Well, if that wasn’t a perfect game, I don’t know what is.
And it wasn’t just Serge Ibaka going 11-for-11 from the field. It was Kevin Durant scoring 18 of his 36 points for the Thunder down the stretch, it was the Thunder looking wiser than their years by answering every San Antonio basket in the fourth quarter with one of their own, it was Oklahoma City’s bigs exposing a gaping hole in the Spurs’ defensive capabilities down low.
It was a textbook case of what it takes to defeat the San Antonio Spurs, and the Thunder showed that maybe, just maybe, they have what it takes to get out of this wonderful-to-watch Western Conference finals and go for the ultimate goal.
The Spurs scored 32 fourth-quarter points.
The Thunder scored 34.
The Spurs shot 50 percent from the field.
The Thunder shot 56.
When the Spurs cut a 15-point deficit to four, Kevin Durant took over midway through the fourth quarter by scoring all 16 of the Thunder’s points during a span of just over 5 minutes.
“We’ve just got to keep believing, man, and we’ll be fine,” Durant said.
Not sure if that is t-shirt material quite like “I want Some Nasty,” but “Keep Believing, Man” could go down as the Thunder’s catch phrase for the remainder of the 2012 playoffs.
Oklahoma City is trying to become the 15th team in NBA history to overcome an 0-2 deficit in a seven-game series, and the eighth to do it since 2004. The Thunder avoided an even tougher task by winning. Only eight teams have ever overcome a 3-1 deficit, and only two had done it while needing two wins on the road — the 1995 Rockets and 1968 Celtics.
Durant always gets the lion’s share of the attention, so let’s change things up and start by talking about Ibaka, whose 11-for-11 performance was one bucket short of the NBA record for most makes without a miss in a playoff game. A majority of his shots were jumpers, but there was one throwdown hammer dunk that ranks up there with some of Blake Griffin’s best for just how nasty it was. You can watch it here.
Y’all know this guy will be playing against Team USA in the gold medal game at the London Olympics, right? What? You didn’t know? Then read this.
And now, a look around the Web:
From Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com: “Serge Ibaka was surprised so many people were surprised. So he makes more baskets in the first half than Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden combined. So he goes for a career-high 26 points, never missing a shot, in the conference final with the season likely on the line. Is that something new? Of course it is a surprise. The whole thing is. The All-Defense center who averaged 9.1 points a game in the regular season dropping 26 on the Spurs, or one less than the previous three games of the series combined. The Thunder evening the West final 2-2 because Thabo Sefolosha has the offensive game of his life and then about 48 hours later Ibaka has the offensive game of most anyone’s life. … Hello, freak occurrences. “He was impressive,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. “11 for 11 in Game 4 of the conference finals is not easy to do. I understand if he runs in transition and dunks or on drop-offs when we help (on another player on defense). That can happen. But he made five to six jumpers, and that’s something we were willing to give up. But he was impressive today. He made every shot. He was very active as always on the defensive end, so he had an unbelievable game.” Said San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich: “All the bigs scored tonight. Obviously you put your attention on the big three there (Durant, Westbrook and Harden) and try do a great job on them first, just naturally. But the bigs came through tonight and were outstanding. I didn’t look at the whole (box score), but I think they were 22 for 25 or some crazy thing. If you did a shooting drill with nobody guarding you, I don’t think you could do that.” Exactly 22 of 25: 11 of 11 by power forward Ibaka, seven of nine from center Kendrick Perkins, four of five by backup big man Nick Collison. Everyone went off. Durant in the fourth quarter for sure — 18 of his 36 points to secure the 109-103 Thunder victory — but KD turning flammable can be expected. The other part, not so much. Some crazy thing is right. “You go into a game with a game plan and try to make other guys beat you,” Collison said when asked to put himself in the Spurs’ shoes. “When other guys are able to step up and make shots, it’s tough to defend against that. We’re just going to try to continue doing the same things. We’re just a much better team when we move the basketball.” There is that kind of emotional boost for the Thunder as well, as if being 2-2 isn’t rocket fuel enough. Two games in a row with unexpectedly big scoring contributions from players known strictly for defense — that’s a team suddenly in a special rhythm, knowing it can win even with Westbrook struggling with his shot and Harden missing.”
From Holly MacKenzie of Bleacher Report: “What was shocking was the performance of the Thunder’s big men. Serge Ibaka finished the game a perfect 11-for-11 from the floor, one shy of the all-time NBA playoff record for most field goals without a miss in a playoff game. He added five rebounds and three blocked shots in nearly 41 minutes of action. He was phenomenal for the Thunder, scoring on jumpers and dunks alike. The Spurs didn’t have any answer for him. It was almost painful to watch him go to work against a team that didn’t have any idea how to make him miss. After the game, Popovich could only shake his head when asked about Ibaka, saying that if you put guys through a shooting drill, few would finish with that percentage. It was a welcomed sight for the Thunder who had been hoping that Ibaka would play himself into a groove. After being limited to just 21 minutes in the Thunder’s Game 1 loss, Ibaka has slowly found his rhythm playing against this Spurs team and is figuring out how to benefit his team on both ends of the floor. He wasn’t the only one to provide an unexpected scoring boost for the Thunder. San Antonio wasn’t ready for Kendrick Perkins or Nick Collison either. Along with Ibaka, the trio finished the game shooting a blistering 22-for-25 from the floor to combine for 49 points. These are the same big men who had been virtually invisible up to this point.
The Spurs had not lost consecutive games since March 9-11, and as noted yesterday, their 20 game winning streak is about as relevant now as the New York Mets’ history of never having a pitcher throw a no-hitter.
They get to play two of their next three at home, where they are 6-0 in this postseason and were 28-5 (tied with Miami for the NBA’s best) in the regular season.
But in Game 4, they ran into a team that looked every bit as deep as they are. More worrisome, the Thunder exposed the Spurs as a team that cannot defend the basket all that well when faced with an opponent stocked with productive bigs.
Will they panic?
Perish the thought. The Spurs don’t do panic.
Are they in trouble?
If you say ‘no’ you are fooling yourself.
From Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: “Trailing by 12 at halftime after the Thunder dominated the final five minutes of the second quarter of Game 4, the Spurs got their ears full of Gregg Popovich. Veteran Stephen Jackson said they deserved the high-decibel tirade from the coach. “I don’t think Gregg Popovich should have to come in this locker room and scream and kick to get guys to go in and play hard,” Jackson said after the Thunder evened the best-of-7 series at two games apiece. “This is the Western Conference finals. I know a million people who want to be in our shoes. For him to have to come in here and scream at guys to play hard .?.?. I am shocked. Everybody should be ready to play. .?.?. We’ve got to show more emotion and more passion to want to win this thing.” Nobody who was in the locker room went into specifics about Popovich’s halftime exhortations. Manu Ginobili said it wasn’t anything the Spurs hadn’t heard before and disagreed with Jackson’s interpretation of Popovich’s motivational exercise. “It’s something that happens all the time,” Ginobili said. “I’m not sure it was about playing hard. We were not sharp. It was very similar to what happened in Game 3. We had a way better second half, actually very good. That’s my gut feeling.” Jackson, who made 4 of 6 shots and scored 11 points in 22 minutes before fouling out, said the Spurs need to do more to match the energy the Thunder brought to both games on their home court. “Those (Oklahoma City) kids are playing hard,” he said. “They want it. I think we’ve got to get back to being that way.”