Is Anyone As Confused As I Am???

102-82

Now if you didn't catch the game, you would think that this would be another Spurs beatdown.  And you would be right, except that THIS time it was the Spurs getting horribly outplayed.  The Spurs could hardly even bring the ball up the court and it looks like maybe OKC figured out how to defend against Tony Parker/Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan's lethal pick and roll tandems.  Now even with all of that, the Spurs miracle run of 20 straight wins had to end sometime (started April 11th) but still, I don't think anyone predicted this scoreline.  There are a couple big reasons why the Thunder came away with this impressive win.  At least as far as I can figure, I was the most confused I've ever been while watching the game.  These are the only reasons I can think of on why the Thunder won.

1. Defense. 

Defense wins championships.  This is an age old saying, and as much as we love high-flying, high-scoring teams, it remains true.  The Thunder are the more athletic team, and they like to get out and run and score buckets in transition, which is where they have the clear advantage agaisnt the Spurs.  That is pretty hard to do when they are taking the ball out of the net like they were in games 1&2, which allowed the Spurs to get back and get set up in their half court defense.

The Thunder were simply magnificent on defense in game 3, no other way around it.  The Spurs averaged 13 turnovers per game in the regular season and the Thunder harrassed them into committing 21 in game 3.  They also had 9 blocks (3 by Ibaka) and 14 steals.  The key was that they defended the paint.  They didn't let guards like Parker get the easy looks inside like they were in the first two games, and held the spurs to 48 percent from inside the paint.  This stat looks like it favors the Spurs, but a lot of those points came in garbage time at the end of the game.  As a whole, the Spurs were held to 39.5 from the field.

2. Thabo Thabo Thabo Thabo Thabo

MVP of the game.

With 6 steals, (4 in the first 3 minutes) 19 points and 6 rebounds, Sefolosha showed the versatility and defensive prowess that allows him to guard the other team's best player night in and night out.  He also has great versatility, being fast enough to guard the 1&2 positions and big enough to guard the 3&4 positions.

3. Passing

The Thunder had 23 assists. They average 17.8 in the season, which is good for 30th in the league.  The Thunder love to beat you off the dribble, but it seems that they took a page out of the Spurs book because they made the extra pass in this game, helping to get players like Sefolosha wide open threes. 
This was highlited by Westbrook getting 9 assists to only 5 field goals.  Westbrook loves to shoot (5-15), but finally realized that he wasn't having a good shooting night and helped set up his teammates with good passes.

4. Coaching

This one is almost by default.  I am a firm believer that coaching doesn't matter as much as people think it does, because it isn't the coach that shoots the ball.  The coach is there to: a) pump his players up, b) put in the right rotation, and c) take the blame for the loss and none of the credit for the win.

Gregg Popovich is a hall of fame coach, without a doubt.  If he ends up winning his 5th title in 16 years this year, he has to be considered one of the 3 best coaches ever, definitely in our generation.  There wasn't much he could do in this game.  His team just got outplayed.  I am confident that they will come back and play much better and harder in game 4, turning the ball over much less.

Scott Brooks

He took a lot of heat from games 1&2 and deservedly so. 
Ibaka did not even play in the 4th quarter of game 1.  Thabo Sefolosha hardly played in game 2.
For some reason, Brooks left Derek Fisher in for far too long in game 2.  Side note: I hate Derek Fisher.  Besides playing on my second most hated team, the Lakers, (number 1 is far and away the Celtics) he was the worst person to pick as the players rep for this summers lockout, he almost blew it.  When the Thunder go small (Westbrook at point, Harden at 2, Sefolosha at 3, Durant at 4, and Ibaka at 5) that is when they are the most deadly on offense and Brooks finally realized that.  Kendrick Perkins is a great low post defender and played pretty well in game 3, but this is just not his series.

Spurs in 6