Lack of rebounding, clutch shooting dooms Spurs
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs trio of Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Danny Green each scored at least 20 points Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, marking the first time since 1996 a threesome accomplished the feat without the involvement of at least one player named Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili or Tony Parker, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Too bad the trio couldn’t contribute more in the rebounding and clutch scoring department during San Antonio’s 95-91 loss, which now puts the Spurs on the brink of elimination from the Western Conference semifinals.
“Well, it’s not like we got beat by 30,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “The game went down to the wire. So both teams played well. I didn’t think anything got away from us. We made mistakes. You’ve got to make shots down the stretch, and sometimes, things have to go your way. We lost a couple of boards there at the end in the fourth quarter just like last game. Russell [Westbrook] was part of that, [Enes] Kanter was part of that, and that’s hurt us through the entire series.”
Up 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, Oklahoma City could deliver the death blow Thursday night when the teams clash in Game 6 at Chesapeake Energy Arena. After all, Popovich owns a 2-10 record when facing elimination on the road.
Leonard acknowledged it’s “definitely” difficult to ponder the prospect of elimination.
“The goal is to play until June,” Leonard said. “But it’s not over yet. So I’m not thinking about that. I’m thinking about winning.”
For the most part, Leonard put thoughts to action on the court, too, scoring a team-high 26 points to go with four assists and five steals. But Leonard and the Spurs wilted in the second half under the heat of a furious Thunder run.
The Spurs took an eight-point lead (72-64) with three minutes left in the third quarter on an Aldridge free throw, and didn’t score again until 43 seconds into the fourth quarter on another foul shot from the power forward. Oklahoma City, meanwhile, put together a 6-0 run to cut the lead to three.
By the 8:02 mark of the fourth quarter, Kevin Durant tied the score at 78 on a 24-footer off one of Westbrook’s game-high nine assists.
“The biggest thing was there was a lot of time to go and we fought our way back,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I think in those moments, you just try telling your team to play through that and focus on the stuff you can control. Our guys kept battling and fighting.”
Eventually, they won.
The Spurs played a major hand in that, clanking shots off the rim in the second half that they typically bury. San Antonio connected on only 3 of 10 open looks in the second half, and finished the night hitting just 45 percent on uncontested shots, according to ESPN Stats & Information. For context, the Spurs drained 62 percent of uncontested looks over the first four games of the series.
“We just missed a lot of easy shots,” said Aldridge, who finished with 20 points on 6-of-21 shooting. “I thought our guys had great looks. I had a couple of shots that I normally make that came out. I thought our guys competed, but the ball didn’t fall for us.”
Aldridge made only one shot (1-of-11) outside the paint in Game 5, and his shooting from that area has grown progressively worse statistically each game this series.
Leonard, meanwhile, connected on 7 of 10 shots and scored 15 points in the second quarter alone, but managed only nine points on 4-of-8 shooting in the second half. Leonard scored 12 of his first-half points in the paint but was limited in the second half to only four in that area.
San Antonio compounded the shooting struggles with ineptitude on the boards. Oklahoma City outrebounded the Spurs by 18, a number that registers as the team’s third-worst rebound differential in a playoff game in the Popovich era, and its worst in a home playoff game in that span, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“If you look at the stat sheet, they outrebounded us by almost 20 and shot about 10 more free throws than us,” said Green, whose 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range went for naught. “That was the emphasis for us: to keep them off the free throw line, and keep them off the glass.”
Over the final 8:10 in a hotly-contested outing, the Spurs connected on only 4 of 12 shots and finished the quarter shooting 28.6 percent. The Thunder also outscored the Spurs 12-4 in the paint in the fourth quarter, outrebounded the home team 12-8, and took advantage of six second-chance points.
“We know that’s the key of the series, we know we have to control the boards,” Parker said. “We made a lot of stops tonight, but we just can’t get the boards, and it’s killing us in the end. Control the boards. I think that’s the key of the series. We can’t keep giving them opportunities to score.”
The Spurs also can’t give up another game if they hope to stay alive; a scenario made even more difficult by the fact they’ll be on the road Thursday in a raucous venue. When Oklahoma City leads 3-2 in a best-of-seven series, it has run off a 9-1 record. Their lone series loss came as the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1978 NBA Finals against Washington.
Still, San Antonio’s confidence remains intact, according to Ginobili.
“We always think we have a chance,” he said. “We know it’s tough games. We are two very good teams. Whoever plays better, hustles more, gets more rebounds is going to win the next one. Hopefully, it’s us.”
