Thunder-Spurs Preview

By PAUL J. WEBER
Posted May 26 2012 5:19PM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) Maybe they'll finally get a challenge this time.

The San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder have simply rolled through this postseason. There's the 18-game winning streak that has the Spurs flirting with history. Seventeen combined playoff games and just one loss. The Thunder sending home the last two NBA champions, and no other playoff teams besides these two that can boast a series sweep.

What took the Western Conference finals so long to get here Sunday, anyway?

"I think we both deserve it," Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said.

Few would dispute that.

It's a clear-cut matchup of the West's best teams without any qualifiers: No what-if speculating because of devastating injuries like Derrick Rose's blown-out knee that sunk top-seeded Chicago and reshuffled predictions in the East, nor were there lucky breaks or Game 7 heartbreakers that will gnaw at San Antonio's and Oklahoma City's dispatched opponents and their fans all summer.

By and large, the Spurs and Thunder have just steamrolled to this point.

The top-seeded Spurs clobbered Utah and the Los Angeles Clippers by an average of 14 points a game. They're one victory from tying the 2001 Lakers for the longest winning streak kept alive in a postseason and two from becoming just the fourth team in NBA history to win 20 in row.

"It's been a while since we've been in the Western Conference finals. And it's been a week kind of sitting here stewing and waiting on it," said Spurs forward Tim Duncan, whose last playoff trip this far in 2008 ended with a loss to the Lakers. "All of that together makes it an exciting series to start."

Oklahoma City - which finished three games behind the Spurs for first place - didn't have as many blowouts the first two rounds as San Antonio but drew tougher matchups. The Thunder avenged falling at the brink of the NBA Finals last year with a sweep of defending champion Dallas, then beat the Lakers in five.

Even before the playoffs, it was arguably easy to see this conference finals matchup coming: From the second week of the regular season until April 6, the Thunder held first place in the West.

Then the Spurs leapfrogged them, and never gave it back.

"I know they're the No. 1 seed - they're a tough group, they haven't lost in a couple months," Thunder forward Kevin Durant said. "But I think we bring another dimension to the table as well and we come out and compete."

Then the NBA's scoring champion the last three seasons added, "We're a group that's been together for four or five years. They've been together for 15 years. Those guys, they know each other inside and out."

If there's any broad way to frame this series, it's that: the up-and-coming Thunder vs. the old-and-still kicking Spurs. The triumvirate of Durant, All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook and Sixth Man of the Year James Harden are all 23 or younger. Spurs point guard Tony Parker turned 30 last week, while Manu Ginobili is 34 and Duncan 36.

Yet youth hasn't been served when these teams have played. The Spurs are 8-2 against the Thunder since 2009, including two wins this season despite Ginobili not playing because of injury. The Spurs were the NBA's best 3-point shooting team this season at 39.3 percent, but they especially picked apart the Thunder from behind the arc, shooting 52 percent in their three most recent meetings.

Durant this week brushed off the Thunder's troubles defending San Antonio's slash-and-kickouts that set up so many of those 3-point looks. He also grew noticeably annoyed by questions about how the Thunder will stop the Spurs - "You've got to ask me about how we're going to come at them," Durant shot back - and was asked before boarding a plane to San Antonio on Saturday whether they're leaving as underdogs.

"Everybody's always been using that, `We're too young for this and it's not our time, we're not ready,"' Durant said.

The Thunder say they are.

"Our success is just not overnight. It just doesn't happen," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "It happens through all of the effort that guys put in. This series is going to be the same thing."

---

AP Sports Writer Jeff Latzke in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

---

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

'Nasty' Spurs strike first against Thunder

By PAUL J. WEBER
Posted May 28 2012 2:03AM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) It's a catchphrase likely coming soon to fan T-shirts, Internet memes and the lexicon of the NBA playoffs for the foreseeable future.

"I want some nasty!"

Gregg Popovich didn't just coin it. He snarled it, and the way his San Antonio Spurs obliged has the Western Conference finals off to a thrilling start.

Manu Ginobili scored 26 points and the Spurs won their 19th in a row - tying the NBA record for longest winning streak kept alive in the playoffs - by rallying in the fourth quarter on the orders of their furious coach to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-98 in Game 1 on Sunday night.

It was a tantalizing near-upset for the young Thunder, who came as close as anybody to beating the Spurs for the first time in 46 days. But a nine-point lead didn't last after the famously mercurial 63-year-old Popovich - the NBA's Coach of the Year - huddled his lagging team together in the fourth and told them to "get nasty."

"I said that?" Popovich said afterward.

A nationally television audience heard it.

"The heat of the game, stuff comes up," Popovich said. "So I talked to them about they've got to get a little bit uglier, get a little more nasty, play with more fiber and take it to these guys. Meaning you have to drive it, you have to shoot it."

