It took a team effort for the Oklahoma City Thunder to stave off a 2-0 series deficit against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night.
Five different Thunder players scored in double-digits with the All-Star tandem of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook tallying a combined 57 points.
Meanwhile, the home-standing Spurs struggled a great deal to put up a solid team-wife performance. Players not named LaMarcus Aldridge scored a total of 56 points while shooting just 34 percent from the field.
For his part, San Antonio’s big man dropped 41 points on 15-of-21 shooting while adding 10 free throws on as many attempts.
It surely is an interesting dynamic to look at. While the Spurs have represented the “team” mantra over the past two decades, Oklahoma City has been dependent on its two All-Stars to get the job done.
With the tables reversed in Game 2, the most-important thing moving forward in the series will be to see how this aspect of the matchup plays out.
Touching on just this, Thunder guard Dion Waiters had some rather intriguing comments in the lead up to Game 3 in Oklahoma City.
“One man can’t beat you,” Waiters said, via CBS Sports. “We’re fine with that. If they want to continue to get out of their offense and throw the ball down there to him, we’re fine with that. One man can’t beat you. We’ve just got to make adjustments, and make it tough for him. He’s a great player in this league, an All-Star, he’s playing tremendous right now, but we’re fine with one guy trying to beat us.”
It stands to reason that the rest of San Antonio’s roster will pick it up moving forward in this series. And if Aldridge continues to play at this level, it’s going to be hard for the Thunder to come out on top.
Remember, San Antonio destroyed Oklahoma City by 32 points in Game 1, an outing that saw Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green combine to score 43 points on 16-of-20 shooting. That came in the same game that Aldridge himself dropped 38.
For his part, Waiters might want to worry more about his game. He put up just three points on 1-of-5 shooting in Game 2, and was lucky not to be called for a foul late in the Thunder’s controversial win.