Winner of Game 4 takes the series?

[Janko]

8 vs 5 is always a horrible matchup tbh

[Horry Hipcheck]

No. Lose Game 4 and it's a best of 3, with HCA. The Spurs have gone up 2-0 and come home for Game 5 tied 2-2 many times, and won. Winning the series becomes much easier for the Spurs if they win Game 4, but losing it isn't their death knell. Losing Game 5 would be.

This loss shouldn't surprise anyone, and it shouldn't be viewed as a sign of things to come. The cliff jumpers are having their cake right now but if the Spurs just make their shots, and spread the floor better, things even out. KD and Westbrook can't beat them on their own, and Ibaka isn't the missing piece to make it happen either. Reggie Jackson has yet to really show up, and tonight they only got modest contributions from Butler, Fisher, and Adams. If the Spurs don't pussy out, if Parker connects and makes smarter drives, and Duncan isn't the weak little that he was tonight, the games are winnable. Not by the 17 and 35 point margins some of us assumed would be the norm, but they're winnable.

[dg7md]

I don't think so, if they win it's tied 2-2 with us going back to SA with it tied. Series hasn't begun until a team loses at home.

[baseline bum]

Spurs fans are in some serious denial if they don't think this is a really bad matchup for the Spurs. Just like they were in denial about Ibaka being healthy and the report from Presti being complete bull . Spurs better come out and steal Game 4, otherwise they gotta take 2 out of 3 against a team that has owned them all year.

[Malik Hairston]

I agree that game 4 is a must-win..if the Spurs lose game 4, they become the underdogs, even with HCA..

[baseline bum]

I don't know why Spurs fan thinks this would be like coming back home 2-2 against Seattle in 05 or something. Spurs are now 0-5 this season against the Thunder when they have Ibaka shutting their offense down.

[slick'81]

Lotta pressure on spurs going into a must win game4

[poop]

LOL at all the posters completely ignoring the Ref-freethrow factor.doesnt matter what the spurs do or dont do...the refs will determine this series.

[GrandeDavid]

Lol

[Horry Hipcheck]

I don't know why Spurs fan thinks this would be like coming back home 2-2 against Seattle in 05 or something. Spurs are now 0-5 this season against the Thunder when they have Ibaka shutting their offense down.

Same reason you're setting the barn on fire over one loss. Taking things that look like other things and assuming they're automatically the same.

[Horry Hipcheck]

Lotta pressure on spurs going into a must win game4

They'll play like it, but it's not. Pressure's still on OKC to hold steady at home. They'll feel more relaxed, but they're in deep if they come back to SA down 3-1.

[spurs10]

It would be nice to take one up there, but not necessary. The 21-0 discrepancy is very concerning. My only good feeling from this game is we played like crap and they still needed 21 freebies to beat us. At one point before garbage it was 31-7 in the free throws. Hard to beat that kind of .

[baseline bum]

So you guys would be confident in the Spurs winning 2 of 3 from a team they would be 0-6 against?

[ElNono]

I don't know why Spurs fan thinks this would be like coming back home 2-2 against Seattle in 05 or something. Spurs are now 0-5 this season against the Thunder when they have Ibaka shutting their offense down.

I don't put a lot of stock in the regular season, tbh... I don't think Pop puts a lot of stock either... the last playoffs game we played against them before this series was in 2012...

They're not a favorable matchup, but on paper, neither was Portland... OKC is obviously a solid team, otherwise they wouldn't be here, but this was a game where the Spurs didn't play well... I don't think Abaka had a lot to do with Diaw, Danny, Kawhi missing open shots, or Tony just turning the ball over and over... they outscored and outhustled us even when Ibaka was on the bench... just a bad game... we'll see what Game 4 brings. If it's "shutting down", then yeah, there's concern. If we go back to the norm, it doesn't really matter...

[mercos]

I believe so. The Spurs have no show games like this at least once a series, so you can write off game 3. However, if OKC comes back and wins game 4 in a similar fashion, by taking the Spurs out of their offense, they should be favored to win the series at that point. We have long known that Ibaka has the Spurs number. The hope was that we had built up enough head of steam that his return wouldn't be enough to stop us. That still may be the case, but game 4 will be the biggest indicator. Hard to write off two losses in a row given the history between these teams. (Recent history, not 2012)

[Horry Hipcheck]

It would be nice to take one up there, but not necessary. The 21-0 discrepancy is very concerning. My only good feeling from this game is we played like crap and they still needed 21 freebies to beat us. At one point before garbage it was 31-7 in the free throws. Hard to beat that kind of .

Any number of instances of progression to the mean for the Spurs could have resulted in a victory. Poor shooting, FT discrepancy, turnovers were high, lost the rebound battle - and it was nearly a two-possession game on that Mills 3 in the 4th. Spurs play even slightly better than they did, and we could be discussing a 3-0 lead. As mortal as OKC makes the Spurs look, they were awfully mortal themselves.

[Harry Callahan]

Only if SA wins.

[baseline bum]

I don't put a lot of stock in the regular season, tbh... I don't think Pop puts a lot of stock either... the last playoffs game we played against them before this series was in 2012...

They're not a favorable matchup, but on paper, neither was Portland... OKC is obviously a solid team, otherwise they wouldn't be here, but this was a game where the Spurs didn't play well... I don't think Abaka had a lot to do with Diaw, Danny, Kawhi missing open shots, or Tony just turning the ball over and over... they outscored and outhustled us even when Ibaka was on the bench... just a bad game... we'll see what Game 4 brings. If it's "shutting down", then yeah, there's concern. If we go back to the norm, it doesn't really matter...

