San Antonio Spurs leave the Oklahoma City thunderless to win 117-104
The Oklahoma City Thunders came into the match hoping to avoid their fourth straight loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
Spurs and Matt Bonner had other ideas though as they delivered a barrage of triple point shots to thunder past Oklahoma City in front of an 18,203 strong crowd at the Oklahoma
City Arena.
Bonner nailed 21 points on 7-7 shooting from outside the arc and just missed matching the best 3-point shooting outing in Spurs' history, as he master minded a long-range
shooting assault to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 117-104 on Sunday night.
First Half
The Oklahoma City thunders entered the match with all guns blazing as they sprinted to 11-4 run midway through the first quarter to take a 19-11 advantage. Thunders were
sitting pretty at 35-23; their biggest lead of the match, when the Spurs initiated a 9-0 run bridging the first and the second quarter to peg the Thunder’s back.
Oklahoma City Thunders dominated most of the play in the first half though and maintained a five point advantage at 66-61 going into the break.
Second Half
The Spurs opened the second half with a bang and opened a 7-2 run, DeJuan Blair scoring seven in a row, to make it all square at 68 and then Richard Jefferson made three
pointer to put the Spurs in the lead for the first time at 71-70, as the momentum shifted in their favor.
Spurs brought the Thunders out of their comfort zone in the third quarter as they stepped up the pressure holding their opponents to just 14 points with 4-of-16 shooting.
Richard Jefferson nailed in a 3-pointer from the left corner near the end of the third quarter and from that point onwards the 3-pointers just kept on coming.
The Spurs raced to an 8-2 run right at the start of the fourth quarter to stamp their authority on the match. They were particularly brutal from outside the arc converting
six of the eight attempts as Matt Bonner made his seventh triple pointer to give his team a 15 points barrier at 103-88 with 7:07 left on the clock.
While the Thunders were allowing uncontested free shots at one end they faltered big time in converting their own 3-pointers as they finished with a meager 4-for-13. With
the Spurs fully in command the rest of the quarter proved to be a stalemate as the Spurs took the match 117-104.
Match Stats
The Spurs floundered nine of their first 10 shots in the first quarter and shot 36-for-88 at 40.9 percent but escaped with the win due to their three point prowess.
Tony Parker led the way with 24 points and 5 boards. Manu Ginobili chipped in with 21 points along with Matt Bonner while Richard Jefferson nailed 18 points to guide the
Spurs to their eighth win in the season.
Six players featured in the double figure for the Oklahoma City Thunders with Kevin Durant leading the play with 23 points, 4 assists and 7 rebounds. Russell Westbrook scored
19 points with 8 assists but he only shot 5-for-17 as the Thunders succumbed to second half assault to hand the match to the San Antonio Spurs.
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