The Thunder held two-thirds of their team out of the game tonight, and their skeleton crew of Jaylin Williams and four bench players, along with three two-way players made the Spurs work for a win. Maybe it’s excusable to let your focus slip a little when you’re not facing the other team’s best players, but it was frustrating to watch as the Spurs just tried to coast to a win and gave the Thunder skeleton crew hope kept them in the game late. The lackadaisical play of the Silver and Black let the end
of the Thunder bench play like contenders.
Instead of playing team ball, there was way too much one on one offense, and slow rotations on defense. The Spurs got a great effort from Keldon Johnson tonight, but most of the rest of the team was embarrassed by the Thunder reserves. De’Aaron Fox made some key plays down the stretch as the Spurs outlasted the Thunder 116-106. The strategy of sitting almost the entire Thunder team felt like a psyop on the Spurs, and given how hard the Spurs had to play to eke out a win, it seems like it worked.
Despite this win being a little on the disappointing side, it was a good thing for them as they solidified their second spot in the west as they head to Dallas for a game tom0rrow against the Mavericks.
Observations
- The Thunder sat 10 players for tonight’s game. Three of those players have had long term injuries and Caruso has been dealing with an adductor strain for some time. Unfortunately, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander suffered an abdominal strain in last night’s game against the Magic, and could be out for a couple of weeks at least. The other six players—I’m not sure if they would be sitting out a playoff game—but I am not a doctor. It feels like a scheduled loss for the Thunder, who have already lost the season series where the Spurs lead 3-1. Mind games? Maybe, but the Spurs are going to need to play with intensity to win tonight, because every player on the Thunder roster is a solid NBA player.
- Just before the game it came out that Dylan Harper would be out, and Castle would be playing. Harper has been very good the last couple of weeks as he burst through the rookie wall that he seemed to hit around the season’s midpoint and once again began to score at will in the paint. Hopefully he’ll be back for tomorrow night’s game against the Mavs.
- The lead-in game of Knicks/Nuggets went into double overtime, and ended in a 134-127 New York win. That’s good news for the Spurs as they solidified their hold on second place in the Western Conference, with the Nuggets two games behind the Spurs in the loss column.
- The Thunder kind of hung around for much of the first quarter, but when Keldon Johnson came in, they didn’t have the beef, and the Spurs led 39-26 after one quarter.
- Wiggins caught fire from beyond the arc in the second quarter as the Thunder cut a 20 point Spurs lead to 10 with 5 minutes left in the half. Carter Bryant found his shot as the Spurs finished the quarter strong and led 73-58 at the half. It should have been more, but a sloppy effort at rebounding gave the Thunder the last basket of the half cutting their deficit to 15 and giving them a little bit of confidence.
- The Spurs came out of the locker room in the third quarter not ready to play hard, and the Thunder quickly cut the deficit to single digits. Once again, Keldon took over the game and scored 13 straight for the Spur to right the ship.
- You just can’t fault the effort from the Thunder. Most of the players that were out on the court tonight don’t get a lot of playing time, and they just played HARD tonight. These Spurs were trying to cruise through the game and the Thunder skeleton crew made them pay for the lackadaisical effort by getting open shots and sinking them. The Spurs led 95-85 after three quarters with the Thunder skeleton crew outscoring the Spurs 27-22 in the quarter.
- The Thunder won two coach’s challenges, although the second overturn was a bit fishy in my opinion. The Spurs finally exercised a challenge late in the third as the Fox stole the ball that should have led to a fast break dunk, but it was negated because of the incorrect foul call. Even though the call was reversed, the Spurs were still robbed of a fast break bucket. It seems that the replay review should at least award the team a transition take foul in that situation.
- The Thunder defense got energized in the fourth quarter and made things difficult for the home team, cutting the lead to 4 points with under 4 minutes left. They broke up a few alley oops for Wemby late, and even turned them into baskets on the other end, which really made thing hard for the home team.
- Steph Castle picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter, but played most of the quarter and made key plays down the stretch as he was one of key factors in the Spurs clutch run.
Tonight is the first game of a back-to-back for the Silver and Black as they travel to Dallas for a matchup against the Mavericks, and their super rookie Cooper Flagg in the first game of a home and home series, which will wrap up on Friday in San Antonio.
