OKC Thunder loses opportunity to steal Game 1 in San Antonio

But this time, Oklahoma City couldn't close.

The Thunder wasted a golden opportunity to steal Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Sunday night, losing 101-98 to the San Antonio Spurs inside the AT&T Center after blowing a nine-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter.

Oklahoma City uncharacteristically surrendered a staggering 39 fourth-quarter points to the Spurs, allowing San Antonio to shoot 12-of-16 from the field in the final frame to escape with a 1-0 series lead and its home-court advantage still intact.

“I thought in the fourth quarter, we gave up too many opportunities in the paint,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. “They got 50 paint points throughout the game…We take a lot of pride in our defense in the fourth quarter, (but) we gave up 39 points. Six of those, I think, were intentional fouls at the end. But over 30 points in the fourth quarter is not good enough to win.”

Not against the Spurs. Not on the road. And not when the Thunder's high-powered offense disappears.

Prior to James Harden's back-to-back but too-little-too-late 3-pointers in the final four seconds, the Thunder went just 5-of-14 in the fourth quarter. The reason was a heavy dose of one-on-one offense. The Thunder ran few sets and seemingly spent the first 15 seconds of the shot clock on every trip getting the ball up the court and trying to force feed it to Kevin Durant, who Spurs forward Stephen Jackson crowded in crunch time to prevent clean catches.

“We stopped moving the ball,” Harden said. “In that third quarter, we did a great job of moving the ball and getting their defense to move a little bit by hitting wide open shots and wide open layups. In the fourth quarter, we kind of slowed that down and they got a couple of easy transition buckets.”

To this point, the Thunder had been excellent this postseason at closing games. Oklahoma City came in 4-1 in games decided by three points or less and 5-1 in games decided by six points or less. The Thunder has battled back from seven-point, fourth-quarter deficits twice in these playoffs, as well as two other 13-point, fourth-quarter deficits.