Spurs VS Thunder (Game 4)

Series Tied 2-2

You couldn't stop KD. You just couldn't. 41 points. The Spurs had no answer for what he brought last night. They might not have been able to stop Kevin Durant, but could they have stopped the Thunder? That's the real question.

I think that the Spurs did a great job defensively on Russell Westbrook. They really defended him well in transition. The mistake that they made was that they didn't defend the other guys well. The pick and roll with Adams and Westbrook really killed this team. Westbrook was always looking for the open guys and the Spurs were always helping off way to much. They challenged Adams and Waiters, and both of these players delivered.

The Spurs also didn't seem to play Spurs basketball offensively. The team only had 12 assists in the game. Kawhi and Aldridge were isolated a lot. Danny Green rarely touched the ball which who is a huge part of the Spurs offense. He only got 33 touches on the night. He never really got off a good shot. Their team was just not playing like they usually do for whatever reason and the Thunder thrived off of it.

Besides that, Tony Parker played really good for the team. He seems to be destroying Westbrook who is yet to step up on defense. Westbrook seems to be very lazy on defense still. He doesn't want to stop Parker and is acting like he isn't a threat.

Anyways, Gregg Popovich just said that Durant had a good game and he didn't have any comments really about went wrong but I positive that he knows what his team must fix to win game 5 at home. Let's also not forget that Spurs still have home court advantage. The Thunder also played great so give some credit to them. If they continue to play like this, they are going to be tough to beat.

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.

Clippers VS Spurs (game 1)

Final Score: Clippers win 107-92



Clippers lead series 1-0

This was a game where the Spurs got a look at what the Clippers are capable of. Blake Griffin and Chris Paul were dominant over this Spurs team. Let's take a look at the Clippers first

Blake Griffin and Chris Paul had a combined total of 58 points. These two players alone had over half their team's points. They have to keep looking to them. You know that Greg Popovich will be looking to contain both of these players so Chris Paul and Blake Griffin are going to have to find some more ways to score in a best of 7 series. There is really nothing you can do with DeAndre Jordan's free throws. He shot 5-12 from the free throw line which is below 50%. My suggestion is to get DeAndre more touches in the post and get him to score. This will get him going and it will make the Spurs more hesitant to foul. Other than that, they just need to keep going with their offense and defense.

The obvious for the Spurs is that they need to stop Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. You can't let two players score over 50% of their scoring. They also need more scoring. The most points of a player was 18 by Leonard. The next player had only 11 who was Duncan. There was a lot of one v one in that game with the Spurs offense. They just didn't look like the Spurs. Last is that Diaw and Green need to make shots. Those players combined shot 4-23 from the field and 1-12 from the 3 point line. They need to produce well if this team is going to see them winning in this series.