As James Harden went stagnant on offense, so did the Thunder

When the Thunder's offense got stagnant and the ball stopped moving in the fourth quarter, it was largely a byproduct of James Harden, the team's best playmaker, not having the ball in his hands.

The end result was a nine-point, fourth-quarter lead evaporating against San Antonio before the Thunder walked out of the AT&T Center with a 101-98 loss in Game 1.

“Tomorrow night,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said Monday, “we'll do a better job.”

It'd be hard for the Thunder not to.

In the final 12 minutes, Harden initiated and orchestrated just three plays in the halfcourt. The first two came in the first 1 minute, 14 seconds of the fourth quarter. The last one was drawn up for Harden with 1:11 remaining.

During that 9 minute, 35 second gap, the Thunder went from being up seven points to down seven points.

“I think this entire postseason, even in the regular season, the fourth quarter, the majority of the time, I have the ball in my hands and making plays,” Harden said. “Hopefully, we'll get back to that.”

The Thunder's greatest issue in Game 1 was defense, not offense. Oklahoma City allowed San Antonio to shoot 12-for-16 from the field and net 39 fourth-quarter points, the most the Thunder has allowed in any fourth quarter this season.

But after entering the final period with a 71-62 lead, the Thunder could have withstood even a sizzling Spurs squad down the stretch had it gotten higher-quality shots.

Harden typically has been the guy who has created them. On Sunday, however, he was reduced to a decoy, a spot-up shooter and a screen-setter while the Thunder force-fed the ball to Kevin Durant.

“He had it going,” Harden said of Durant. “He was making plays not only for himself but other players on the court. It was just one of those nights where we went through Kevin, our leading scorer.”

Durant scored a game-high 27 points on 8-of-19 shooting and got to the free throw line six times in the fourth quarter. But with Spurs forward Stephen Jackson blanketing Durant, the Thunder's offense bogged down tremendously while trying to make a clean entry pass to its scoring leader.

“We put the pressure on Kevin too much,” Harden said. “Obviously, he's big in those situations but our other guys have to step up and make plays as well. We just got to watch film and learn from it and be better at it.”