Sunday, June 1st 2014, 1:42 am
Here are some key numbers from Oklahoma City's season-ending 112-107 overtime loss to the Spurs on Saturday night:
8 – The number of times Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have scored 30-or-more points on the same night in the playoffs. Westbrook led all scorers with 34, while Durant added 31. Westbrook, in particular, was incredible on Saturday. In addition to his 34 points, he had eight assists, seven rebounds and a career-best six steals and his aggression resulted in a 17-of-18 showing at the foul line. Durant's 31 came on 12-of-25 shooting and he grabbed a team-best 14 rebounds.
42 – Points for the Spurs at halftime, the fewest for San Antonio in the first half in the 2014 playoffs so far.
1:25 – Time remaining in the third quarter when Derek Fisher scored Oklahoma City's first bench points.
46 – Speaking of bench points, they played a sizable hand in the Thunder's demise on Saturday. The Spurs bench outscored OKC's second unit by 46 points (51-5). It's hard to fault the Thunder's stars for running out of gas at the end when they receive no help. In fact, the Spurs' 51 bench points was the same amount the Thunder's bench scored in the past three games combined. Insult to injury, all five of OKC's came from Fisher, who likely just played in his final NBA game.
95 – Percentage of the Thunder's 107 points that came from four players. Westbrook, Durant, Ibaka and Jackson accounted for 102 on 33-of-74 shooting. Meanwhile, 10 players scored for the Spurs.
17 – Many thought the game might be in the bag when San Antonio announced Tony Parker would sit the second half with soreness in his left foot. That was not the case. The Spurs outscored the Thunder by a whopping 17 points in the third quarter, capped by a four-point play from Danny Green in the waning seconds of the period. It wasn't necessarily a backbreaker, seeing as the Thunder came back to force overtime, but it was certainly a missed opportunity.
9.1 – Oklahoma City's shooting percentage in overtime. Only one of the team's 11 shots wasn't taken by KD or Westbrook and that was a last-second heave from Jackson. That's what happens when two people are forced to carry an entire offense for more than 48 minutes.
0 – Minutes for Caron Butler. Interesting move considering Butler's contributions during this playoff run and the fact that he was averaging 20 minutes per game in the first five matchups against the Spurs.
14 – Total turnovers for the Spurs. It was also the same number of turnovers for just Durant and Westbrook.
22-8 – It wasn't just bench scoring working against the Thunder. San Antonio outscored Oklahoma City 22-8 in second-chance points and had 16 offensive rebounds to OKC's seven.
21 – As in No. 21, Tim Duncan. The man might be 38 years old, but "Old Man Riverwalk" was gigantic for San Antonio the past two games and he was on a completely different level in Game 6. Duncan had 19 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, including seven-straight points in overtime to help the Spurs seal the deal.
1997-98 – The last time we saw a rematch in the NBA Finals when the Bulls and Jazz squared off in back-to-back years. The Heat took down the Spurs in seven last season.
6 – The number of NBA Finals appearances for the Spurs in the Tim Duncan-Gregg Popovich era.
69 – Wins this season, regular season and postseason, for the Thunder. Pretty incredible season considering all of the injuries this team was forced to fight through. A lot of reason for optimism with the core of Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka and Jackson returning.
June 1st, 2014
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