Sunday, May 27, 2012

Thunder - Spurs Game One Top 20 Takeaways

20) Russell Westbrook stuffed Tony Parker, then ran a one-man break and scored, in one of those plays that only he can make

19) If the Thunder are going to force as many turnovers as they did in the first quarter, the Spurs might actually lose a game this playoff

18) Surprising no one, Kendrick Perkins got into early foul trouble, and felt personally aggrieved

17) Steve Kerr posited that a small bird fell out of James Harden's beard, as if the bird would have to be small

16) Both teams showed rust early, which meant the game was only 3X more watchable than any Celtics game

15) Manu Ginobili's buzzer beating three at the end of the first quarter was unholy, and showed James Harden that he is in no way interested in conceding the title of Best Sixth Man

14) Thabo Sefalosha played much of the first half as he was better than his backup, and looks highly relevant for the first time in a long time

13) The Spurs are going to defend Durant anywhere on the floor, which means he's going to have to drive and make, rather than catch and shoot

12) Neither team rained down threes, which is the only reason this one wasn't well over 100 in terms of pace

11) Just to needle Laker Fan a little more, Derek Fisher shot the lights out

10) Tiago Splitter whiffed a free throw so badly, it looked like he was throwing a circle change

9) It doesn't exactly scream out anything good for DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin that Tim Duncan was uncomfortable tonight against the Thunder bigs

8) Gregg Popovich told his team that he wanted some nasty, which seemed a little Freudian, really

7) Tony Parker wasn't very good tonight, but his make and draw of Perkins' fifth was immense

6) Harden's really going to have to wait until Game 3 to get the calls that Ginobili got on him tonight

5) I'm kind of guessing that Serge Ibaka said something horrific to Scott Brooks, given his lack of floor time in the fourth as the Spurs went big in the paint

4) Ginobili's ball fake and make with 1:57 left made Durant look like Elmer Fudd

3) If Manu had played any of the regular season games with the Thunder, people would not be calling this a toss-up series

2) In the final analysis of this game, the Spurs just found another gear and made the adjustments to win, with Popovich over Brooks being the Spurs' clearest advantage

1) If you are counting, that's 9-0 for the Spurs in the playoffs and counting

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