The one word that most accurately defines the 2014 NBA Playoffs is bizarre. There have been periods of road team dominance, improbable upsets, buzzer-beaters and, most recently, a string of high-stakes games that have turned into blowouts.
The madness continued on Sunday, May 25.
After back-to-back lopsided losses to open up the Western Conference Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder responded with a convincing win of their own in Game 3. With the San Antonio Spurs leading the series 2-0, OKC responded strong and used the return of an injured star to close the gap.
Here’s everything that you need to know about last night’s action.
1. Russell Westbrook scored 26 points and Kevin Durant tallied 25 to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 106-97 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Manu Ginobili scored 23 points for the Spurs, but San Antonio had no answer for Serge Ibaka. He returned from injury to post 15 points, seven rebounds and four blocks on 6-of-7 shooting to help OKC win its first game of the series.
San Antonio holds a 2-1 series lead.
2. Oklahoma City has won eight consecutive home games over the Spurs.
3. Durant registered his 20th career postseason game with at least 25 points and 10 rebounds. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 27 and Wilt Chamberlain with 21 had more before the age of 26.
4. OKC won by nine points. It hadn’t previously led a game in this series by more than five points.
5. The Spurs converted 67 percent of their field goal attempts in paint during Games 1 and 2. In Game 3, Ibaka returned and that number plummeted to 48 percent.
Bonus Fact: Since 2011, OKC is 3-3 during series in which it trails 2-1. The rest of the NBA is 6-45 in that time.
Do ya think Ibaka injects himself with HGH, or does he have one of the trainers do the injecting for him.