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Sunday, May 1, 2016

Spurs VS Thunder (Game 1)


Spurs Lead Series 1-0

The Spurs took down the Thunder like they took down the Grizzlies. They not only dominated them on the offensive end but the defensive end as well. Let's take a quick look at this game.

Now, a great offensive team is tough to beat. But when you throw in great defense as well, that team is almost impossible to beat. They held the Thunder, which happens to be one of the best offensive teams in the league, to just 92 points. The Spurs had 124 points. That dominating offensively and defensively. OKC never lead in the game. The Spurs got off running and never looked back. At one point they lead by as much as 42 points. The Spurs killed them with their great ball movement and amazing defense. If you looked at the Spurs, they ran tons of pick and roll plays with LaMarcus Aldridge as the roll man. Plenty of times, he would pop out. The defense would either leave him open or leave Danny Green open from 3. Either way it was a no win situation. To add on to this, the Thunder had horrible defensive rotations and were almost always a couple steps too slow. But it was tough. The Spurs had 39 assists in the game. They were moving the ball so much that it wore out the Thunder. If they are to win, they need to see a much better effort from Russell Westbrook as well.

One thing that most people thought was going to be a problem was Tony Parker guarding Russell Westbrook. The defended him really well in the paint and made him force up tough angles on shots. This seemed to really get in Westbrook's head. He shot just 26.3% from the field. You can see his shot chart below.
Russell Westbrook - Shot Chart - www.nba.com/stats
 The Spurs walked through this game with no problems. The Thunder's defensive effort was very poor and they are going to have to play much better defensively for them to put up a fight to win. You aren't going to outscore the Spurs, you need to play defense and get this Spurs team to quiet down with their ball movement. That's how they are going to have to win.


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