And when they did, the Thunder couldn't keep up.

Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 27 points. Russell Westbrook had 17, and insisted he was OK after taking a spill that was nasty in its own right - face first, bracing his fall with his hands and sitting under the basket for more than a minute while the entire Thunder bench walked across the court to check on their All-Star point guard.

"I shot good shots, made good passes," Durant said. "Unfortunately, we lost."

After being held to just 16 third-quarter points, San Antonio scored 39 in the fourth. Westbrook chalked it up to a defensive breakdown that "got out of hand" but it still left the Thunder in search of the road win they'll need to in this series to reach the NBA finals for the first time since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City in 2009.

Game 2 is Tuesday night.

"How it happened is irrelevant," Thunder guard Derrick Fisher said of letting a lead slip away. "Whether we lose by 20 or lose by one, we lost."

That's something the Spurs haven't been able to say since April 11. They joined the 2001 Lakers as the only other team to carry a winning streak this long in the playoffs - and that Los Angeles team did so on its way to a championship.

The Spurs matched the fourth-longest streak in NBA history, and with one more will become just the fourth team to surpass 20. Tim Duncan had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Tony Parker shook off a dismal start to finish with 18 points.

And of getting "nasty"?

"Pop's always trying to motivate us," Parker said.

But it was Ginobili who steered the Spurs to strike first in a highly anticipated matchup of the West's top two teams for practically the entire regular season. In his first game against the Thunder this year - he was sidelined by injury in the three regular-season meetings - Ginobili put up a playoff high after sputtering through the first two series.

"It just happened," Ginobili said. "I don't know how exactly because I haven't scored like this all season long, but it happened and I am very happy about it."

On the other end, Oklahoma City's own Big Three struggled to find its shot early before awakening in the second half. Durant, Westbrook and James Harden at one point through the second quarter were 5 of 21 - a typically ominous stat line for a trio that had been responsible for nearly 70 percent of Oklahoma City's points through the playoffs so far.

The Thunder were ousted in the Western Conference finals a year ago and were in position for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs until being overtaken by the Spurs in the final month of the season. But it was a fittingly close opener for two franchises with so many similarities.

That includes Thunder general manager Sam Presti - the architect of the Thunder's rapid turnaround from a 23-win season to consecutive Western Conference finals in just four years - getting his big break in the NBA as intern in San Antonio.

And the Thunder didn't even need their own Big Three to keep things close.

They leaned on none more so than Fisher, whose famous game-winner for the Lakers on this same court in the 2004 playoffs has made "0.4 seconds" a phrase that needs no further explanation to the Spurs. Eight years later, and the oldest player in this series at 37, Fisher already met his playoff average at halftime and finished with 13 points.

Gary Neal added 12 points and was the only other Spurs player in double figures.

Harden lost in the first round of his matchup with Ginobili, who's also a lefty and a former Sixth Man of the Year winner. Harden finished with 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting but started by missing nine of his first dozen shots.

Tipping off another conference finals couldn't happen soon enough for Oklahoma City. With nothing to do but prepare for the Spurs all week - and be asked about the Spurs - the Thunder grew weary of questions about being perceived underdogs. About not having the same championship pedigree. About how they'll possibly stop a team rolling through one of the 10 longest winning streaks in NBA history.

So repetitive were the questions that Durant, visibly annoyed, suggested earlier this week that someone instead ask how the Thunder are going "to come at" the Spurs. That didn't stop Oklahoma City from facing more of the same at shootaround Sunday morning, when Thunder coach Scott Brooks tried quashing again the idea his team was somehow intimidated.

"They're not going to be in awe. They're going to have respect for them," Brooks said. "We know we can beat them."

They've still got to prove it.

Notes: Spurs C DeJuan Blair has given the Thunder fits in his three NBA seasons, including 22 points on them in a March win. But San Antonio's starting center for practically the entire season didn't play for the third consecutive playoff game. "The game will tell us what's appropriate and what's not," Popovich said before tipoff. ...Just because a Boston-Oklahoma City matchup in still possible in the NBA finals doesn't mean center Kendrick Perkins is hopeful about facing his old team. "I really don't care," Perkins said of the Celtics advancing. ...Gov. Rick Perry took in his first Spurs game this year, sitting courtside next to Spurs owner Peter Holt, a major donor to the former Republican presidential candidate.

Notebook: Spurs 101, Thunder 98

Posted Monday May 28, 2012 12:20AM

By Tim Price, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: After being exhorted by their coach during a timeout to show "some nasty," the Spurs drove the ball right down the lane and doubled Oklahoma City's points in the paint. Manu Ginobili became the No. 1 option, and Ginobili's 26 points led the Spurs to a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals with a 101-98 victory over the Thunder on Sunday at AT&T Center.

