NBA Playoffs 2012: San Antonio Spurs Have No Chance to Come Back Against Thunder

Stick a fork in the San Antonio Spurs. They're done.

After their Game 5 win on the road, there is no way that the young, energetic, explosive (insert adjective here) Oklahoma City Thunder are going to succumb to the older and seemingly gassed Spurs.

Kevin Durant made a mockery of the Spurs' interior defense in the fourth quarter of Game 4, and the momentum hasn't left the Thunder since. He scored 18 of his 36 points in that quarter, converting 5-of-6 buckets in the paint to help the Thunder retain their lead down the stretch.

It appears that Russell Westbrook finally realized that the Zombies are not his squad, and that Durant is the pulse of the entire team. As Durant goes, so go the Thunder, and Durant is going up. The shots he made in that fourth quarter were tough shots amongst the trees down low, and nothing the Spurs did could stop him.

Game 5 was Oklahoma City's to lose, but they refused to back down to a furious Spurs' rally down the stretch. The Spurs gave it all they could in the fourth quarter, but we saw something that we hadn't seen from them all series. Gregg Popovich drew up a play that didn't work, a pin down baseline screen that was supposed to get Manu Ginobili open for a three but failed. That final play was a mess and resulted in a game of hot potato between Ginobili and Tim Duncan at the three-point arc.

Another thing that has contributed to the Spurs' three straight losses is that they don't have a player who can do what Durant can do. Tony Parker, Ginobili and Duncan are all great players, some of the best of this generation, but one of them alone can't take over a game the way that KD35 can.

The Spurs' bench, supposedly the greatest strength of their team, did much more harm than good in Game 5. The reserves had a combined plus/minus ratio of minus-62. Once of the best indications of a game-by-game performance is how many points your team scores compared to how many points the other team scores when a specific player is on the floor.

Their isn't a player on the San Antonio roster who can guard Durant. The only two players who could hang with him for a reasonable amount of time are Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Jackson. And by reasonable amount of time, I mean a total of five minutes. If the Thunder keep feeding the Durantula, they're not going to have any issues advancing to the NBA Finals.

The pieces that the Thunder have up and down their roster are as tailor-made to stop the Spurs as can be found in the NBA. Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka effectively neutralize Duncan and Boris Diaw. Thabo Sefolosha does a great job on Parker (now that Scott Brooks has finally realized that he needs to put his best perimeter defender on Parker). Westbrook and Durant can deal with Leonard and Ginobili.

San Antonio has been off these last three games. It could be that the Spurs are tired, it could be that they're being outplayed over the course of three games or it could just be that the Thunder are the better team.