It was only two years ago in this very same venue, and after the 112-77 drubbing the Thunder received at the hands of the Spurs in San Antonio on Wednesday, that’s at least encouraging.
Oklahoma City is now down, 2-0, in the Western Conference finals and returning home — the same deficit and situation they faced in 2012, when they rallied to win four straight and land in the NBA Finals.
PHOTOS: Thunder-Spurs action shots
OKC is now counting on a repeat performance, because that come-from-behind series showed that, hey, nothing is impossible. Not only were the Spurs up 2-0 when the teams returned to Oklahoma City, but San Antonio had won 20 straight games dating back to the regular season. In the wake of the Game 2 loss, newspapers everywhere declared, “San Antonio is halfway to turning the Western Conference finals into a runaway.”
“Obviously, we feel we are a much better team than how we played tonight,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said after the game. “We understand San Antonio is a very good basketball team, but we also understand that we are a much better team than we played like tonight. We got three or four days to figure things out. We will continue to figure things out as a group, like we always have done.”
Like they figured things out in 2012? Maybe.
Unfortunately for the Thunder, this group is not the ’12 group, and a comeback in this series would be all the more astonishing. Back then — as now — the Thunder relied heavily on stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, both of whom struggled in Game 2 scoring 15 points each on 13-for-40 shooting.
But back in 2012, the Thunder also were healthy and had ace sixth man James Harden on hand to drub the Spurs with late-game pick-and-rolls.
Harden is long gone, of course; sent to Houston the summer after that Finals appearance. And, worse, power forward Serge Ibaka remains out with a calf injury. Despite his best efforts to get back on the floor, Ibaka would hardly be 100 percent even if he did play. Without him, the Thunder are getting trounced in the paint. In all, the Spurs have outscored Oklahoma City, 120-74, in the paint in two games, shooting 66.7 percent (60-for-90).
Other than a stretch in the third quarter of Game 1 and for much of the first half of Game 2, the matchup hasn’t even been close. The Spurs held a 47-42 edge with 2:37 to play in the second quarter until an 11-2 run to close the half — highlighted by two 3-pointers from Danny Green (who finished with 21 points on seven made 3s) and one from Manu Ginobili — turned the contest into a blowout.
In all, the Thunder have led for just 12:39 of the 96 minutes played in this series. But the Spurs aren’t booking their Finals tickets.
“We have been here before in the past against these guys,” Green said. “They won four straight against us. We know how dangerous they are and what they’re capable of. Game 3 is going to be even more intense and more focused than these past two games.”
San Antonio knows its history. It’s up to Oklahoma City, undermanned and overmatched thus far, to repeat it.