Written by Nick Gallo at Thunder.com
The ball seemed to hang in the air forever as it left Russell Westbrook’s hands, crossed half court, narrowly jumped over Kawhi Leonard’s hand and landed in Kevin Durant’s awaiting hands. Then, the action went into hyper-drive as Durant put it on the ground once and finished under the rim. The bucket finished off an incredible steal by Westbrook, and finished off the San Antonio Spurs in a crucial 111-97 Game 4 victory for the Thunder.
“It was just locking down and defending,” Westbrook said of the play. “There are going to be possessions like that where you need to get a big stop and a big score that can open up a series or give you an opportunity to win a game. That was a big play for us and Kevin made a good finish.”
With the series now tied 2-2, the Thunder will look at some of the factors that led to an incredible second half effort when Head Coach Billy Donovan’s club outscored San Antonio by 22, including an 18-point advantage in the fourth quarter. Defensively, the Thunder was stout, particularly in the fourth when the Spurs shot just 7-for-21 from the field and Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge combined for just one point.
The Thunder’s unit of Durant, Westbrook, Dion Waiters, Enes Kanter and Steven Adams played the lion’s share of minutes in the fourth, with seven minutes of Randy Foye sprinkled in early in the period. That unit found a way to clog up the paint, be disruptive when contesting shots and to be frank, Durant did a marvelous job defending Leonard one-on-one for long stretches.
“I didn’t do anything individually. It was all a team effort,” Durant said. “We do everything together. 16 points is a great quarter for us defensively. We have to look at that and see how we can try to sustain it.”
On the other end of the floor, the Thunder simply got what it wanted, and much of it had to do with Durant’s speed, size and shooting ability. The Thunder All-Star forward went 6-for-6 from the field in the closing frame, outscoring the Spurs himself 17-16. He had the crucial bucket in transition off of the Westbrook steal, when the Thunder guard simply beat Tony Parker to the spot, cut in front of him and slapped the ball away.
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