The streak is over. The series might only be beginning.
Kevin Durant scored 22 points, Thabo Sefolosha had 19 points and six steals, and the host Oklahoma City Thunder snapped San Antonio's 20-game winning streak by beating the Spurs 102-82 in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals on Thursday.
Oklahoma City closed its series deficit to 2-1 and will host Game 4 on Saturday.
"We never thought these guys had an advantage over us even though we had lost a few," Durant said. "It was just good that we took it to 2-1. We didn't want to go down 0-3."
Sefolosha threw a wrench in the Spurs' well-oiled offense at the start, getting four steals in the first three minutes. The Spurs ended up committing a postseason-worst 21 turnovers and scoring their fewest points all season.
San Antonio had been averaging 109.4 points during its month-and-a-half winning streak and had been held to double digits only twice.
"We just played a good basketball game," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "We played with a lot of force, we played with good energy, but we played defensive-minded basketball. That's who we are. That's how we win."
Tony Parker and Stephen Jackson led the Spurs with 16 points apiece. Tim Duncan had 11 points on 5-for-15 shooting, taking 11 of San Antonio's first 25 shots as the offense went through the All-Star power forward instead of Parker.
"They played like it was a closeout game, both offensively and defensively,"
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of the Thunder. "They were very active, physical, they moved the ball well on offense. They did all those things better than we did. They beat us good."The Spurs, who already set an NBA record for the longest winning streak carried over from the season into the playoffs, were trying to match the league mark for most wins to start the postseason. The Lakers won 11 straight to start the 1989 and 2001 playoffs, getting swept in the NBA finals the first time and winning it all the second time.
Parker and Duncan didn't play in the final 15 minutes, and Popovich pulled the plug after a series of three straight turnovers allowed the deficit to reach 23 points early in the fourth quarter.
Twyman dies: Basketball Hall of Famer Jack Twyman, one of the NBA's top scorers in the 1950s died of complications from blood cancer. He was 78.
Twyman played 11 seasons in the NBA with the Rochester and Cincinnati Royals, averaging 31.2 points per game in the 1959-60 season, and played in six All-Star games.
In 1958, after teammate Maurice Stokes was left paralyzed after a head injury suffered during a game, Twyman became his guardian to help Stokes receive medical benefits.
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