The Spurs seemed like a well-oiled unstoppable machine this season. Few teams are this when it comes to, well, teamplay. Of course, quick-fire point guard Tony Parker netted the majority of the points for San Antonio, but a large part of their overbearing power lies in their uncanny knack to find each other on the court and land the easiest shot. This is not a slight in any way, to find that shot takes serious skill. Rarely going for overly flashy moves, the team rather plays the ball around in a tempo seldomly matched to eventually somehow land in the hands of a teammate in a position virtually impossible to defend. When on the defensive, their great positioning skills work just as tightly. Great and fast strategists also maintaining one of the strongest defenses in the league, a team closer to unbeatable wasn’t witnessed this season. But their reign came to an end yesterday night.
Oklahoma on the other hand, has no shortage of stars with players like Kevin Durant, James Harden and Serge Ibaka, but these aren’t the type of guys to rest on their laurels or suffer suffocating egos. During the lockout, they played in exhibitions, maintained their shape and came out in top form when the season finally started. Thunder is one of the most enjoyable teams in the league to watch, playing an assertive, spectacular game, at the peak of their physical prowess. Kevin Durant even managed to play full regulation time in this most recent game, adding more minutes to his already impressive amount of time on the court this season.
What’s ironic is that the penultimate score in the game was a play which found Kendrick Perkins completely free of defense in the final moments of the game. Durant quickly passed the rock to Perkins who just moved into the wide open space and dunked it home, free of opposition. Exactly the type of play that seemed impossible against San Antonio a couple weeks ago. After that, Durant scored a rebound, closing the game at 107-99. The Spurs were broken, struck by Thunder.
For Oklahoma it’s on to either the amazing moves of Rajon Rondo or the billionaire boys club of Lebron ‘n them but what’s already sure is that we’ll have a great series of finals ahead of us and a fantastic series of western conference finals behind us.
