Kiwi Steve in the NBA – The Migraine Game
Ordinarily The Niche Cache’s Kiwi Steve column is a weekly celebration of all things Steven Adams and Oklahoma City Thunder. But when something so momentous happens as the Thunder closing out the series against a 67-win Spurs team, that’s worth a special edition – even if only to keep next week’s column from having to cross multiple series. That would have been fine, but then Steve went and had one of those games that will prove a bookmark in the story of his career. Michael Jordan had his Flu Game once upon a time in the 1997 NBA Finals. Dirk Nowitzki had one too in the 2011 Final. And now… Steven Adams has his Migraine Game.
Box Score
vs SAS, G6 (W 113-99):
40 MINS, 15 PTS (6/7 FG, 3/4 FT), 11 REB, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 4 PF
So after last week’s dramas, OKC went into game six with a three two lead and the chance to close out the series in front of their home fans – as few could ever have predicted a few weeks earlier. The elephant in the Chesapeake Arena then was the fact that this could be Tim Duncan’s final ever game. Scary to think, given how long he’s been around and continually getting stuff done. Even his old man phase has been amazing… but this series he’d been thoroughly dominated. As some writers had noted, Duncan had been such a non-factor on offence (7 combined points in games 3-5) that Adams wasn’t even worried about guarding him, feeling much safer about leaving him to double on Aldridge, which was then having a serious effect on LMA’s game.
But in front of the wild Oklahoman crowd, Duncan clearly had a plan to get involved early. He’d score a couple quick buckets, mostly around the hoop, in a sharp reminder that while he may potentially only have 48 more minutes of this thing, he wasn’t going down without a scrap. However the Thunder rocked onto the front foot as soon as the Spurs bench came in. No Kawhi, no LaMarcus meant no scoring and the Thunder outdid them 12-0 to finish the first quarter with a 25-19 lead.
Coach Pop succinctly summed the whole thing up:
There’s a genuine argument to be made that Billy Donovan out-coached Popovich over the series. His adjustments between the first game hiding and the rest were drastic, with more of a perimeter presence on defence helping to take away the pick and roll that just slayed them (particularly when run by Tony Parker and LaMarcus Aldridge), a tweak that was made possible by how well Kiwi Steve patrolled the paint – and at both ends of the court too. Again, some of that is down to Duncan’s lessened threat but Duncan played well in this game… so did Steven Adams.
Here are some Spurs based thoughts pre-game six about the tactical matchups, from Pounding the Rock.
Interestingly we saw Boban Marjanovic finally get a few minutes out there on the court. With the Thunder dominating with their Adams/Kanter lineups, the Spurs seriously needed some kind of adjustment to nullify that because the OKC defence was holding up with Kanter there (as people worried it wouldn’t) while the rebounding numbers were predictably out of this world. One option was to stick the seven-foot-three Serbian rookie in there.
Another option was to go small and that was eventually what they did later in the game. Asked if he regretted not doing that earlier, Popovich replied to the journalist: “Are you coaching now?”
The Thunder were magnificent in the second quarter. They outscored the Thunder 30-12, thoroughly getting the better of them on both offence and defence. When this happened, it put the Thunder up 15 for their largest lead of the series. Oh, and apparently Adams was suffering from a migraine. Probably that raucous crowd again coz this one took the roof half off.
We don’t know exactly what pain he was playing through but you’ve gotta imagine that plenty of NBA players, even genuinely tough guys, are going to struggle to play after throwing up pre-game with a migraine. Or if they play, they won’t manage to play well. Steven Adams not only played but he kept up the same super influence that he’s had all series. To do so through that, yeah that’s pretty bloody ruthless. Imagine having these symptoms:
Squeamish stuff. But this game wasn’t over there. Russ drilled a three, the Spurs kept missing. The lead went up and up and when Kevin Durant stung a triple right at the end of the half he pushed the score to 55-31 – the lowest Spurs total in a half not only all playoffs but all *season*, and a total matched exactly by Russ (13 pts) and KD (18) alone. Not to mention guys like Steven Adams with 8p & 6r in the half, or Andre Roberson even, who came into this game shooting 1/14 from 3pt for the postseason and making both his shots here. On the other side of things the Spurs were 31.1% from the field and 0/8 from three. 24 points down is their biggest HT deficit in the playoffs since 2002. No team in history has come back to win from further in the playoffs. Really kinda shocking.
If the Spurs were going to make a historic comeback, it needed to come quick and yet for every shot they managed in the third, the Thunder were there already with a reply. The lead got as high as 27 points and suddenly the realisation dawned that the Spurs were probably done, that the Thunder were surely going to win this.
