Spurs Posing Huge Problems with Matchups for OKC

The San Antonio Spurs coaches and players have preached, “team, team, team” day in and day out. However, on Monday night the Oklahoma City Thunder found out that it is also very tough to guard San Antonio’s players one on one, especially if Serge Ibaka is not present to be the Thunder’s last line of defense.

San Antonio used dribble penetration, post-ups and great movement of the ball to silence the Thunder on Monday night.

Offensively the Spurs scored 122 points, easily winning the Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference finals 122-105.

The Spurs started early and never let up. San Antonio scored 67 points in the first half. Veteran Tim Duncan took Kendrick Perkins to school offensively.

Duncan scored 11 baskets on the night. All but one of his hoops was in the paint. The absence of Serge Ibaka, who is out with a calf injury, was felt most by the Thunder in their inside defense.

The Spurs outscored the Thunder 66-32 in the point. During this past regular season, the Thunder only gave up 40 points per game on average in the paint.

Tony Parker has the talent to penetrate to the basket just as good and as often as the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook, even though his finish is often times less spectacular.

Westbrook has his problems guarding Parker, but not anyone else can even stay close. The Spurs point guard scored 14 but on the night and handed out 12 assists.

Manu Ginobili the third of the Spurs veterans was able to drive past defenders Steven Adams, Reggie Jackson and Perkins. That helped his confidence, as the Argentine finished with 18 points in just 27 minutes.

The Thunder tried to play small in the fourth quarter with Westbrook, Jackson Durant, Derek Fisher and Caron Butler.

However, the Spurs inserted Boris Diaw their ace in the hole, who took Butler down low twice in a one-minute span to score two quick hoops.

The Spurs said their head coach Gregg Popovich did not insist they drop the ball inside to takes advantage of Ibaka’s absence. All their inside points came within the context of their normal offense.

Popovich said after the game that you cannot change the way you play at such a late stage in the season.

San Antonio is a group of tough players. They make up tough individual matchups for the Thunder, even though the Spurs tell you their game is team, team, team.

When Oklahoma City went small during the fourth, Popovich did not counter with big men in an attempt to exploit their size. He instead used players like Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Diaw, Parker and Ginobili to keep order on the court.

Thunder head coach Scott Brooks put it simply, San Antonio has five players who can score at any time, meaning that on defense the Thunder cannot hide a weak defender nor can they take any possession off.

Things will not get any easier for the Thunder in Wednesday’s Game 2, you can count on that.