Thunder Must Be More Than Just Big 3 to Play Ultimate Spoiler to Spurs

To beat the San Antonio Spurs, reach the Western Conference Finals and genuinely contend for an NBA title during a season in which the championship chase has been diluted down to exclude them, the Oklahoma City Thunder have to be more than Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka and Russell Westbrook.

So, basically, their postseason hopes won’t survive another loss like Game 3.

The Thunder fell to the Spurs on Friday night 100-96, forfeiting the home-court advantage they worked so hard to steal in Game 2. Their 2-1 series hole is by no means insurmountable, but despite almost scraping together another victory against the league’s second-best team, Game 3 was hardly teeming with silver linings.

Indeed, for a few fleeting moments it looked as if they might continue turning the tables on San Antonio. They erased an early 15-point lead to grab a four-point edge in the fourth quarter, cracking the Spurs with pesky defense and timely hoops.

Then, quite abruptly, their lead was gone.

Oklahoma City buried itself amid a haze of defensive breakdowns, poor jump shots, crunch-time indecision and unbecoming turnovers. San Antonio was a plus-eight during the last seven minutes of the final frame, showing no remorse for an opponent that suddenly couldn’t do anything right.

And that means anything. As Bleacher Report’s Adam Fromal put it:

At this point, I’m pretty sure the Thunder could trade for Gregg Popovich and still have no idea how to run actual offense in crunch time.

— Adam Fromal (@fromal09) May 7, 2016

At the heart of the Thunder’s undoing? Durant, Ibaka and Westbrook.

They were also the main reasons why Oklahoma City stayed within striking distance at all.

Hence the dilemma.

Durant finished with 26 points, three assists, one steal and one block on a tidy 10-of-18 shooting. But he committed five turnovers and didn’t do nearly enough to capitalize on mismatches.

There was a stretch of possessions where Durant, despite being covered by the slower and inexperienced Kyle Anderson, did absolutely nothing to get open off the ball. He just watched. In the fourth quarter. Of a playoff game. That his team was trailing.

Westbrook delivered his usual dose of supernatural exploits, flirting with yet another triple-double. He ended the night with 31 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, a handful of …

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