Down and nearly out less than a week ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder are riding a momentum shift to the brink of the NBA finals.
Kevin Durant sat quietly in the visitors' locker room, his head down and his eyes closed, a pair of oversized headphones on his ears. It was less than two hours before the Oklahoma City Thunder would face the San Antonio Spurs in the pivotal Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, and the D.C. native was the very picture of the calm before the storm.
Spurs guard Manu Ginobili is back in the starting lineup for Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.
As Manu Ginobili was finishing up his answer to a reporter's question, Tony Parker walked up behind him, put both hands on his shoulders and provided his teammate an escape.
Manu Ginobili scored 26 points and the San Antonio Spurs won their 19th in a row to tie the NBA record for longest winning streak kept alive in the playoffs, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-98 to open the Western Conference finals on Sunday night.
Maybe they'll finally get a challenge this time.
Maybe they'll finally get a challenge this time.
Down 2-0 against the San Antonio Spurs, the Los Angeles Clippers face the tough task of needing two victories at home to keep pace with the NBA's hottest team. Making things worse are injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin that have robbed the superstars of their effectiveness.
Gregg Popovich can't win like the old days. No longer can the San Antonio Spurs simply feed Tim Duncan the ball, let their defense do the rest and ride that game plan to NBA championships.
