OKC survives big mistakes in wild ending, takes Game 2 over Spurs
Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder was a huge shock for the extent to which the hosts dominated in a series most expected to be extremely close. Game 2 hewed closer to what most analysts thought would transpire, but it ended up just as surprising for the wild events of the final few seconds.
It’s best to start with that finish, because it’s sure to be a point of discussion in the run-up to Friday’s Game 3 and perhaps an incident spoken of for years to come.
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Down 98-94 with 18 seconds remaining, the Spurs caught a major break when Serge Ibaka fouled LaMarcus Aldridge on a three-point attempt five seconds into the possession. Aldridge nailed all three attempts to cut the margin to one point, although the Thunder still looked in good shape with a chance to go back up three points after free throws. Billy Donovan called his team’s final timeout to advance the ball for the ensuing inbound pass, and everything looked set to play out as a fairly normal late-game scenario.
Then all hell broke loss. Dion Waiters struggled to get the ball in against pressure from Manu Ginobili and finally lobbed a high-arcing pass for Kevin Durant, who lost his footing first and the ball second for a Danny Green steal. The Spurs had a 3-on-2 break that looked likely to finish in a go-ahead basket, but it was not to be:
The scramble for the ball in the aftermath of Patty Mills’s three ate up the final seconds to help the Thunder grab a 98-97 win that evens up the series at 1-1. It was just the second loss for the Spurs in 45 games at the AT&T Center this season and registers as particularly incredible given their dominance in Saturday’s Game 1.
Those were secondary concerns right after the buzzer, though, because all anyone wanted to talk about was Waiters’s interaction with Ginobili right before his pass to Durant. As TNT commentator Chris Webber immediately exclaimed and replays showed, Waiters elbowed Ginobili near the top of his chest to create space. There are replays in the video above, but here’s another look:
I have watched lots of basketball in my life and never seen a player push an opponent in this manner to get space for an inbound pass. To be fair, the sideline view of the incident shows that Ginobili stepped on the sideline, which is a violation by the rulebook:
On the other hand, it’s tough to argue that shoving an opponent is a suitable response to that infraction. Ginobili and others have stretched the rules in this fashion many times before without such a response. A few of the involved parties seemed confused, too — Gregg Popovich responded to a press-conference question by saying “something certainly happened” (perhaps to avoid a fine), Billy Donovan played dumb, and Ginobili said something wrong had occurred but didn’t know exactly what kind of whistle should have blown on Waiters. (The rules state it should be a turnover on Waiters and perhaps also a technical foul for unnecessary contact, though the latter is up to the referees.)
What seems certain is that this play will be discussed at least until Friday’s Game 3 and will receive some kind of response from the league. That official answer might not involve a fine or suspension for Waiters — it could just be a note in the “Last Two Minutes” officiating report — but there will be something.
What we know for sure is that the Thunder’s series-tying win will not be reversed. Ginobili seemed most focused on that fact, specifically lamenting that he and his teammates had not taken advantage of the turnover that followed Waiters’s curious action. He’s probably right to note that San Antonio mistake, because we’ve grown accustomed to the Spurs succeeding in moments like this one. Just look at the scoring chance they had:
On the other side, the Thunder should feel relieved that they escaped Monday night with the win. A team known for late-game execution errors made several crucial mistakes in the final 20 seconds — some called, some not called — and very easily could have handed the Spurs a 2-0 lead.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
