How The Thunder Defeated The Spurs In 6 Games 

Amazing video Coach! As a Spurs fan, this series was quite painfull to watch. I was noticing the same things you were, and think pop should have made more adjustments. I also saw them relying on too many isolation plays(like you said) instead of playing more Spurs baskeball. Congratulations Thunder. Great video once again Coach.

In short: Steven Adams.

It's quite simple actually. The Thunder just scored more points than the Spurs.

Spurs in 9

I think also the lack of rest is a factor that did the Spurs in. I guess they weren't really built to battle a squad like OKC with only one day off in-between. The older guys seemed worn down and couldn't contribute much, I feel part of the reason Spurs played so beautifully that first game of the series was they had damn near a week off to prepare for it

they should have played boban marjonovic more this series. he could definitely be able to rebound and bang with Steven Adams and enes kanter

I've stated earlier this season that Spurs is running a lot of iso for Kawhi. He managed to get through the season with this, but eventually the team stops advancing when the ball stops moving.

I'm a spurs fan and we didn't deserve to win this series to be quite honest

Donovan made novice adjustments that were either clearly evident or something he should have discovered at the start of the season, I don't know why we are giving him endless praise..... Only takes a genius to leave 1 of your 2 superstars on at all times, and play the hot hands in Kanter and Adams when Ibaka is stinking up the joint

Sweet vid! Allows me to make sense of a series I couldn't quite wrap my head around

The spurs didn't play like themselves on offense, the bench wasn't productive and the defensive matchups pop trotted out were downright stupid. Kawhi and Lamarcus are studs but they kill the offense when they ISO. I gotta tip my hat to the Thunder. They took advantage of the spurs weaknesses and capitalized off of them.

Crazy how good the Spurs have been throughout these last 20 years

I was genuinely really impressed when the Thunder started to run the game more featuring Durant and the bigs. Even if it was a bit flawed, it got more teammates involved and they took care of business more as a team. They just need to learn how to keep it somewhat consistent down the stretch.

Another point I would add to your arguments on the Spurs' ISO game : since game 3, Donovan made adjustments on LMA doubling him with a big from the weak side, and Aldridge got big troubles in reading those situations effectively. Would love to see the Spurs back to their ball movement game next year, that's pure basketball

i was concerned about the loss of splitter because of their lack of size. diaw and west are 6'9 and not great rebounders, duncan also wasnt rebounding as well this year. gasol can solve that problem for them next year but pop needs young athletic bigs. hes seems allergic to athleticism but he will adapt and dont be suprised if a dwight howard type ends up there. pop changes with the times, from david and duncan or slow tempo (99-07) to 3 pt shooting up tempo, up tempo with defensive focus(12-14) back to slow tempo with LA and kawhi, (realizing they needed a 3 in the first place and trading for kawhi (controversial then) because of lack of size.) pop will respond to this issue next year you can book it, the spurs never go away and keep changing

People forget how ineffective Tony Parker was in this series. I rarely saw him being aggressive in taking those jump shots or collapsing the paint. I don't think I saw a single floater or the famous Parker teardrop in this series. I am no basketball expert but I think Spurs are at their best when Parker weaves in an out of the paint and starts creating spaces for those perimeter players.

Interesting how Pop seems not to trust Tony in clutch minutes, last night Andre Miller got a lot of minutes in the last quarter

stache brothers too good.

67 wins to getting destroyed in the second round lol.Didnt see it coming.

Spurs got lazy and relied on star power...

Greg Popovich is 80% to blame why they lost.

Greg pop hasn't gave a shit about basketball since 2014.

I have a question for you coach. How do think OKC's line up with Adams and Kanter will fare again GSW's small-ball line up in the upcoming conference final?

Thunder scored more points so they beat the Spurs

yay answered my question and now I understand what happened so much better! great vid

Bogut got injury (again) in game 6. Do you think this will have an impact on Golden State, since Ezeli is the only guy left to defend Thunders' pick and roll?

steven adams played really well in this series

ref screws up game 2 and 5 for spurs. spurs can not win if it need more than 6 games due to age.

Pop coached with his heart this series. Sigh. Hope to see another year of Duncan!

It was the Nazr Mohammed effect - he was on the thunder in 2012 when the thunder beat the spurs, he was on the bulls in 2014 when the spurs beat the thunder, and he was on the thunder this year when they won again.

6:06 Bullshit. The refs didn't give away the game. Spurs should have gotten a technical for passing over that boundary.

I told everyone I know that OKC would beat Spurs in 6 games, everyone laughed at me. Now none of them will respond to me LOL. Not even a thunder fan, I don't even think they are better than the Spurs I was just going for an upset and happened to get it right. So happy.

Truly awesome video, can't wait to see how the Warriors hold up!

Good Breakdown Coach. I also think that using Waiters as a playmaker rather than a scorer helped the team as well. Even with Westbrook in, I liked how Coach Donovan used Waiters as a player to get the ball up the floor and allow Westbrook to play off the ball.

hey man can u come out with a video on how the thunder can beat the warriors? going small seems right but this adams/kanter rotation is beasting on the boards

Coach I think the reason they put Kanter and Adams out is because Kanters quick feet could keep up with Aldridge and Adams could play better defense off pick and rolls and was playing great.

