Tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET the Oklahoma City Thunder will try to salvage a split on the San Antonio Spurs' home floor, and avoid a 2-0 Western Conference Finals hole live on TNT. Live stream Game 2 by free by clicking this link; Thunder fans can find the radio broadcast on WWLS 98.1, while Spurs fans may do the same on 1200 WOAI.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for 53 points in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, at one point erasing a large deficit literally on their own in the third quarter. Without power forward Serge Ibaka on the court, though, OKC was forced to toggle between units that were either deficient offensively or defensively.
"We turned the ball over a little too much but we've got to continue to trust whether the guys are hitting shots or not," Durant said, before acknowledging that he and Westbrook alone won't be able to topple the reigning Western Conference champions.
"We've got to keep playing within our offense and playing with the pass. We'll be fine. We do a good job of attacking, not just for ourselves, but for our teammates. We've just got to continue to trust."
It became hard to do so when the other three starters combined for five points, all scored by Kendrick Perkins, in a total of 56 minutes. Derek Fisher contributed off the bench with 16 points, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, but they'll need more from the other starters to compete.
Durant is refusing to let the Thunder lean on Ibaka's absence as an excuse. "Look, Serge is not going to be here," Durant said. "He's injured for the rest of the postseason, so we've got to move past that and just keep playing as a team."
Ibaka's replacement, Nick Collison, blamed OKC's energy level and execution rather than their absent shot-eraser.
The lineups, there's no magic," Collison said. "I don't think there's any magic lineups if we're not going to have the effort and the concentration. That's our job as players, and then coach will figure out what works for us. But for us we've got to be really engaged and ready to go when the game starts."
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.