I don't get the Portland comparison. The Spurs blew two early season games to Portland, then won both of the late season games. Meanwhile the Spurs have barely been compe ive against Oklahoma City except for the two games when Ibaka was out.

[ElNono]

I don't get the Portland comparison. The Spurs blew two early season games to Portland, then won both of the late season games. Meanwhile the Spurs have barely been compe ive against Oklahoma City except for the two games when Ibaka was out.

I just don't get the regular season comparisons either... the Spurs rest players, flat out don't play them, they don't go out of their way to actually gameplan specifically for them... OKC isn't a favorable matchup, but the Spurs can beat them.

Like Gino said in the presser, Ibaka isn't the sole reason for a 20pt turnaround... if the Spurs don't play well, they'll lose games, no matter who's out there...

[Horry Hipcheck]

So you guys would be confident in the Spurs winning 2 of 3 from a team they would be 0-6 against?

More confident in that than I am in Suddenly Super Serge returning and carrying the Thunder to 4 wins in 5 tries. That team has gotten almost no bench production, and if Parker just steps up his game then Ibaka becomes almost a non-factor on defense. You pay so much attention to the regular season, you're certain to remember that Parker torched OKC for 37 this year. Yeah, they still lost, but not because Ibaka's some natural born Parker stopper. Elsewhere in the league, has anyone forgotten that Miami couldn't hang with Brooklyn this season? I wouldn't call the Nets a healthy matchup, per se, but if you wanna look at regular season results and assume the playoffs will be the same, let's talk about that. Or how Dallas fans could have looked at their two-season record against the Spurs and assumed they'd get swept before pushing them to 7.

There's no guarantee OKC would have won Games 1 and 2, either, just because Ibaka showed up and - surprise! - OKC won Game 3. Ibaka doesn't single handedly give OKC a victory instead of a 35 point loss, in which KD and Westbrook combine for a laughable 30 points.

The Spurs played well below season averages in almost every category in this game, and it was never more than a ten point deficit until that back breaking call against Mills and the subsequent run OKC went on to push it to 14 in the 4th.

Let Darius be the troll, he's marginally better than you at it.

[baseline bum]

More confident in that than I am in Suddenly Super Serge returning and carrying the Thunder to 4 wins in 5 tries. That team has gotten almost no bench production, and if Parker just steps up his game then Ibaka becomes almost a non-factor on defense. You pay so much attention to the regular season, you're certain to remember that Parker torched OKC for 37 this year. Yeah, they still lost, but not because Ibaka's some natural born Parker stopper.

There's no guarantee OKC would have won Games 1 and 2, either, just because Ibaka showed up and - surprise! - OKC won Game 3. Ibaka doesn't single handedly give OKC a victory instead of a 35 point loss, in which KD and Westbrook combine for a laughable 30 points.

The Spurs played well below season averages in almost every category in this game, and it was never more than a ten point deficit until that back breaking call against Mills and the subsequent run OKC went on to push it to 14 in the 4th.

Let Darius be the troll, he's marginally better than you at it.

But at that point Ibaka would only need to lead them to two wins in three tries.

[Horry Hipcheck]

But at that point Ibaka would only need to lead them to two wins in three tries.

Which he isn't going to do on his own, and I'll reiterate that the Spurs pretty much couldn't have played any worse in his return and were a few calls away from taking it to the wire.

[Capt Bringdown]

I don't get the Portland comparison. The Spurs blew two early season games to Portland, then won both of the late season games. Meanwhile the Spurs have barely been compe ive against Oklahoma City except for the two games when Ibaka was out.

This. OKC is asserting their will against the Spurs. And Ibaka is flat out dominating us. When one player makes such a huge impact on your entire offense, what else can you call it but utter domination?
We were all hoping to see something different tonight, but I think deep down most of us expected this.

[Agloco]

Any number of instances of progression to the mean for the Spurs could have resulted in a victory. Poor shooting, FT discrepancy, turnovers were high, lost the rebound battle - and it was nearly a two-possession game on that Mills 3 in the 4th. Spurs play even slightly better than they did, and we could be discussing a 3-0 lead. As mortal as OKC makes the Spurs look, they were awfully mortal themselves.

There's a lot of truth in this. Ibaka going 6 for 7 to boot. But he does have a history of going nuts on us.

[Horry Hipcheck]

There's a lot of truth in this. Ibaka going 6 for 7 to boot. But he does have a history of going nuts on us.

I won't be surprised if he continues to do so. But the Spurs won't continue to shoot this poorly, rebound this poorly, or turn the ball over so much. Games 1 and 2 in 2012 were much closer to Spurs losses than people care to remember. The Thunder had SA solved in Game 2 but couldn't surmount the lead the Spurs had built, and the rest is history. Ibaka may have been out for the first two this time, but those annihilations were no flukey result of that. The Spurs were more aggressive, more fluid, and more polished than they were against OKC in their last outings. Ibaka will make the series more compe ive, but the Spurs can overcome that. There's no Harden to pour in 20+ a night, Sefolosha might as well be dead, and Jackson hasn't torched them yet. So far in this series, minus some signs of life from Fisher, it's been 8 or 9 on 2-3. Tonight, the roles switched. If the Spurs just play slightly better, they can win close games.