NBA Playoffs
Western Conference – Round 2
Tip-off: Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. ET
Line: San Antonio -7.0, Total: 199.0

The Spurs will be looking to take a 3-2 series lead with a win at home over the Thunder in Game 5 on Tuesday.

Game 4 was a wild one in this series, as the Spurs had control of the game for nearly 40 minutes of action and ended up losing 111-97 as two-point road favorites. Oklahoma City outscored San Antonio 66-44 in the second half and the team will be hoping to carry some of that momentum into this massive Game 5 battle. One thing that stood out in Game 4 was that the Thunder shot 50.6% from the floor. It was by far their best offensive performance of the series and the Spurs must right the ship defensively soon. One trend that seriously favors San Antonio in this game is that the team is 18-5 ATS when revenging a road loss of 10 points or more versus an opponent over the past three seasons. Both of these teams are entering this game at full strength, so hopefully injuries will not play a major factor in determining the outcome of this one.

The Thunder are coming off of a big Game 4 victory and SF Kevin Durant (26.8 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 3.7 APG in playoffs) came up huge for his team in that one. Durant finished the game with 41 points, five boards and four assists in 43 minutes of action on Sunday. He hit some clutch shots in the fourth quarter and must continue to find a way to score against Leonard in this series. Where he really had it going was from midrange and that’s an area he’ll be certain to exploit moving forward. PG Russell Westbrook (24.2 PPG, 10.9 APG, 6.8 RPG, 1.8 SPG in playoffs) was also really important in the Game 4 victory. Westbrook is normally trigger happy, but he sensed that it was Durant’s night and played the role of distributer. He ended up dishing out 15 assists and turning the ball over just three times, and it’s important that he continues to set his teammates up in the remainder of this series. Another guy that must be mentioned is C Steven Adams (9.4 PPG, 9.7 RPG in playoffs), as he ended the game with 16 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in 36 minutes of action. He’s been very active around the basket on both ends of the floor and his presence is giving San Antonio a ton of issues.

The Spurs are not going to be happy about the way they played in the second half on Sunday and they must now win this home Game 5 in order to stay in control of the series. One guy that must be better for San Antonio is SF Kawhi Leonard (22.1 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.3 SPG, 1.8 BPG in playoffs). Leonard has been playing well throughout the postseason, but he was 7-for-19 from the floor and 0-for-4 from three in Game 4. The Spurs desperately needed Leonard to show up offensively and he really didn’t do that last game, finishing with just 21 points inefficiently. If he can find his stroke again then the Spurs should be fine moving forward. San Antonio would also be wise to get PF LaMarcus Aldridge (22.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG in playoffs) more involved in this game. Aldridge had just 20 points on 18 shots in Game 4 and is capable of doing a lot better against this Thunder frontcourt. He’ll need to be aggressive in Game 5, as a big game from Aldridge would likely mean a victory for the Spurs.