The Informer’s 50 NBA Blogs in 50 Nights Day 38: The Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant Show

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“Ernie a series doesn’t start until the road team wins a game.”

For the past fifteen years The Informer has heard TNT analyst Charles Barkley say this to fellow host Ernie Johnson at least once a year. Barkley uses this phrase to emphasize that if the lower seed can’t win a road game they can’t win the series; therefore, until the road team wins there is no reason to think the lower seed will advance.

The Informer was thinking about Charles’ words while watching the Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the San Antonio Spurs 105-92 in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. The reason The Informer was thinking about this is that even though OKC evened this series up at two games apiece, if you remember Barkley’s words you will see that nothing has really changed. All that has happened is the home team held court and won again.

The “nothing has changed” narrative is great news if you are a Spurs fan, because it means all San Antonio has to do to win this series is continue to hold court by winning two more home games. And while the Spurs have looked pretty meager these past two road games, The Informer can guarantee they will play better in front of their home crowd.

With that said, the one thing The Informer took away from Game 4 is that the Spurs do not have the fire power to match up with OKC when Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant are playing the kind of basketball they played last night. Then again, there is nobody in the NBA that can beat the Thunder when the “dynamic duo” is combining for 71 points, 10 rebounds, 15 assists, eight steals and two blocks while shooting 23-46 from the field.

Listen, The Informer knows that he has spent the last 40 days continuously raving over the KD-Russ combo (even going as far as calling them “Michael and Scottie 2.0”), but the fact of the matter is they just keep putting on ridiculous performances that garners all of this attention.

Day 38 of the 2014 NBA Playoffs was no different.

#LetRussBeRuss was the game’s MVP providing stifling defense on the Spurs Tony Parker (Parker has been shut down the past two games by Russ), a relentless offensive attack and one of the best all around games of his entire career; finishing with 40 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and five steals. For all of the Westbrook haters, The Informer would like to point out that Westbrook is the first player since Michael Jordan in 1989 (25 years) to put up a 40-10-5 with five steals in a playoff game.

And to think, he is the second best player on his own team.

Speaking of “Sniper Jones”, the Thunder’s best player provided another efficient, and semi-overlooked, 31 point night. And even though last night was Russ’ night, Durant did put his MVP stamp on this game by hitting seven straight shots during his 15 point second quarter outburst. It was Durant’s early dominance that helped put the Spurs into a hole they could not climb out of.

Now, getting back to Barkley’s words on road teams getting a win; The Informer looks at this series and thinks a person can draws two very different conclusions to why neither the Spurs nor the Thunder have road wins.

The Thunder lost their two road games because injuries changed the way they played (something that was fixed when Serge Ibaka came back), while the Spurs lost their two road games because they were over-matched by a fully healthy Thunder squad (something they can’t change unless another injury occurs).

Just saying, dating back to the 2012 Western Conference Finals, the Thunder have won fourteen straight games against San Antonio when they have their entire complement of players (obviously they lost the first two games of this series when Ibaka was injured).

That is why The Informer, as a KD-Russ fan, is excited heading into Game 5. He is excited by the fact that the Spurs are over-matched athletically when Ibaka, Durant and Westbrook are on the floor. The Informer is also excited by the fact that Westbrook is starting to dominate Parker the same way he did Mike Conley Jr.and Chris Paul in the Thunder’s previous series.

Most of all, The Informer loves the fact that in these playoffs the Durant-Westbrook combination has yet to fail when their backs have been against the wall. And right now, needing at least one road victory to reach the NBA Finals for the second time in three seasons, it is safe to say their backs are fully against the wall.

In other words, heading into Game 5 the Durant-Westbrook duo seemingly has San Antonio exactly where they want them.

(The Informer’s “OKC backs against the wall” note – So far in these playoffs OKC has overcome 2-1 and 3-2 series deficits against the Memphis Grizzlies. They blew a 20 point lead during a Game 4 loss in their series with the Los Angeles Clippers, to which they responded by winning two straight games to move on to their third Western Conference Finals in the past four years. And finally, for the second time in three years, they spotted the Spurs a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals only to come back and tie the series up.)

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