Spurs-Thunder Preview

By JEFF LATZKE
Posted Jun 05 2012 5:18PM

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Down and nearly out less than a week ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder are riding a momentum shift to the brink of the NBA finals.

With three straight wins, the Thunder have changed the conversation from how anyone can stop the San Antonio Spurs' record-setting 20-game winning streak to how Oklahoma City needs just one win on its home court in Game 6 on Wednesday night to play for the NBA title.

Hundreds of fans waited in the middle of the night for the Thunder's plane to land after Game 5, and thousands more will pack Chesapeake Energy Arena to cheer Oklahoma City on. Yet coach Scott Brooks urged Tuesday that riding the momentum isn't enough to get the job done.

"We have a great opportunity, we're on our home floor but that doesn't guarantee automatic victory," Brooks said during a day off at the team's practice facility. "They're not going to give us the game. They're not just going to say, `We've lost three in a row, we're going to give in.' We know we have a tough challenge ahead."

Brooks stood near the same spot just a week earlier, surprised when a reporter told him that only 6 percent of NBA teams over the years had overcome an 0-2 deficit in a seven-game series. Now, his Thunder could become only the 15th team to pull off the feat - and the eighth since 2004.

"The percentages, you can't really feed into that because you know that there's always a chance," Brooks said. "There's 48 minutes to prove that you're the better team that night, and we have an opportunity tomorrow night to do that again."

A series of defensive adjustments by Brooks helped turn the series, with 6-foot-7 Thabo Sefolosha switching onto All-Star point guard Tony Parker in Game 3 the most visible change. The Spurs have been tinkering ever since to get back in the groove they'd been riding since mid-April but instead have lost three straight games for the first time all season.

Coach Gregg Popovich put sixth man Manu Ginobili in the starting lineup for Game 5, getting a playoff-best 34 points from the Argentine guard but disrupting the bench rotation in the process. He has also gotten DeJuan Blair back in the mix after benching the former starter for the first part of the playoffs.

"I think we have the right game plan," Spurs All-Star Tim Duncan said. "We just need to play a little better for a little longer."

After being blown out by 20 in Game 3, the Spurs have lost the last two by a combined nine points and now must find a way to snap Oklahoma City's seven-game home win streak.

"It's not that we have a Game 8 or 9 to recover, so it's either win or go home," Ginobili said. "So we have to. It's our job. So nobody is going to feel sorry about ourselves, we've just got to go compete. We know it's hard to beat them there, but it's what we have to do. We've got to step up and play the best game of the season."

Ginobili downplayed the changes in Xs and Os and said it comes down to making a couple key plays at the right time. For instance, Oklahoma City's James Harden hit a clutch 3-pointer with the shot clock running down in the final 30 seconds of Game 5, and Ginobili missed a 3 that could have tied it with about 5 seconds left.

Switch those up, and the series looks different.

"It is the first team to four wins, so there really isn't anything to celebrate or get happy about until you win the series," Thunder guard Derek Fisher said. "This team made it to the conference finals last year and I don't think anybody was happy with the final result, so who cares if we are up 3-2 now? If we don't finish our business, it does not mean anything and that has to be our mentality going into it."

After all, if momentum swung once in the series, it could again. The Spurs hadn't lost at home all postseason either - until Oklahoma City pulled off its win Monday night.

"We don't pound our chests, we don't tell everybody how good we are," Brooks said. "We feel that our worth is through our work, and if we continue to work hard and if we continue to play together, we're going to have some good results. The expectations always have been there for us."

But never has the reality been so close.

---

AP Sports Writer Paul J. Weber contributed to this report from San Antonio.

Durant takes charge, pushes Thunder to NBA finals

By JEFF LATZKE
Posted Jun 07 2012 4:49AM

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) For all the points, rebounds and assists that filled Kevin Durant's impressive stat line, it was a defensive play he made that fired up his coach and teammates.

"That's his first charge of the year," Russell Westbrook interjected when Durant was asked about drawing an offensive foul against Manu Ginobili in the fourth quarter of Oklahoma City's 107-99 win in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday night.

Indeed, it was.

The league's three-time scoring champion had 34 points and 14 rebounds while playing all of regulation for the first time all season, leading the Thunder into the NBA finals. But it was taking that charge that got his team pumped up.

Durant stepped in front of Ginobili's drive during a 3 1/2-minute scoreless stretch by San Antonio that allowed Oklahoma City to take the lead for good.

"I just wanted to go out there and sacrifice my body for my team. I knew that would give us a little spark," Durant said.

