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The Oklahoma City Thunder have taken a four point victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference semi-finals, taking a 3-2 series lead over the San Antonio Spurs with a chance to wrap it up at home.
Heading into San Antonio for a huge Game 5 and all of the pressure was on Oklahoma. The bookmakers had this one quite comfortably going to the Spurs.
Early on though it was all the Thunder, they came out of the gates running rampant and the Spurs looked shell shocked. But the Spurs being the Spurs kept doing their own thing and stuck to the plan, slowly pitching their way back into it behind the strong play of superstar Kawhi Leonard. The defense from both sides was locked in and it made the offenses look stagnant, this lead the Spurs to a 5 point halftime lead.
Playing at the pace that the Thunder want to is always going to leave you vulnerable to turnovers and the Thunder set their own first half record for turnovers with 13, they managed to limit this number to 7 in the second half but still finished with 20 for the game.
Crazily enough this didn’t seem to matter for the Thunder who completely dominated on the glass, holding a +18 advantage with 5 more offensive boards than the Spurs. Coach Popovich tried to rally his troops to hit the boards but nobody really seemed to respond, the Thunder simply outworked the Spurs and although the offense wasn’t pretty the relentless attack of Russell Westbrook was the driving force.
His constant attack of the paint lead to a lot of open looks for teammates and also a lot of FTs for the team. You can read into this game as much as you want however the simple point of the matter is this; the Thunder outplayed the Spurs on both ends of the floor.
Tony Parker and LaMarcus Aldridge missed a lot of quality looks yes but that’s caused from the swarming pressure of the Thunder defense, over the last 8 quarters they’ve only had lapses for 5-10 minutes in total.
All of the series pressure now goes squarely onto the shoulders of the San Antonio Spurs as Game 6 will head back to Oklahoma. A team who was head and shoulders the second best team in the league all season long now finds themselves a long way behind the 8 ball and facing a lot of questions.
Can they respond and force a Game 7 or will the Thunder continue to roll and make it to the Western Conference Finals.
Game 6 will be Friday morning at 10.30am (AEST).
The San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder are set to play the fifth game of their semi-final series, which has so far been a complete seesaw battle. Join The Roar for the live blog and scores from the match, starting from 10am (AEST).
The Spurs won Game 1 in a completely lopsided battle 124-92, behind big man LaMarcus Aldridge’s 38 points.
Game 2 was a different setting, the Thunder looked like a basketball team again, and thanks to a dubious missed call from the referees Oklahoma escaped by the skin of their teeth 98-97.
Game 3 went to the Spurs thanks to the two-way play of their superstar Kawhi Leonard, however it was no walk in the park. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant tried everything they could but came up just short, losing 100-96.
Game 4 saw the Spurs come out firing on all cylinders, and raced out to a quick double-digit lead, however the Thunder got their game going and their MVP regained his form and put on a shooting display; dropping 41 points and levelling the series 2-2 with a 111-97 victory.
We’ve now got ourselves a complete restart; it’s a best of three series heading into Game 5. The Spurs will be reliant upon Kawhi and LaMarcus maintaining their series form and will be hopeful that the display put forth by Tony Parker in Game 4 was not a one off.
The Thunder will be hoping for another fast-paced game and look to run the older Spurs ragged. Their defensive intensity finally hit its straps in the last game, and if it can again lock in they’ll be heading back to Oklahoma with a 3-2 series lead.
Prediction
With the Spurs at times struggling with the Thunder’s pace, whoever can control the pace of the game will go a long way to winning this one.
Being in San Antonio, the Spurs will be looking to make amends also, if LaMarcus can get his Game 1 and 2 form back, watch out for another 35-plus point performance.
Spurs by 9.
Be sure to join The Roar for the live blog and scores of this match from 10am (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.
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