San Antonio vs. Oklahoma City, Final Score: Spurs take Thunder by storm, win 118-96

The San Antonio Spurs were looking for their 3rd win in 10 games after getting blitzed on Monday by the Phoenix Suns, 121-107 over the Oklahoma City Thunder. A total of six Spurs scored in the double-digits tonight and put in a collective offensive effort to dominate OKC throughout the evening, taking a strong lead in the first quarter and never looking back.

High scorers this evening for the Spurs:

Dejounte Murray (another triple-double): 23 pts, 11 rbs, 14 ast

Doug McDermott: 20 pts, 2 rbs, 0 ast

Jakob Poeltl: 13 pts, 8 rbs, 3 ast

Keldon Johnson: 13 pts, 0 rbs, 0 ast

Derrick White: 11 pts, 3 rbs, 6 ast

Observations

It was the Spursfirst game sans Bryn Forbes, who was a shooting presence for San Antonio and was recently sent to the Denver Nuggets in a three-way trade in which the Spurs obtained Juancho Hernangomez and a 2nd-round 2028 pick. Hernangomez did not play this evening due to relocation purposes, and this was the 2nd night the San Antonio roster was mostly complete after the recent Covid-19 outbreak amongst the team. There was a question mark on how the Spurs would perform offensively tonight missing Forbes, especially considering their recent struggles, but the result was still dominant win at the AT&T Center.
Keita Bates-Diop had a great dunk with a minute left in the 1st, which seemed to bring up the energy at the AT&T Center, along with another scoop in the basket to end the first. It was a nice showing by him to end the first quarter.
Lonnie Walker has been receiving a lot of criticism lately, but in the first quarter of tonight’s game, his passing efficiency, ball-handling, and ability to obtain boards look good so far. I really wish his halfcourt at the end of the first would have come off his hands a second sooner, because that would have been a great burst of energy for the San Antonio Spurs if it would have counted.
Devin Vassell got the rebound after a missed mid-range jumper by Walker and got a beautiful three to start the second-quarter. He did a great job trying to find his shot on the floor tonight, and I’m excited to see his growth throughout the rest of the season.
The Spurs are one of the worst free-throw teams in the league, and these missed shots are crucial for the Spurs, especially since they’ve been dealing with a lot of close games this season. Small mistakes like these can add up and be detrimental to the overall production of the team. Tonight they hit just 9/14 for 64.3%, and that won’t cut it against better teams.
Despite the free throw issue, the Spurs still played defense and are capitalizing off turnovers all evening with 19 fast break points. They also dominated protecting the rims, with 13 blocks in comparison to OKC’s 2. They also have 9 steals in comparison to OKC’s 5.
I hope Drew Eubanks’ nose is okay. He took hard hard smack from Josh Giddy, and it just looked like it hurt. When you get hit in your nose, it’s really, really painful…at least from my experience. Getting hit in the nose agitates my sinuses, and I start sneezing like crazy. But enough about myself, let’s get back to the observations before I bore you with my life problems.
I’m over the AT&T Center being empty, but it could be because of the overnight freeze that is set to take place in San Antonio overnight.
Derrick White has been drawing more charges than my credit card during Black Friday throughout the season, and tonight was no different.
Another big factor in this win was the Spurs’ three-point shooting. They hit 15-40, which is an okay 37.5%, but three players were especially hot, with Keldon Johnson, Doug McDermott, and Vassell making it rain threes. In all they combined to hit 13-19. It was fun to watch.
One of the things I noticed coming into this game is that OKC- like the Spurs- experience 3rd quarter slumps. The Spurs continued to take the lead by outscoring OKC by 10 points in the third quarter, bringing their lead up 106-78 to end the third.