Originally Posted by
Horry Hipcheck
I'm not one for emotion-based posting, but I think this nightmare is over in 6. There's blood in the water and no team thrives off it better than OKC. They did it to the Spurs in 2012, and they're doing it again. Harden's absence means nothing. All season long we've been waiting for this team to get into gear and despite flashes of brilliance they've never done it. I've just lost faith that they'll do it now, up against elimination. Game 5 at home, tied 2-2 with a team that has literally no fucking fear of you at all, and you shit the bed? I know those players try. I know they're not mailing it in. But Jesus Christ, they won 67 games and made the AT&T Center an impenetrable fortress. Until now.
Now, they get to go to the one arena that loves drinking this team's tears more than any other in yet another elimination game. I just don't see it. I'm sure they'll play hard, I'm sure they'll fight. But there's absolutely no reason in all of rationality why this series shouldn't have ended tonight. Instead, the good guys are down 2-3. For a myriad of reasons, some player related, some coaching. Nobody knew Duncan was going to become a walking corpse.
It's par for the course now, sadly. The five triumphs this team has are mountain peaks amongst seemingly endless valleys of playoff disappointment. Losing big games they should have won is part of the team's DNA. Game 7, 2006. Game 5, 2012. Game 6, 2013. Game 6, 2015. This team manages to find ways to lose the champion-defining games far more often than they seem to win them.
Diaw/West could, in theory, work. But it doesn't. They get abused on the boards, and neither one can contribute on offense anymore. 12 months ago Boris Diaw was a catalyst in the small ball beautiful game. Now he's a pariah. West has grit and toughness but can't consistently knock down a jumper and just doesn't have the size to compete with Adams and Kanter. Duncan might as well be dead.
But Pop still trots out the same lineups, the ones that barely survived Game 3, the ones that didn't survive Game 4, and the ones that now have lost PIVOTAL Game 5. Parker, who looked like his old self in Games 3 and 4, attempted the potential go-ahead shot tonight.
Why not Kawhi? Partially, but not entirely, because of the refs. I've never seen Kawhi protest non-calls as much as he has this series. I've never seen Tim Duncan rack up 4 personal fouls in the first half of a playoff game. I get why the Spurs are afraid to shoot against this team now. Not only are they long and athletic, but they get away with motherfucking MURDER night in and night out and we as a fanbase are supposed to just swallow it and watch that franchise pound its collective chest like it's done literally anything to boast about. The officials took over Game 6 in 2012 and it's very hard for me to think this year will be different.
Kawhi's been shown that he will not get the benefit of the doubt. That he is not Kevin Durant, or Russell Westbrook. On the one hand, he should be the champion he is and fight through. On the other, that shit is demoralizing as all hell.
I'll always love this team, and in 36+ hours I'll be following their progress in Game 6 and cheering if they win. But this game, and this series, is just starting to feel like the final nail in a much bigger coffin that the Spurs have been in since day one. Lose Game 6, which my heart tells me they will, and all I'll be able to think about is how much of a nightmare this entire season has been. Which I can't believe I'd say about a 67-win regular season that featured a second consecutive DPOY award for Kawhi and his emergence as an All-Star.
My pick is Thunder by 8.
