The San Antonio Spurs took back home court advantage in their conference semifinal series against the Oklahoma City Thunder with a 100-96 win in Game 3, giving San Antonio a 2-1 series lead. Kawhi Leonard finished with a team-high 31 points along with 11 rebounds and 9 assists for the Spurs.
Russell Westbrook finished with 31 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Westbrook committed five turnovers, two of which occurred in the final four minutes of the game.
The Spurs led by as many as 15 points in the first half, setting the tone defensively by limiting the Thunder to 20 points in the first quarter, but Oklahoma City responded by turning their defense up a notch in the second quarter, closing the first half on a 22-12 run when the Spurs had a 35-20 lead with 8:22 left in the second.
The second half was a battle of attrition, with both teams making big plays and seeing their star players make big shots. For the Spurs, Tony Parker brought a key spark of 19 points to supplant Aldridge (24 points, 8 rebounds) and Leonard on the offensive end. It came down to the winning plays made down the stretch, where the Spurs excelled and Westbrook and Kevin Durant (26 points) had their struggles.
Russell Westbrook comes FLYING in for the putback slam! #Thunder https://t.co/RJSeQMKA7Q
— NBA On Def Pen (@NBAOnDefPen) May 7, 2016
Westbrook did make two big plays to give the Thunder one final push, this putback dunk, which was an and-one and put OKC down by four, and another pair of free throws after drawing a foul in transition on the following play.
Down by two, when the Thunder needed a stop, Kawhi Leonard collected an offensive rebound off of LaMarcus Aldridge’s missed jumper with :25 left, then putting Tony Parker on the free throw line, where he made both shots. Then down by four, Oklahoma City spent 14 seconds on their next possession, too much time before Dion Waiters made a running bank shot with 4.8 seconds left. The Spurs would close out the game on a pair of free throws from Kawhi Leonard.
Game 4 of Spurs-Thunder will be on Sunday at 8:00 PM EST on TNT.
