Although Outdated, Thunder’s Simple Approach Is Opening Path to West Finals

SAN ANTONIO — The hand of the skinny man smacked the hand of the scowling one with the force of nearly 20,000 minutes spent on the court together in unfulfilled pursuit of a championship.

The sound of those hands hitting each other—Kevin Durant with the big windup before leaning into the slap, Russell Westbrook too hyped from his clinching and-one to feel any pain—resonated in a suddenly quiet building that had been filled with belief in the San Antonio Spurs all Tuesday night…and all season, really.

As the echo of the high-five rose to the rafters of this barn where the Spurs’ five championship banners hang proudly next to all the Rodeo of the Year awards, a reality began to sink in: The Oklahoma City Thunder have no banners, but at their best, this incomparable one-two punch has all along loomed as more of a threat to the Golden State Warriors’ championship repeat than the deep Spurs, even in their own historic regular season.

The Thunder are on the cusp of proving it with this 3-2 Western Conference semifinals series swinging back to OKC for Game 6 Thursday.

They lead this series because they’ve maintained their identity—simplistic or anachronistic as it might be in today’s free-flowing NBA to remain devoted to isolated superstars with hard-working role players.

With an approach so straightforward, so easy to run, the Thunder present a more consistent threat in many ways than the Spurs, whose identity often has been lost amid breakdowns in their intricate system.

It has always been easier in the playoffs—when each possession carries its own importance—to maintain a simplistic team approach that puts the basketball in fewer sets of able hands.

That star-indulgent style has been maligned so much recently that it’s viewed as a curse to have a predictable offense predicated on solo creation, yet it can still be an incredibly powerful blessing.

When the Thunder’s two superstars are both hitting tough shots and creating open ones for teammates, when Westbrook is bouncing from sideline to end line and practically hitting his head on the backboard for rebounds, when Durant has the …

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