Strategy over the next two games

[Horry Hipcheck]

Horry, you make some good points. But maybe it's MY confidence that needs a boost. After all I saw them come back in the 2012 playoffs, and we've lost to them 3 times already this year. I have no fear, just a healthy respect, of the Clippers. But I need to see OKC go down. I know we're going to win a championship this year.

And FWIW, the season series has hardly been a solid indicator of where these two teams are with one another. The first meeting, OKC took by 6 on a night when Duncan shot 5-14, and Green/Marco combined for 0-7 from 3. KD went for a mortal 24 points to lead scoring, but otherwise it was two full strength squads and the Spurs just didn't get as much production from their go-to guys. The second meeting, Kawhi sat, which presents a matchup problem defensively for SA. Meanwhile, Westbrick appeased his pagan gods enough to make more than half of his insane 22 FG attempts, en route to 31 points. The third meeting, also a six point loss, saw Kawhi sustain an injury and leave after fifteen minutes, and KD erupted for 36 points.

These aren't necessarily excuses, because we all know the Thunder are a talented, athletic team. My only point is that the Thunder, in 3 meetings, have beaten the Spurs by an average of 8.3 points - a healthy margin, certainly, but hardly a display of overwhelming dominance. Two six point losses, one of which came without our best defender, tells me that the Spurs can hang with OKC if everything else is equal. We probably won't see that truly until the WCF, if either team gets that far.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

And FWIW, the season series has hardly been a solid indicator of where these two teams are with one another. The first meeting, OKC took by 6 on a night when Duncan shot 5-14, and Green/Marco combined for 0-7 from 3. KD went for a mortal 24 points to lead scoring, but otherwise it was two full strength squads and the Spurs just didn't get as much production from their go-to guys. The second meeting, Kawhi sat, which presents a matchup problem defensively for SA. Meanwhile, Westbrick appeased his pagan gods enough to make more than half of his insane 22 FG attempts, en route to 31 points. The third meeting, also a six point loss, saw Kawhi sustain an injury and leave after fifteen minutes, and KD erupted for 36 points.

These aren't necessarily excuses, because we all know the Thunder are a talented, athletic team. My only point is that the Thunder, in 3 meetings, have beaten the Spurs by an average of 8.3 points - a healthy margin, certainly, but hardly a display of overwhelming dominance. Two six point losses, one of which came without our best defender, tells me that the Spurs can hang with OKC if everything else is equal. We probably won't see that truly until the WCF, if either team gets that far.

That's a great post.


Well, Pop decided to go full-bore with his rotations last night (minus Manu). Was that the better strategy? Did it prove anything? Probably not. The Spurs showed they were tired, IMO, turning the ball over a lot in the second half. Slow on offense, slow to the ball, shots coming up short from tired legs. The refs impacted the game by getting Leonard on some ticky-tack calls, and giving Westbrook and Fisher free throws every time they flopped. I thought for as badly as the Spurs played, as much as they turned it over, as poorly as they shot after halftime that the game could have been a lot more lopsided than it was.

If anything it gives OKC a little over-confidence that perhaps San Antonio can use to their advantage in the post season. In that 2012 playoff series the Spurs were a little over-confident, especially after going up 2-0. I believe that 2nd win gave them something like 10 straight wins against OKC only to see it miserably fall apart. This year is the Spurs chance to turn the tables.

This Spurs team can game plan against what OKC throws at them. There's more talent on this Spurs team, and a little less on the OKC side of the ledger than there was in '12. I think we saw OKC treat last night's game as the WCF and that's about as good an effort as we'll see in the playoffs. The Spurs can and will play a lot better in the playoffs.

But, as predicted, the cliff jumpers are jumping today, so I guess Pop did accomplish that.