Got To Get Back Up

   A re-run. A good, old-fashioned, beat down. Déjà vu. The Oklahoma City Thunder lost Game 5 of their series against the San Antonio Spurs with a score of 89-117. Kevin Durant scored 25 points and Russell Westbrook added his 21 points to combine for well over half of the team’s points. Reggie Jackson was the only other Thunder player to score double digits, and the next highest scorer for OKC was only able to muster up 6 points. The defense of San Antonio was not the cause of the huge loss as much as the fact they shot 51% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. OKC shot 25% from 3-point range and only shot 43%. On most nights, a team shooting an overall percentage in the low 40s would’ve been good enough to win, but when teams, like the Spurs, make 13 shots from distance, you’re odds of winning decrease exponentially.

  Most media members and Thunder faithful believed this series would come down to a Game 7 in San Antonio, so OKC should win Game 6 at home on Saturday, right? Well, according to the numbers, the Thunder can win Game 6 all they want, but in Game 7 (if there is one) they only have about a 15% chance of coming out with a victory. Teams have overcome these numbers that have been accumulated over the history of time before, but the way Oklahoma City just let San Antonio players into the lane and wide open for easy 3-point shot opportunities made this Game 5 feel just like Games 1 and 2. Bringing that to light, does that mean Serge Ibaka’s return was all for not? Was his Willis Reed-esque return something people will look at down the road and just say, “Well, the Oklahoma City front office just lied about him being so severely hurt. Didn’t matter in the end though,” or will they recall of a time where one player helped a team maximize its potential in the playoffs and got the job done? With all the speculation surrounding the Thunder organization and the way they handled Ibaka’s injury, it’s becoming more of a story than the actual games being played in these Western Conference finals. The reason this happening is because no game in this series has been competitive all the way down the stretch, and with Ibaka in or out, the Thunder got thumped, again, in the AT&T Center.

   In conclusion, no person will completely count OKC out when it comes to winning this series, but they will have to do something they haven’t been able to do for 3 times already, and that’s win in San Antonio. Either that, or they’ll have to lose to the Spurs at home for the first time in 9 games in Chesapeake Arena, but the more likely of these scenarios is the first one.  Just something to think about as the Thunder prepare to tie up the series, once again, and force a Game 7 back in San Antonio for a chance to advance to the NBA Finals.