Before eventually blowing the doors off the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5, Gregg Popovich went through a myriad of lineups until he eventually found one that worked in Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard and Boris Diaw.
Of those five players, Diaw had the largest impact for the San Antonio Spurs. Looking at his stat line, he finished with 13 points, six rebounds and two three-pointers, but Diaw’s greatest affect on the game was how he was able to draw Thunder big man Serge Ibaka out of the paint.
With the threat of Diaw’s outside stroke, Ibaka had no choice but to come out and guard him, leading not only to easy long-range jumpers for Diaw, but also an opportunity for Parker to run pick-and-roll with his fellow Frenchman.
Diaw’s impact can be directly linked back to garbage time in Game 4, when he and Cory Joseph helped cut a 27-point deficit to as little as 12. In that contest, Diaw racked off 14 points and 10 rebounds with 11 of his 14 coming in that second-half run.
The Thunder definitely had Game 4 in hand, but head coach Scott Brooks may have made a mistake in keeping Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Ibaka on the floor for as long as he did because it showed Popovich the clear mismatch with Ibaka guarding Diaw.
Return to normalcy?
There’s been something missing throughout the Western Conference Final, and it hasn’t just been the lack of competitive balance.
It’s the fact that every team that’s won has been the home team.
This year, home teams have gone 47-35 (a .573 winning percentage) in the playoffs, which may look normal on paper, but that number is nowhere close to the norm as home teams in the post-season had a record of 790-418 (.654 winning percentage) dating back to 1999 entering this year.
Home court advantage has always been just that, and a slight departure from it has been entertaining, which is why this Spurs-Thunder series hasn’t had the same level of spark that the rest of the playoffs had going for it.