Adams is a beast.

If you want me talk about how the refs helped OKC win than ok but anyways good video and I agree with the passing aspect but for the people saying Kawhi isn't an offensive superstar are blind.

So coach you still think Kawhi is better than Lebron?

Wow now that's a good video coach! Super thorough u made me that much smarter haha

what the Spurs really needed was another big man to bang with Adams and Kanter. a few seasons ago they would have had splitter and baynes. hard to win rebounding battles with a 40 year old tim duncan and an outsized west and diaw.

I thought Steven Adams had a fantastic series against the Spurs. Doing it against GSW will be another challenge entirely.

The stache bros lineup came from LAST season when everyone was injured. We were forced to play two centers.

I wanna see okc and raps in the final even though there's basically no chance of that happening

Calls aside. I think Thunder out-played the Spurs and were deserving winners. I also think that Lamarcus in those early games kept Spurs in the running to get those wins with some exceptional performances but died out as the series grew on when Adams was guarding him. Also to note the bench for Spurs were moving the ball great but when they had to defend Kanter and Adams they got totally out-muscled in the paint through rebounding and just trying to get hands up.

Billy Donovan ftw

Awesome stuff

Is there a channel like this for football

I watched all but one of the games and I what I saw contrasts with what you were saying, coach. I agree that the spurs offense stagnated during many possessions (too many, if you ask me) but I don't think that was the reason why the spurs lost the series. In the games they lost, the spurs had open shots and Leonard and Aldridge were able to get a 1v1 game going on, which is a part of Pop's offensive scheme. He did the same thing with Manu and Tim in their primes and it only makes sense that Pop would use two of the best scorers in the league in isolation postups. So the spurs got the majority of the shots they wanted and many of them were open or hardly contested shots - they just simply missed a lot. But I do agree that Kanter and Adams were the deciding factor in the series. So, couple an outrageous display of off. rebounding with very poor offensive shooting on the spurs end, the spurs were doomed to lose regardless of the other reasons you gave.

How you 40, catch up to be down 10! Then bench your starters 😒 Pop single handedly destroyed my pride . Something was super fishy about that last quarter.. Way to keep pushing OKC ..

I think Aldridge's great games (2 or 1 - one of the 2, or maybe both, he scored 40 odd) early on got them wanting to go to him. But doing so without a mismatch or some other advantage, well, there's no point of that. Same with Kawhi. He's great, but you're right, he would hvae been so much better without all that iso without even a screen BS

I've always thought that the Spurs weren't contenders because they play too slow when they're down. They have all the size, talent and experience but pace will always be an issue. It seems like It takes them 2 quarters to come back from a 10 point lead. They don't always need to go on fast breaks and be a fast tempo team, but when you're down you have to at least pick up the pace. Put up more shots, don't use up the whole shot clock on every single possession...

coach, will this OKC lineup of adams and kanter work against golden state ?

Hey coach I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on the upcoming Warriors vs. Thunder series. I'm a Thunder fan and wonder if the Thunder play like how they did against the Spurs do you think it's possible for them to make a championship run and bring home a trophy to OKC?

Coach Nick, nba teams should hire you to be their analyst, and eventually assistant coach, and eventually....

The James Harden deal looks even worse now that Ibaka isn't even a starter now

Id like to see GSW play Ezeli and Bogut together. Could be a great counter to Kanter and Adams.

I believe Adams became the pick for the Harden trade, so this is a win win

Coach Nick highlighting Steven Adams impact and Kanter line-up change: GOOD. Coach Nick bringing up the Waiters foul when Ginobili stepped on the line first: BAD Coach Nick stating that Donovan OUTCOACHED Pop? Kanter might be bad at PnR defense, but that's certainly not enough to force the Thunder to give up that LETHAL...and I mean LETHAL rebounding edge: MEH

Hey coach, in the GSW vs Thunder series, how do you think Warriours will be able to combat the rebounding strength of Adam,kanter,Ibaka, Westbrook. Do you think it's poosible for Warriors to play two bigs like Bogut & Ezili and Green drops to small forward. Maybe they will not consider this because Kerr usually likes to keep a fresh defensive centre subbed in and since Speight & Varejao are defensive liabilities he would like more options then use his best defensive centers together?

How do u feel about hornaceck as coach of the Knicks

I think that lineup was hardly used during the season because they did not want teams to prepare for it. I remember a commentator saying that.

Saying that the 13.5 seconds of game 2 made it easier for the Thunder is BS. According to the postgame recap, there were 3 errors the spurs took advantage of, whereas 2 were against them. Moreover, the first missed call is Ginobili's foot. If they had called that, nothing would have happened and Thunder would have repeated the inbound pass.

