Why shouldn't the Spurs have won this game?

[GSH]

The Spurs held OKC to 42% from the floor.
The Spurs out-rebounded OKC 50-43.
The Spurs had 22 AST vs. 18 for OKC.
The Spurs go to the FT line 25 times vs. 23 for OKC.

The ONLY thing that made this game competitive was the 14 first half TO's, and a bunch of missed chip-shots. The Thunder played a good game, and the Spurs didn't, and the Spurs still won.

Need another sign. In the post-game interview with Durant and Westbrook, both of their first comments were "Free throws." The young Thunder players are blaming the officiating for this loss. Yeah, they said a few more things. But their first thought was that somehow the game wasn't called fairly. That's a tell.


I'll call it now - Game 2 is going to be a double-digit win by the Spurs.

[dav4463]

I hope you are right.

[Holt's Cat]

Spurs taking charges threw them off their game.

[Uriel]

:tu

[Spursfan092120]

?? Free throws? They were 19-23 and we were 17-25...

[Sean Cagney]

LOL at the black rim clowns blaming officials, you don't wear cot damn glasses take them off....... I don't hate them either, yet.

[thekingrobert]

and we shot 33% from 3 I see us hitting a good % next game I second a double digit victory for the Spurs

[SpursRock20]

Yeah I laughed when they mentioned free throws. They were leading in FTA until they started fouling us when the game was already out of hand. Durant was gifted a couple of phantom calls and he assuredly took 3 steps on that fast break although Miller sure it was only 2.

[cd98]

Lame to put the loss on refs, who blew a bunch of calls for the Spurs including that goaltend of a Parker shot by Durrant.

Spurs made shots in the fourth and Thunder didn't. Ball game.

Thunder shouldn't expect to feast on the line against team w least fouls committed per game.

[Trainwreck2100]

The ONLY thing that made this game competitive was the 14 first half TO's, and a bunch of missed chip-shots. The Thunder played a good game, and the Spurs didn't, and the Spurs still won.
It wasn't the only thing, fisher being a gigantic dick didn't help at all

[KaiRMD1]

The refs weren't bad this game. They actually should have given Fisher that three instead of calling it a two but they made up for it by not calling that Parker layup a goal tend. Joey Crawford did good tonight

[tesseractive]

Blaming it on the refs is just bad coaching. If Brooks has any brains, he'll give these guys a good long talk about that tomorrow.

Bottom line, the Spurs got stops and made baskets down the stretch and you didn't, so suck it up and figure out how to do better in the next game.

[jestersmash]

The 25 to 23 FT comparison is kind of deceptive. I don't like counting the end of game free throws where OKC deliberately puts us at the line.

It's really more like 23 FTs for OKC to 18 FTs for the Spurs, which strengthens your argument overall.

[AFBlue]

Said it in another thread, but their explanation for how they let the game slip away was way more out of touch than their fashion choices. And those were awful too.

[Holt's Cat]

Spurs' willingness to take charges may make OKC more tentative to drive as the series goes on. Glad to see that when the Spurs needed to, they were able to execute on both ends of the floor.

[ElNono]

In the conference finals, 14 turnovers will lose you more games than it will win you. Ditto with your top scorer pulling a Casper for 3 quarters.

[GSH]

Here are a couple of more stats that were key:

Spurs outscored the Thunder in the paint 50-26
Second chance points: Spurs 14, OKC 7

[ducks]

spurs can go to duncan and get a easy basket
thunder can not go to anyone inside and get easy basket

[GSH]

In the conference finals, 14 turnovers will lose you more games than it will win you. Ditto with your top scorer pulling a Casper for 3 quarters.

14 is the break-over point for the Spurs. When they commit less than 14 TO's, they rarely lose. They managed to overcome 16 tonight because they outplayed the Thunder in so many other aspects of the game. I know it didn't feel like it to a lot of Spurs fans, but the numbers tell the story.

[ElNono]

14 is the break-over point for the Spurs. When they commit less than 14 TO's, they rarely lose. They managed to overcome 16 tonight because they outplayed the Thunder in so many other aspects of the game. I know it didn't feel like it to a lot of Spurs fans, but the numbers tell the story.

14 might be the average against all competition in the league... not at this level, IMO. That said, I don't expect the Spurs to be so careless again, but I also don't expect the Spurs to drop 39 pts in a quarter either...

[Holt's Cat]

Here are a couple of more stats that were key:

Spurs outscored the Thunder in the paint 50-26


Either they will continue to focus on preventing TP angles to drive and volume 3 point looks and we'll continue to see a layup drill or they'll go to a more conventional defensive arrangement and try to out execute the Spurs offensively.

[GSH]

14 might be the average against all competition in the league... not at this level, IMO. That said, I don't expect the Spurs to be so careless again, but I also don't expect the Spurs to drop 39 pts in a quarter either...


I posted this earlier in the week, because I thought it would be one of the big stories of this series.

The Spurs had the third fewest TO's in the regular season, with an average of 13.5 per game. The Thunder were the worst in the league, with an average of 16.3 per game. In the post season, the Thunder have committed the fewest TO's, averaging just 10.67 per game, while the Spurs have committed 13.13 TO's per game.

The first half was an aberration. I expect the Spurs to keep up their normal pace of around 13 per game. But I don't think there's any way the Thunder can keep up the 10 TO's per game they had in the first two rounds. Expect the rest of the series to look a lot more like the second half tonight.