Oklahoma City Thunder closed their Game 3 with a win ending in a series deficit 2-1. Game 4 will be hosted on Saturday night. Dunk of the Night, Kevin Durant said they never considered the opponents had an advantage even when they had lost a few. He said they did not want to go down to 0-3 and it was good they won 2-1.
The Spurs had the worst of them during all the season. The game was for the Thunder right from the beginning when Thabo Sefolosha threw a wrench in the Spur’s offensive and got four steals just in first 3 minutes.
Kevin Durant of the Spurs was in the lead by scoring 22 points. Thabo Sefolosha was to follow him with one of his career best by scoring 19 points. This was The Spurs’ first defeat since April 11.
Scott Brooks, the highly energetic Thunder coach explained that they played a defensive basketball all along but put a lot of force and good energy into the game. “That’s who we are, that’s how we win” were his words at the end of the game. Parker vouched his words by saying “They did definitely play with a lot of more energy, a lot more passion than us tonight.”
The Spurs have record of longest winning streak in NBA carried over into the playoffs from the regular season. During the previous round in Game 3 in Los Angeles, The Spurs eliminated the 24 point deficit against The Clippers. In this one, they were unable to recover.
‘San Antonio’ were able to score only 24 points averaging 46 during the first two games of the series and scoring 47.8 through playoffs.
Oklahoma City Thunder were already enjoying an edge scoring 28-8 in the paint. They took 54-41 halftime lead. During the second half the San Antonio were able to manage only 11 points.
Sefolosha said, “We played with energy. We played with passion in front of home crowd. They did a great job giving us a lift.” “We wanted to bounce back after two losses like that. We had to play better and we did that tonight.”
The Thunders are in the Northwest Division of Western Conference of NBA. They rank among the big four north American sports leagues in Oklahoma. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Thabo Sefolosha, Serge Ibaka and James Harden are the notable players of the franchise team.
Kevin Durant is the sixth player in the history to score 30 points in four consecutive games. He is also the youngest player in league history to score an average 30.1 points per game in all 82 games.
In this match, The Spurs tried hard to break The Thunder’s concrete defense. Thabo Sefolosha was always close when Parker had possession. Sefolosha was quicker to pick the pass between Parker and Boris, though Sefolosha is not the player to be considered as a plus rated offensive player. But his defensive skills are unique and he qualifies to be a dynamic point guard. Sefolosha’s strength drifted Tony Parker off the course throughout the game.
The Spurs is not an easy team to tackle. It has never been. In order to score good shots against a team like Spurs, you need to have precision in execution and the expertise to negotiate with them.
Winning Game 4 is very important for the Thunders if they want to stay in the business. Losing Game 4 means a 3-1 defeat which would just put them in a very dangerous position of getting eliminated. Parker, Ginobli and Duncan are the main opponents from the Spurs’ side, they have to properly manage. The Spurs are going to be more aggressive and planned in Game 4 after losing Game 3, so this would be an even more exciting match.
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