Tim Duncan had 16 points and 11 rebounds while Tony Parker added 18 points and six assists as San Antonio outscored Oklahoma City 50-26 in the paint, including 16-2 in the fourth quarter.

The Spurs have not lost in this year's playoffs, and their 19-game winning streak to finish the regular season and carry over into the playoffs is the longest in the league since the Lakers won 19 consecutive in the 2001 regular season and playoffs.

It's the first time Oklahoma City has trailed in a playoff series this year. The Thunder led 71-62 heading into the fourth quarter, but Kevin Durant (27 points, 10 rebounds) could get off only two shots from the floor in the fourth.

QUOTABLE: "The heat of the game, stuff comes up (like the comment about 'some nasty'). I thought we were playing a bit unconfidently, kind of on our heels, a little bit unsure of ourselves, on the dribble too much. So I talked to them about getting a little bit uglier, get a little more nasty, play with more fiber and take it to those guys. We got that way in the fourth quarter."
-- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich

THE STAT: Ginobili was very active once he checked into the game about four minutes in. But his fourth quarter was decisive. He didn't miss a shot (3-of-3 from the floor, 5-of-5 from the line) and scored 11 points.

TURNING POINT: The Spurs already were on a 11-2 run to start the fourth quarter, and with the game tied Stephen Jackson fell backward when Durant got his elbows high and swung them in front of Jackson's face. Durant picked up the offensive foul, and just inside the seven-minute mark remaining in the game the Spurs went ahead to stay.

QUOTABLE II: "(Ginobili) is just left-handed and crafty. He can get to the rim. He made plays in the fourth quarter, and we stopped moving the ball."
-- Oklahoma City's James Harden

HOT: Derek Fisher's scoring production took the series off against the Lakers. He had a high game of five points and went 8-of-25 (32 percent) from the floor during the five games. His 6-of-8 effort from the floor for 13 points in Game 1 against the Spurs topped his going 5-6 for 11 points in Game 2 against the Mavericks. The only downer was he started 6-6 and missed his final two shots -- both in the fourth quarter.

NOT: Danny Green and Matt Bonner went a combined 13-22 in three regular-season games this season against Oklahoma City. Green went 0-for-5 from the 3-point line and Bonner missed both of his tries in Game 1. With Green cold, Gary Neal came in for the Spurs and was 2-of-4 from the 3-point line.

INSIDE THE ARENA: Shawn Michaels of pro wrestling infamy led cheers for the Spurs between the third and fourth quarter. ... Tiago Splitter had trouble hitting the rim on his free throws when he opened 0-for-3 from the line. He finally swished his fourth attempt and got a huge ovation. He missed his next one.

GOOD MOVE: Durant started to heat up late in the first half, and it wasn't long before the Spurs moved the veteran Jackson in to guard Durant in place of the rookie Kawhi Leonard. Durant got off two shots from the floor in the fourth quarter. The move was noticeable almost from the start when Jackson fell backwards when Durant swung his elbows in front of Jackson's face. And, for some reason, Durant sagged back on defense when Jackson fired up a wide-open three to give the Spurs a 91-84 lead with three minutes to go. Popovich played a physical lineup of Jackson, Ginobili, Duncan, Parker and Neal for an eight-minute stretch in the fourth quarter until the game was in the bag with 20 second left.

BAD MOVE: It appeared Oklahoma City was set up to defend a pick-and-roll when Ginobili was dribbling the ball up the floor and Duncan was popping up for an apparent pick. With Thabo Sefolosha and Kendrick Perkins guarding it, Ginobili would split the defense for big baskets in the fourth quarter.

ROOKIE WATCH: Before being pulled for Jackson with 2:43 to go in the third quarter, Leonard scored seven points and had seven rebounds (four on offense) in 25 minutes.

NOTABLE: San Antonio had 14 turnovers in the first half yet only three in the second. ... Russell Westbrook stayed on the floor after being called for an offensive foul when he bumped with Neal driving for a layup in the fourth quarter. OKC called timeout to keep Westbrook in the game. ... Harden started the game 1-of-9 before going 6-of-8 the rest of the way. Westbrook was 5-of-19 before hitting his last two to finish 7-of-21. Durant, Westbrook and Harden had a combined start of 4-of-21 from the floor. ... Duncan's double-double was the 135th of his postseason career.

UP NEXT: Game 2, Tuesday @ San Antonio, 9 p.m.

• Thunder: Jackson, Maynor
• Spurs: Byars, Joseph

• Thunder: --
• Spurs: --

• Lead Changes: 7
• Times Tied: 4

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #17 Joe Crawford, #8 Marc Davis, #57 Greg Willard
• Attendance: 18581
• Duration: 2:34