San Antonio Spurs 102 – Oklahoma City Thunder 98 OT
I have no idea why Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka didn’t travel with the team on a rest night in the regular season finale, but it’s not for me to wonder. Maybe they were exhausted from a tough night against the Lakers pylon in cement defense on the first night of a back to back in OKC last night. Maybe the champagne and caviar with Kobe in the post game mixer was too much. Being NBA mega stars can be exhausting, so it’s not for me to wonder. But the stars didn’t travel to faraway San Antonio for the regular season’s final game for the Thunder.
But I’ll write this…the guys who did travel played their collective asses off and made me glad I watched the game. Kyle Singler and Josh Huestis didn’t play much or well, but everyone else wearing Thunder blue played hard and made me proud. You’ll never see me dog a player who plays hard. Gives what he has and competes to the max. Kudos to the Thunder players who could work the game into their schedules.
With the Thunder stars resting at home on the regular season’s final night, Nick Collison, Steven Adams, Cam Payne, Dion Waiters, and Andre Roberson got the starting calls. All played well. The Thunder broadcast gave Dion the No. 1 Star of the Game, but I’ll go with Cam Payne as my No. 1 Star of the Game. He had 17 points and 7 assists and played like he belonged on the floor against either Tony Parker or Patty Mills.
Dion played well, he just didn’t shoot well. Same thing with Andre Roberson–he competed with admirable ferocity, but again the shooting is a problem. Sam Presti appears to have a thing about collecting shooting guards who can’t shoot, which is kind of problematic since it is called the shooting guard position. But still—Sam Presti > Sam Hinkie and not even close. Just work on the shooting guard thing and the Durant thing if he leaves.
Nick Collison was great. Enes Kanter doubled-doubled and almost fought the toughest fighter in the league in David West just as the game ended. I liked that and he’s my No. 2 Star of the Game. This could be interesting if the Spurs and Thunder meet in the second round. David West is known for being a very tough dude.
Pop played all his stars minus Ginobli and to be honest –OKC had more than a fighter’s chance to win this game, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
OKC finishes 55-27 and like most of us Thunder bloggers thought before the season…. are probably the fourth best team in the NBA. Royce Young and Nickie Gallo had them first, but those two don’t count.
Memphis has dropped to the seventh seed. If Dallas can win at home against the San Antonio subs then they’ll probably be OKC’s first round opponent.
So–now we wait a few days. The Thunder stars are healthy, rested, and should have plenty of defensive effort stored up in their sneakers.
But on this season finale night in San Antonio, it was refreshing to see the Thunder players with no max contracts, no shoe endorsements, no cell phone commercials, or any other of the usual perks for NBA stars–just play hard from wire to wire.
Mike Jackson