"Manu's an unbelievable player at twisting his body and making crazy shots, so I just wanted to time it right. It felt good to get that for my team and I could tell they were excited that I got my first one when I looked at the bench."

Westbrook added 25 points for the Thunder, who trailed by 18 in the first half and erased a 15-point halftime deficit.

The Thunder took the lead for good early in the fourth quarter, getting nine of their first 13 points on free throws as the fouls started to pile up for San Antonio - six on the defensive end and three on the offensive end in the first 7 minutes.

That included Durant's stop just outside the restricted area under the basket.

"Down the stretch, it seemed like they got every whistle possible and that really changed the tide," San Antonio's Tim Duncan said. "We were playing tough defense and trying to get stops, but the whistle kept blowing and they went to the line."

Tony Parker finished with 29 points and 12 assists, but only eight of the points and two assists came after San Antonio took a 63-48 halftime lead. Duncan chipped in 25 points and 14 rebounds, and Stephen Jackson hit six 3-pointers and scored 23 points.

The Spurs had won 20 in a row, moving past the Thunder for home-court advantage in the West and then taking a 2-0 lead in the series, before losing four in a row.

"There's not much to complain about," Ginobili said. "We had a great run. We just couldn't beat these guys."

Durant grabbed the final rebound, dribbled the ball across half court and raised his right fist to celebrate with a sold-out crowd wearing free white T-shirts. The franchise will play for the NBA title for the first time since 1996, when it was in Seattle.

Game 1 of the NBA finals will be Tuesday night in Oklahoma City against either Boston or Miami. The Celtics lead that series 3-2 and can earn a trip to the finals with a win at home in Game 6 on Thursday night.

Durant celebrated even before the final buzzer, hugging his mother and brother seated courtside after a foul was called with 14 seconds remaining.

"I never want to take those moments for granted," Durant said. "I know it's just one step closer to our dreams, but it felt good."

Coach Scott Brooks said he was not going to take Durant out of the game, no matter how many times his All-Star gave him a fatigued look.

"Kevin's an amazing young man," Brooks said. "His stat line is not even close to who he is as a young man. He's respected by his teammates, by the staff, by the city. He's a great ambassador to this league and I'm proud to coach him. He wants to be coached.

"He's a great leader."

The Thunder, only three years removed from a 3-29 start that had them on pace for the worst record in NBA history, went through the only three West teams to reach the finals since 1998 - Dallas, the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio - to earn their shot at the title.

Derek Fisher and James Harden hit 3-pointers in a three-possession span to increase the lead to 99-93 with 3:13 remaining. Jackson, who had made his previous six 3-pointers, and Parker both missed 3s that would have gotten the Spurs within 103-102 in the final minute.

San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich thought the game was lost in the third quarter, when the Spurs were "playing in mud."

The Spurs got quick offense in the first half and made 9 of 15 from 3-point range while shooting 55 percent overall.

Parker, who had been largely bottled up ever since the Thunder put 6-foot-7 defensive specialist Thabo Sefolosha on him in Game 3, had a hand in the Spurs' first 12 baskets, making seven on his own and assisting on the other five.

Kawhi Leonard and Jackson followed his three-point play by nailing back-to-back 3-pointers for a 34-16 advantage in the final 2 minutes of the first quarter.

The youthful Thunder stormed back with an 11-2 run to start the third quarter and eventually pulled ahead after Durant's 3-pointer from the top of the key made it 79-77 with 1:41 left in the period.

"We can't have their legs, their energy. We are never going to jump as high or run as fast," Ginobili said. "But the first half we did a great job, we just moved the ball to find teammates, made shots. In the second half, they were very active and we couldn't find anything easy."

Notes: Popovich, whose request for his team to play nasty led to T-shirts being made in San Antonio, said at the morning shootaround that his team needed to play "with a little bit of ugly." Not nasty? "I was trying to stay away from that word," he said. ... San Antonio had a 29-28 edge in the second quarter after getting outscored 138-106 in the period in the first five games - dropping more than six points per game. ... Greg Willard was scheduled to be one of the three officials but pulled out due to illness. Rodney Mott replaced him, alongside Joe Crawford and Bill Kennedy.

Notebook: Thunder 107, Spurs 99

Posted Thursday June 7, 2012 12:48AM

By Randy Renner, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: After a kiss and a hug from his mom, Thunder forward Kevin Durant then accepted a warm vocal embrace from 18,203 of his closest friends as Oklahoma City celebrated its first ever trip to the NBA Finals with a come-from-way-behind 107-99 win over the San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder trailed by as many as 18 but outscored the Spurs by 23 in the second half. Durant had a monster game, playing all 48 minutes and finishing as the game's high-scorer with 34 points. He also pulled down 14 rebounds, handed out five assists and blocked two shots. His running mate, Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook, also came up big with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists. James Harden added 16 points for OKC and Serge Ibaka dropped in 10.

