Thunder vs. Spurs: San Antonio Exposes Oklahoma City's Biggest Flaw in Game 1

The Oklahoma City Thunder are an extraordinarily talented team. They have what may very well be the most lethal offensive trio in the NBA in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. They have the league's premier shot blocker in Serge Ibaka. They have arguably the best low post defender in the game in Kendrick Perkins.

So, what is the problem with the Thunder?

Oh, yeah: they have absolutely no low post threat, and that was on full display in their 101-98 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Sunday night.

Going into the fourth quarter, Oklahoma City had a nine-point lead. It was playing furious defense, clearly flustering the normally cool and collected Spurs. The Thunder forced 14 San Antonio turnovers in the first half, an amount unheard of for Gregg Popovich's squad. Everything was looking good for Durant and the boys.

Then Popovich delivered his now famous "nasty" speech, and the Spurs went off.

San Antonio outscored Oklahoma City 39-27 in the final period, as the Thunder struggled to find any kind of consistent offensive rhythm. The fact that they scored 27 points is misleading, as they knocked down three desperate three-pointers in garbage time (one by Harden as time expired). If you were watching the game, you would know that Oklahoma City looked clueless.

As incredible as Durant, Westbrook and Harden are, when they aren't getting out in transition, they have to hit their jumpers to win games. Can they get to the basket? Absolutely, but the Spurs' defense did not allow them to get any good looks, harassing the Thunder with the kind of ferocity we haven't seen from the San Antonio D since it last won the championship in 2007.

It certainly would have helped OKC to have a reliable big man to dump the ball to in the post, but it did not have such a player, and it won't for the remainder of the playoffs.

This is an issue that I mentioned at the very beginning of the season when I questioned whether or not the Thunder had what it took to win a championship. As talented as they are, they are lacking a crucial ingredient. The only team I can think of that won a title without a low post scorer is Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, and Jordan isn't walking through that door in Oklahoma City.

The Spurs have that crucial ingredient. Yes, Tim Duncan may be old, but he can still get the job done down low, as seen in Game 1. He wasn't dominant, but he was able to come up with a couple of big buckets in the post when San Antonio needed it.

When the Thunder needed to score, they had to depend on threes and pull-up jumpers, and those shots weren't falling until the final two minutes when the game was already well in hand for the Spurs.

This problem is not going to go away. It is going to persist for the remainder of this series, and unless Oklahoma City can get out on the break and score in transition, it is not going to beat San Antonio.

The scariest thing for the Thunder? The Spurs did not even play all that well in Game 1.