SAN ANTONIO — What do you do?
That's the question coach Scott Brooks, his staff and every last member of the Oklahoma City Thunder must be asking themselves.
Fans, too.
What on earth do you do to stop the San Antonio Spurs?
After an encouraging debut in this Western Conference final, the Thunder left San Antonio still in search of a successful scheme to slow down the red-hot Spurs.
San Antonio held serve at home and seized a 2-0 series lead with an authoritative 120-111 win in Game 2 on Tuesday night inside the AT&T Center.
It was the 20th consecutive win for the Spurs, who have not suffered defeat since April 11, and their 11th straight at home.
In this latest victory, like many of the 19 before it, the Spurs scored in every way imaginable en route to a lead that ballooned to as many as 22 points. Not once did the scoreboard show the Thunder owning more points than the Spurs.
“Our guys played hard,” said Brooks. “Unfortunately, we came away with nothing the last few days.”
Oklahoma City must now win four of the final five games to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time.
If the Thunder is to get to there, it must first find an answer to the riddle that is exposing every flaw
San Antonio sliced through the Thunder's defense with ease throughout Game 2 just like the Spurs, and guard Manu Ginobili in particular, did in the fourth quarter of Game 1. The Spurs shot 55.1 percent from the field and scored a mind-blowing 65 second-half points against a Thunder squad that wants to pride itself on being a defensive-minded team.
All the while, nothing the Thunder tried provided any resistance against San Antonio's onslaught. If it wasn't one thing, such as the pick-and-roll, for instance, it was another that torched the Thunder, like the Spurs pinpoint ball movement, for example.
And what's got to be scary for the Thunder and everyone who bleeds Thunder blue is that even coach Gregg Popovich, a championship coach four times over, confesses that this is his best offensive team.
“We've had good ball movement with other teams that we've had here, but I think that the combination of penetrate and pitch and post-up with Timmy (Duncan) is probably the best that we've had,” Popovich said. “Other teams were more halfcourt. This team has more pace to it that what we've had in the past.”
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