An Aldridge and-1 stemmed the tide briefly. Thunder responded with a 16-0 run by leveraging Luguentz Dort and Dennis Schroder’s playmaking and Nerlens Noel’s paint protection to reclaim the lead. Gay’s six points - on a 3-point play and a long wing make - and Forbes pull-up from distance gave the Spurs the lead early in the second.Despite a cold-shooting quarter by San Antonio, the teams ended it tied at 29. DeMar DeRozan, Patty Mills, and Lyles were the only Spurs who made more than one basket for much of the opening stanza. The Thunder scored 20 of their first 24 points in the paint with Paul, Steven Adams, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander getting whatever shot they desired.Johnson benefited from extended playing time as the game went out-of-reach for San Antonio. In this year’s rookie class, who is further along in their development among Keldon Johnson, Luka Samanic, and OKC undrafted guard Luguentz Dort? Dort started his 14th game for the Thunder tonight.Marco Belinelli entered the game late in the third and Thunder play-by-play Chris Fisher pronounced his name numerous times as “belly-nelly.”.Though I have no way to substantiate this, I suspect Bryn Forbes leads the league in audible expletives after getting scored on or being called for a foul.Though this resulted in a Gay miss from the wing, it’s the little plays like this that matter in the stretch run. Derrick White coyly drew an offensive foul on Terrance Ferguson at the end of the first quarter and gave San Antonio 0.6 seconds of an extra possession.
San Antonio concluded its Rodeo Road Trip 2-6 and was unable to take the season series from Oklahoma City (2-2).