"They made some shots," he said.
San Antonio scored the first nine points of the fourth to take a 92-74 lead with 9 minutes left.
Oklahoma City played Sunday afternoon in a 91-79 home victory over the Boston Celtics, but still managed to outrebound the Spurs 15-4 in the opening quarter, including a 5-0 advantage on offensive rebounds.
"No team ends up being a really good team without playing good 'D,' " Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We played very poor defense in the first quarter. It looked like a continuation of the Portland game. But in the second quarter, we held them to 18 and we played a little more individual 'D,' took a look more pride in it. And the team 'D' was better. It's always about defense. If you don't play good defense, you're nothing in this league."
San Antonio made its first five shots, with Duncan hitting a pair of jumpers over Kendrick Perkins to help the Spurs to a 10-4 lead with 9 minutes left in the first. The Spurs then proceeded to go 2 for 10, enabling the Thunder to rally.
Ibaka drove to the hole and threw in a floater off Oklahoma City's fifth offensive rebound for a 24-14 lead.
After missing their first four 3 pointers, Green hit back-to-back attempts and Leonard hit another to pull San Antonio to 42-40 and force an Oklahoma City timeout. The 3s were part of a 23-4 run that gave San Antonio a 57-46 lead with 41.4 seconds left in the first half.
The run included Leonard stripping Westbrook at the basket, driving the length of the court and throwing down a left-handed dunk as Ibaka began to close in on the right. The basket made it 53-46.
Leonard guarded Durant primarily, and the All-Star attempted only one 3-pointer.
"Just coming out, having confidence in myself to guard him," Leonard said. "You know he's going to score points, but just trying to contest him. Not make it easy for him out there; he knocked down a couple of tough shots in the first quarter, so I just kept trying to move on from there."
NOTES: Splitter has eight double-doubles this season after collecting only three in his first two seasons. . Over the past four seasons, only the Spurs (210) have more victories than the Thunder (199). ... The Thunder, Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers are the only Western Conference teams with a winning road record.
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