Into the fourth quarter though, the Spurs did make a run. After more than two minutes without a point at either end, Manu Ginobili made a three, slicing the deficit from 26 to 23 points. After Durant pushed that back to 25 points, San Antonio started getting a few things to land. Leonard with a three, Aldridge a two pointer, Duncan flipping one up over a two handed Adams contest. When Andre Miller joined the party it was an 11-1 run and the lead down to 15 points. And then Kevin Durant went and tossed in an and-one floater from four feet off the drive. But the Spurs they still didn’t go away and with 5:20 left, 40 year old Miller fed 40 year old Duncan for a layup and the score was 97-84, timeout Oklahoma City.
At around this point Adams had his right hand looked at on the bench. Earlier in the game he’d seemed to be massaging it as he got back in transition, probably got it caught somewhere it didn’t belong. He’d wear a brace on it after that, Adams has had thumb injuries in the past. He stayed in the game though, inhaling another offensive board and watching KD slam a two-handed, emphatic dunk.
Slammed, but Danny Green responded with a triple. After a turnover by OKC, Westbrook seemed to slap Green across the face as he leaped for a dunk. After a referee review it was deemed a flagrant one, shots and possession. The Spurs had their chance. A four or five point possession was on the offering but they could only get one and then after a defensive stop, Duncan reached a little too far in launching himself towards the basket and Serge Ibaka responded with a block that left Dunc on the ground. Durant scored in rapid transition.
It could have been a two possession game if San Antonio had somehow gotten the best of those late opportunities. Instead it was never closer than 11 points, Russ taking over with a few late drives and a bomb of a three. The Thunder were annihilated in game one, remember. They responded with four wins from five including two on the road and this was the best of them. Can’t help but wonder what might have been with a couple late calls going the other way – most notably the Dion Waiters inbounds push-off in the second one. The refs did manage to spot a late tug of the jersey from Steve on David West as he moved across a screen. Always pushing those boundaries, mate, never make it easy on ‘em.
The game then eased to an end. Kevin Durant was the star of the night with 37 points, shooting at 50%. He outplayed Kawhi Leonard in that megastar duel, as he did so across most of the series. Kawhi had 22 points from 23 shots, while Aldridge was kept to 18 and Duncan had 19. Tony Parker played only 23 minutes. Westbrook scored 28 with 12 assists, also Andre Roberson had himself a night with 14 points – not bad for a guy considered a defensive cog only.
OKC only used eight players and that was all they needed. Adams played 40 full minutes with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Yet another stunning game in what has been a breakout series for him, going from a respected role player to a genuine NBA dude. He checked out in the final minute to a massive ovation. The world now knows his name.
(He added two more rebounds to the last number post-this tweet)
Berry Tramel for NewsOK: “Steven Adams dunked off a pass from Randy Foye, and 23 seconds later, just before the buzzer ended the first quarter, Kevin Durant dunked off a fast break. The rout was on.”
Thunder Digest: “Steven Adams was again excellent, scoring 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Spurs had no answer for the third year man out of the University of Pittsburgh. As soon as Adams’ got going in this series, the Spurs were doomed. Adams registered a double-double in every [win] against San Antonio.”
Welcome to Loud City: “Steven Adams was once again the big man on the night, finishing with 15 and 11 with 2 steals and a block, meaning that Adams finished the series averaging 11 and 11 with 70.3% shooting from the floor.”
And so now Golden State awaits. These two teams were involved in some absolute belters during the season, none better than the game in which the Warriors forced a late comeback to win with a Steph Curry three shot from damn near the logos and the craziest thing is that it never looked like missing. Can the Thunder topple the Warriors? Well, few thought they could get past the Spurs. The battle between Curry and Westbrook will be incredible. Durant against Draymond Green. However we all know that the undercover matchup of the Western Conference Finals will be the duel for Australasian big man supremacy between Andrew ‘Big Bugger’ Bogut and Steven ‘Funaki’ Adams. Yes please.
Steven Adams: "We're not going to be cocky or anything or try to come out too much. We know it's going to be one hell of a battle. We just have to show up and make sure we don't take anything for granted and stick to what we do."
OTHER STUFF
A bit of Spanish humour for y’all.
Translation:
“Why are you so good, Don Steven?”
“Because I am the youngest of 18 children”
Here’s another one, courtesy of ESPN’s Tim MacMahon: “The duo of Steven Adams and Enes Kanter, aka the Stache Brothers, has been critical to the Thunder's success closing the last couple of games despite not playing a single minute together in the fourth quarter all season until Game 4. Oklahoma City is plus-17 in their 14 minutes together in the fourth quarter and has grabbed 71.4 percent of available rebounds with the Adams/Kanter combo on the floor in this series.”
That stat came from before game six, as interesting as it is it’s mostly just a lead in to this wicked anecdote:
But of course this article would be sacrilegious to finish on any other point than this: