. I don’t know how exactly.”

It’s a question the Thunder likely will be asking themselves up until tipoff of Game 2 on Tuesday. After losing control late in Game 1, Oklahoma City left the arena looking for reasons to hope.

“(The Spurs) are playing the best basketball in the league,” OKC coach Scott Brooks said. “And we were right there.”

The difference was Ginobili, who traded in his dress jacket for a superhero’s cape, just in the nick of time.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals
(Spurs lead best-of-7 series 1-0)

Game 1:

Game 2: Tuesday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 3: Thursday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday June 4 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday June 6 – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary