OKC Drops Game Two Against the Spurs in San Antonio

After beating the San Antonio Spurs by six points at home 112-106 to kick off the NBA season, the Thunder, after over half a season, traveled to San Antonio, Texas to take on the Spurs on Saturday, March 12, 2016. These two teams are two of the three best teams in the conference, along with the Golden State Warriors, and could potentially meet each other some time in the playoffs. In my opinion, it matches the team with two of the most talented players in the league, the Oklahoma City Thunder, with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, against the best defensive and most experienced team in the league in the San Antonio Spurs. It also matches my favorite team, the Thunder, against my dad's favorite team, the Spurs. The Spurs, coming into this game had a 40 game home-win streak, and they hoped to continue it against a struggling Thunder team who had not been able to close out a game in the fourth quarter since the All-Star Break.
In the first quarter, the teams stayed pretty close, with LaMarcus Aldridge playing well for the Spurs, and a variety of players getting it done for the Thunder. Neither Durant nor Westbrook were able to show complete dominance in the first period, however, they did both score a few points to get themselves started. Ultimately, at the end of the first twelve minutes, the home team San Antonio Spurs led the Thunder by three points 25-22.
The second quarter displayed Westbrook and Durant's capabilities as they put on a show, along with Enes Kanter, Randy Foye, and Serge Ibaka, outscoring the Spurs by seven in the quarter to take a 49-45 lead. This is something the Thunder need to do if they want a chance at the NBA Finals. They must play Durant and Westbrook together as much as possible to spread the floor, and they need their role players like Foye, Kanter, Ibaka, Anthony Morrow, and Dion Waiters to score so that the offensive load isn't completely on the shoulders of the Thunder's Dynamic Duo.
The third quarter saw the Thunder doing almost the exact opposite of what I explained they needed to do in the paragraph above. Although Steven Adams and Serge Ibaka did help a little in carrying the offensive load, the majority of it was on Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. In this quarter the Thunder only managed 19 points and were outscored by the Spurs by two allowing them to cut their lead to 68-66. This was because the Thunder did not have a lot of scoring options as Billy Donovan chose to sit Durant while Westbrook was playing and when Durant subbed back in, Donovan chose to sub him in for Westbrook. This prevented the Thunder from spreading the floor much and allowed the defensive-minded Spurs to focus on either Westbrook and Durant and cause the Thunder to depend on its role-players for scoring.
In the final quarter, the Thunder had a very sloppy performance similar to many of the recent games since the All-Star break. They were unable to keep a fourth quarter lead and turned the ball over many times. Ultimately, it led to the San Antonio Spurs taking game two of the series by outscoring the Thunder 27-17 in the final period to win the game 93-85 in a disappointing ending for Thunder fans. However, OKC will have a chance at redemption later this month on March 26, as they host the Spurs once again for game three.