Great Breakdown, I think Pop had his hand forced, guys like Parker, Duncan Ginobli, Diaw have lost there explosion to be able to create space. There passing was flat as a result and their best chance was that Iso game, u can bet Pop knows he has to find a couple more explosive athletes. U can't just run that beautiful ball if u can't beat your guys around the paint or on cuts. Pop knew this and could only play with his two best guys, Parker looked bad in game 5 and 6 despite having a great game 3 and 4. But the gas was not there, Diaw looked still bothered by the groin, and Duncan jumps like he needs surgery. No excuses just stating some optimism in the face of losing.

Imo what really killed the Spurs was the isolation heavy offense. Iso isn't Kawhi's game and the misses allowed Thunder to run transition offense...the worst thing the Spurs can try to defend.

billy donovan gets more credit 4 making okc an awesme team

holy crap, look at Ginoblis brillant pumpfake, then pass 2:17

I think adding aldridge to the spurs might have affected the way spurs execute on offense bc aldridge was still used to playing trail blazer's style. If the spurs had focus on their usual ball movement like in game 1 instead of iso with kawhi and aldridge, they would have won.

The Spurs really broke my heart. After my Bulls already off post-season and now defeated Spurs I just have GSW to root for. Kuddos to OKC though.

Pop looks done this is two playoffs in a row he doesn't adjust to glaring issues. :/

The acquisition of LaMarcus Aldridge killed this team's ball movement.

Believe it or not I think Steve Adams and Kanter integrated into the game plan was genius. They both made the Spurs front court irrelevant and Tim Duncan non existent because of their athleticism and length.

Coming from a Warriors fan, i'd be very content with OKC winning it all if they beat Golden State.

Or as the great Gregg Popavich would say "They out the ball in the basket"

kawhi's a good dude wish he could've brung one more home before tim left owell he'll do it sometime in the near future. Im sure of it

Now you're coaching? :P

Oklahoma fixed their bench rotations, their reserve/substitute point guard was awful in the first 3 games and I think he didn't play in the next 3 games because of that, same thing goes for Collinson if I'm not mistaken. Once they got what they needed from their bench, they went to work. The Spurs forgot about "the beautiful game" like the video points out, making their bench play useless minutes and last but not least: REBOUNDING. The Spurs allowed too many off. rebounds and also missed too many shots and got very few offensive rebounds of their own. And don't forget the refs is games 2 and 5 favoring the Thunder, which is no excuse, but it's very dissapointing to get those kind of calls in your own home court.

good video

do you think they'll use their bigs as much against gsw

Defence: spurs inside paint def is weak (rebounds and block , box out and inside the paint contest) Offence: tim duncan socre less than 10 points for game 4 and game 5, which means pop strategic core is lay too heavily on LA and Lenard and what thunder did jus focus defend on these 2 guys ,,,, they need to utilize Tim Duncan to low post more like old days and tony parker pick and roll more often than heavily rely on 2 guys for the offence

make a video how okc beat the no 1 seat warriors

GSW should watch this..

I be doing that on 2k with the thunder

Could soneone explain to me what NetRtg is?

Eventhough i'm from SF so I hope my dubs win it all, may they lose to okc I would be happy for KD and RW. Would officially give them legend-status

Let me save you 6 minutes: Too many isos and terrible refs

they got some help from officiating too

I think sports shows like ESPNs First Take and Inside the NBA should utilise more factual arguements and points rather than relying on opinions and generalities. But then again most people don't really care that much.

I don't know why but they lost because Pop did not play Diaw.

5:58 What self respecting ref calls that? That's the real reason the Thunder won. In Game 5 when the Spurs went up 62-49 and were about to blow the Thunder out, the refs went into game management mode.

Experts disrespected the OKC Thunder that's y saying the Spurs are class above and voting kawhi 2nd n mvp over bron and kd

OKC in 6 vs golden state. TOO MUCH TALENT FOR GSW

Sup Coach!

I feel so so sad for ginobili:( sigh

And its working against the Warriors.

My heart broke... Warriors pls sweeps Thunder !

Do you think it's possible, maybe even in the very slightest, that Popovich decided not to throw his best strategies out there on the court because of the Warriors? Popovich was Steve Kerr's mentor, coach, and good friend. Pop has said publicly the Warriors are the team he's thought about the most in his career, and he's envious of them. Knowing Pop's good heart as well, do you think it's in any way possible that Pop didn't exploit mismatches and had some questionable decisions (Parker on Westbrook) in order to help Golden State win it all and cement their dynasty? The Thunder are an amazing team, no question, but Pop's Spurs would pose a bigger threat to the Warriors. Maybe Pop knows what's good for the game of basketball in general, and wanted his protege Kerr and the Warriors to win it all again, and he didn't want to stand in the way. I know this is a long shot, especially at the top level of competitive basketball. But considering Pop's relationship with Kerr and his view of the Warriors, maybe it's one possible solution for Pop not throwing his best out there against the Thunder.

Yes!Pop was outcoached!Nba fans act like it's impossible for pop to be outcoached by someone

Could you do Allen iverson please just for once.

That ERB music 😂