To say the San Antonio Spurs had their way with the Oklahoma City Thunder through the first two games of the Western Conference Finals would be like saying Patrick Swayze had his way with all those redneck baddies in Road Hard: it ain’t even that close. The Spurs ran away from the Thunder in the second quarter Wednesday night, building a 58-44 halftime lead, and never looking back. The final score was even worse: a 112-77 drubbing that sent some poor intern at ESPN clicking furiously through Basketball-Reference to find the last time such a beat down happened in “franchise” history. They came up with June 4th, 1978:
Oklahoma City’s 35-point loss ties worst playoff loss in franchise playoff history. (1978 Seattle) pic.twitter.com/qBTIaNjWan
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 22, 2014
Because ESPN probably isn’t hip to Seattle Supersonics history, I’ll forgive them for overlooking the actual last time the “franchise” lost by 35 points in the playoffs: Game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference Finals — a game which any Sonics fan over the age of 30 remembers.
The good news for OKC is that the Sonics recovered to win Game 7, and move on to the NBA Finals. The bad news for OKC is that they’re staring an 0-2 deficit in the face, Serge Ibaka ain’t walking through that door, and neither is a coach who can hold a candle to Gregg Popovich. Also, unlike 2012, when the Spurs won the first two games of the Western Conference Finals before dropping four in a row to a young OKC squad, Kawhi Leonard is an established two-way player, while Danny Green has overcome his hot-and-cold streak of last year’s Finals and been basically just HOT these playoffs.
Another thing to keep mind: when San Antonio dropped four in a row to OKC in 2012, they’d won the first two games by an average of six points. Oklahoma City won the next four by an average of ten. This time around, through two games, the Spurs have won by an average of 26 points. Now, we’re not saying it’s over. But we are saying: your move, Thunder.
[@cjzero]
