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23:24 / 01.06.2012
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Thunder 102, Spurs 82



THE FACTS: The Oklahoma City Thunder fed off the energy of their roaring home crowd, played lockdown defense and steamrolled the San Antonio Spurs 102-82 and now trail the Western Conference finals 2-1. The Spurs' loss ends their 20-game winning streak (10 straight in the playoffs) and gives them just their fourth loss in the last 38 games. Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 22 points, but it was the play of defensive specialist Thabo Sefolosha that really sparked the Thunder. He scored a season high 19 points along with six steals, six rebounds and a blocked shot. He also pestered Spurs shooters all night long, especially Tony Parker (6-for-12, 16 points) and Manu Ginobili (1-for-5, eight points).

Spurs center Tim Duncan managed just 11 points while backup forward Stephen Jackson was the most effective of the Spurs offensive weapons, scoring 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting (4-for-5 on 3-pointers). The Thunder finished with five players in double figures. In addition to Durant and Sefolosha, James Harden had 15, Serge Ibaka had 14 points, three blocks and two steals and Russell Westbrook added 10 points on just 5-for-15 shooting. Still, Westbrook played one of his better overall games, dishing nine assists, grabbing seven rebounds, coming up with four steals and two blocks. He played under control most of the night and turned it over only twice.

The Thunder coaches and players had been preaching playing better defense for the last couple of days. In Game 3, the Thunder held the Spurs to just 39.5 percent shooting and less than 20 points in two quarters and no more than 24 in any other.

QUOTABLE: "We played great defense from the start, we had active hands, we challenged every possession. That's as good as you can play against the best team in basketball. They played better than us in the first two games and we played better than them tonight."
-- Thunder head coach Scott Brooks.

QUOTABLE II: "They played very well, they played like it was a close-out game. They beat us good. We played much more poorly than we have and they played fantastically. I thought they played smarter than we did and harder than we did."
-- Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.

THE STAT: The Spurs had lived in the paint during the first two games of the series but in Game 3 managed only 24 points down there in Game 3, OKC almost doubled them up with 44 points. After averaging 32 points over the previous five quarters the Spurs didn't even make it to 25 in any of the four tonight and shot just 39.5 percent for the game.

THE STAT II: Duncan blocked five shots to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most career blocks in NBA playoff history. Duncan has 478 postseason blocks to Abdul-Jabbar's 476. Hakeem Olajuwon is next with 472.

TURNING POINT: The Thunder started the game aggressive on the defensive end, forcing four turnovers in the first few minutes of the game then took control in the second quarter, outscoring the Spurs 32-17 to take a 54-41 lead into the locker room that quickly expanded in the second half. The Thunder led by as many as 27.

QUOTABLE III: "We wanted to slow down Durant and Westbrook and we gave him (Sefolosha) a lot of open looks and he hit shots."
-- Spurs point guard Parker on Sefolosha's big game.

QUOTABLE IV: "We did a good job on defense, everyone was really locked in. It was great to get a win in front of our home crowd. I think we showed tonight it's gonna be a long series."
-- Sefolosha.

HOT: The Thunder started the game 3-for-5 (60 percent) and finished the quarter at 43.5 percent (10-for-23)...In the first quarter OKC outscored the Spurs 16-2 in the paint and 28-8 through the first two quarters...OKC also outscored the Spurs on the fast break in the first half 12-1...Jackson was 5-for-6 (3-for-4 on 3-pointers) after three...Ibaka was 5-for-9 (14 points)...

NOT: The Spurs started 0-for-3 with four turnovers before Popovich called for a timeout...Durant and Duncan were each 3-for-8 in the first quarter...Duncan was 1-for-4 in the second...San Antonio committed 13 turnovers in the first half...Ginobili was 1-for-4 through three quarters...Duncan was 5-for-15 (11 points) after three...Westbrook was 4-for-14 (eight points) at the end of the third but he also had seven assist, five rebounds, three steals and two blocks...

INSIDE THE ARENA: Another raucous crowd inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin sat court side along with NBA superfan Jimmy Goldstein.

GOOD MOVE: Brooks started the game with shooting guard and defensive whiz Sefolosha on Parker and it worked in the beginning, Sefolosha was responsible for all four of those San Antonio turnovers in the early going.

BAD MOVE: For some reason the Spurs were not able to bring the energy and intensity they played with in the first two games. With the Thunder feeding off their home crowd it turned into a bad combination for San Antonio.v>