OKLAHOMA CITY — The streak is over. The series may only be beginning.
Kevin Durant scored 22 points, Thabo Sefolosha set playoff career bests with 19 points and six steals, and the Thunder snapped the Spurs’ 20-game winning streak by beating San Antonio 102-82 in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals last night.
Oklahoma City closed its series deficit to 2-1 and will host Game 4 on tomorrow night.
“We never thought these guys had an advantage over us even though we had lost a few,” Durant said. “It was just good that we took it to 2-1. We didn’t want to go down 0-3.”
Sefolosha threw a wrench in the Spurs’ well-oiled offense at the start, getting four steals in the first three minutes. The Spurs ended up committing a postseason-worst 21 turnovers and scoring their least points all season.
San Antonio had been averaging 109.4 points during its month-and-a-half winning streak and had been held to double digits only twice.
“We just played a good basketball game,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “We played with a lot of force, we played with good energy, but we played defensive-minded basketball.
“That’s who we are. That’s how we win.”
Tony Parker and Stephen Jackson led the Spurs with 16 points apiece. Tim Duncan had 11 points on 5-for-15 shooting, taking 11 of San Antonio’s first 25 shots as the offense went through the All-Star center instead of Parker.
“They played like it was a closeout game, both offensively and defensively,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “They were very active, physical, they moved the ball well on offense. They did all those things better than we did. They beat us good.”
The Spurs, who already set an NBA record for the longest winning streak carried over from the regular season into the playoffs, were trying to match the league mark for most wins to start the postseason. The Lakers won 11 straight to start the 1989 and 2001 playoffs, getting swept in the NBA finals the first time and winning it all the second.
The Spurs hadn’t lost since April 11 against the Lakers at home.
“We are a prideful team. It’s no fun being down 0-2. It’s no fun,” Brooks said. “But we weren’t looking at the game thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, we have a chance to be down 0-3.’ We were looking at the game that we have a chance to be 1-2 after this game, and I give our guys a lot of credit. They believe in each other and they always play hard for each other.”