The Spurs started fast, leading 34-20 after the first quarter and 63-48 at halftime but they just couldn't sustain their offense in the second half. Tony Parker led the Spurs with 29 points on 12-for-27 shooting, he also handed out 12 assists. But most of those numbers came in the first half as Parker scored just eight points and dished two helpers in the last 24 minutes. Tim Duncan also had a big game with 25 points and 14 rebounds. Stephen Jackson kept San Antonio close with dead-eye 3-point shooting (6-for-7). Jackson finished with 23. Then, Thunder defense came to the party late, allowing San Antonio to shoot 61 percent in the first quarter but the Spurs finished at 44 percent. The Thunder hit exactly half their shots. Paint points were about even (36-34 Spurs), second-chance points were even (11-11) and the Thunder led on the fast break 16-10. But it was that big second half from Durant and his 'mates that sent the Thunder rolling into The Finals.

QUOTABLE: "This is a group of young men that has unified this city and this state as never before."
-- Thunder chairman Clay Bennett

QUOTABLE II: "This has kinda been like a Hollywood script for OKC. First they played Dallas and then the Lakers and now us. That's 10 of the last 13 championships, I don't know if anyone has ever done something like that before and that's incredible and I think it's pretty cool for them."
-- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich

QUOTABLE III: "Even when we were 3-29 (in the 2008-09 season) our ownership group and our fans treated us like champions. We were down 18 and we could have said, 'okay we gotta suck it up and win Game 7,' but they didn't do that. They had a never quit attitude."
-- Thunder coach Scott Brooks

QUOTABLE IV: "They were more energetic and they played better defense in the second half. We just couldn't find anything. We're never gonna have their energy, we're never gonna run as fast or jump as high."
-- Spurs guard Manu Ginobili

THE STAT: The Thunder are the third team in NBA history (the 2007 Cavs and 1993 Bulls are the others) to win four straight games in the conference finals after falling behind 0-2 in the series.

THE STAT II: In the second half, the Thunder held the Spurs to just 36 points on 32.5 percent shooting. Meanwhile, the Thunder scored 59 points on 57.6 percent shooting.

TURNING POINT: Oklahoma City had hurt the Spurs in the second quarter of two other games. Wednesday night, it was the third quarter when this game turned. The Thunder outscored the Spurs 32-18 in the third quarter and held them to 31.8 percent shooting. The Spurs missed their first five shots of the quarter and then missed seven of their last eight shots of the quarter.

HOT: The Spurs shot 60.9 percent in the first quarter and 54.5 percent for the first half ... Tony Parker had almost as many baskets (seven) as the entire Thunder team (eight) in the first quarter ... Parker was 8-for-14 (21 points) and 10 assists in the first half ... Stephen Jackson was 4-for-4 on 3-pointers in the first half and finished 6-for-7 ... OKC finished 10-for-18 (55.6 percent) on 3-pointers.

NOT: Jackson was 6-for-7 on 3-pointers but the rest of the Spurs were just 5-for-19 from long range ... Ginobili was 4-for-12 (2-for-8 on 3-pointers).

INSIDE THE ARENA: Former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa was in the house, along with former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating and former Oklahoma U.S. Senator Don Nickles. NBA superfan Jimmy Goldstein also sat courtside.

BAD MOVE: Surprisingly, the Thunder came out with no energy on defense and at times seemed to be playing like a team with a one-game cushion. They allowed the Spurs to almost score at will in the first quarter and by halftime, San Antonio had put 63 points on the board. That was just two points shy of the most points scored by a Thunder opponent this season in the first half.

GOOD MOVE: Everything turned around for the Thunder in the second half. Brooks said he didn't scream and yell or talk about all the threes San Antonio hit or all the other open jumpers, "it was about who we are as men, who we are as a team and they just kept fighting back."

NOTABLE: This is the Thunder franchise's first trip to The Finals since the 1995-96 season when the team was still in Seattle. ... Durant has six games in this postseason where he has scored 30-plus points. OKC is 4-2 in those games. ... Duncan recorded his 138th career playoff double-double.

UP NEXT: Tuesday, Game 1 of the NBA Finals

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

• Spurs: Jackson
• Thunder: --

• Lead Changes: 5
• Times Tied: 1

• Arena: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, OK
• Officials: #17 Joe Crawford, #71 Rodney Mott, #55 Bill Kennedy
• Attendance: 18203
• Duration: 2:28