The Oklahoma City Thunder hope to level the series as they battle the San Antonio Spurs in game two tonight.
The Spurs were finally challenged for the first time in these playoffs and it almost cost them home-court advantage as they took game one by 101-98 behind a furious fourth-quarter charge. Tony Parker had 16 points and eight assists, while Tim Duncan added 18 points and 11 rebounds, but it was Manu Ginobili’s night as he led the way with a team-high 26 points off the bench.
As for the Thunder, they will be lamenting on the missed opportunities they had to steal game one as Kevin Durant finished with a game-high 27 points, but practically disappeared in the fourth, while Russell Westbrook took two more shots than Durant but had just 17 points and five assists. Looking at the bench contributions, James Harden had a slow start to the game but made five treys to finish with 19 points, Derek Fisher started on fire, making his first five shots to finish with a valuable 13 points for the Thunder.
I was a little surprised that the Thunder were leading 47-46 at halftime and pretty shocked that they had a 71-62 lead going into the fourth. However, the fourth is the only one that really matters and it just looked like once the Spurs started playing “nastyâ€, it was all too late for the Thunder. Game one is in the books and while the Thunder have shown me that they can beat the Spurs, I think that wake-up call from game one will make the Spurs even stronger now.
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