NBA playoffs: Thunder draw even with another breathtaking performance

The preamble is necessary because no coach operating at this exalted level takes as much shit as Brooks does. His crimes against basketball are apparently numerous, but they essentially boil down to two things: a failure to install an innovative offense that takes pressure off his two stars to create everything for themselves and an overreliance on aging veterans at the expense of promising, albeit unproven, young talent.

Brooks’ virtues are not the kind of thing we tend to congratulate coaches for having. During his tenure, Durant has grown from a physically-overmatched rookie into arguably the best player in the league, or at worst the second best. From the beginning, Brooks has let Westbrook be Westbrook despite the cries and protests from the traditionalist wing of the basketball establishment who bray that point guards just aren’t supposed to do those kind of things.

Westbrook was the shining star for Oklahoma City, scoring 40 points on 12-of-24 shooting, adding 10 assists, five steals, five rebounds and one block with just three turnovers. Durant dropped 31 points on 11-of-22 shooting, with five rebounds, three steals and a block. No other Thunder player scored in double digits.

Game 5 is in San Antonio on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET and will air on TNT.

Everyone is better when they’re on the Spurs.

Where have I seen that look before?

Oklahoma City was down big in the first quarter on Tuesday night when things got much worse.

Jackson skipped the bench and immediately left for the locker room, but returned a few minutes later. His status is listed as questionable.

Charles Barkley loves Manu Ginobili, but not quite enough to know what continent he’s from:

The other four greatest European players ever, according to Chuck, according to me: Luis Scola, Hakeem Olajuwon, Yao Ming, and ... Charles Barkley? You put yourself on your own list even though you know full well you’re from Alabama? This is a problem. Let Shaq clear things up:

Ibaka had a solid game in his return to the lineup, scoring eight quick points and finishing with 15 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. His mere presences was a boon for the Thunder defense, which had been sliced and diced in San Antonio. The Spurs shot 76.8 percent in the restricted area combined in Games 1 and 2, but only 53.6 percent in Game 3, according to NBA.com’s stats page.

If San Antonio can regain its footing, they can take command of this series and have a chance to close it out at home in Game 5. But if Oklahoma City wins again, it will only be natural to think back to the 2012 Western Conference Finals when the Thunder lost the first two games and then won four straight. The Spurs certainly would prefer to not bring back those painful memories.

Here’s that impact in four charts.

With Ibaka on the back line in Game 3, that advantage disappeared. San Antonio shot worse than 50 percent at the rim, with Ibaka racking up four blocks. (That’s more than the Thunder had as a team in either of the first two games.)