Game Recap: Spurs Second Half Collapse Leads To Warriors 97-87 Win, Series Tied 2-2

May 12, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Detail view of confetti and the video ribbon after game four of the second round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs between the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Spurs 97-87 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Golden Shower

— Gregory Popovich (@FakeCoachPop) May 12, 2013

Where to begin? Well, if you had the San Antonio Spurs winning this series in 5 games, then tonight was definitely not your night.

There was no Mother’s Day Miracle in Oakland this afternoon. Just a lot of ugly basketball, that ended with the Golden State Warriors winning in overtime, 97-87.

The game was a tale of two halves. The Spurs failed to capitalize on the Warriors early foul trouble, but had a comfortable 45-37 lead at halftime, thanks to 14 points from both Duncan and Ginobili.

In the second half, Golden State seemed to find their offensive rhythm, while San Antonio struggled (again) to keep the Warriors off the offensive glass. Despite the poor all-around shooting by the Spurs, and a missed call on Bogut stepping out of bounds that wasn’t reviewed, San Antonio got another 5 minutes to pull off the upset in Oracle Arena.

And that’s when everything the Spurs did, crashed and burned into one gigantic clusterf***.

San Antonio shot 10% in overtime; the lone basket coming on a Danny Green 3-pointer with 1:29 left in the overtime period, and the outcome nearly already decided. The most telling sequence of the Spurs entire night came in 19-second span at the 3-minute mark. Straight from NBA.com’s Game Book:

03:22 MISS Leonard 23′ 3PT Jump Shot03:21 Green REBOUND03:21 MISS Green 1′ Tip Shot03:21 Green REBOUND03:21 Thompson SHOOTING FOUL (5th personal. Team 3rd)03:21 MISS Green Free Throw 1 of 203:21 MISS Green Free Throw 2 of 203:20 Duncan REBOUND03:12 MISS Parker 27′ 3PT Jump Shot03:10 Leonard REBOUND03:10 MISS Leonard Layup03:08 Leonard REBOUND03:06 Thompson STEAL Leonard Bad Pass Turnover #1103:03 Green PERSONAL FOUL (1st personal. Team 2nd)

That sums up everything perfectly.

Now the series shifts back to San Antonio for Game 5. Two wins needed to advance and three games left to get it done. It’s obvious the Spurs had nothing left in the tank about halfway through the fourth quarter. Let’s just hope that the Spurs take advantage of the 51 hours of rest they’ll get before Game 5, because the 36 hour layoff before Game 4 wasn’t nearly enough.

Game Notes

• I’m going to assume everyone here played some form of competitive basketball. Remember practicing free throws? For each miss, you ran a lap around the gym. Maybe Popovich should consider doing that with these guys. The Spurs were a 79% shooting team from the free throw line during the regular season. In this series, they’re shooting 69%. It’s like Shaquille O’Neal is giving free throw lessons out here.
• In our keys to victory today, I mentioned that the Spurs had to limit Golden State’s offensive rebounds to prevent so many second chance opportunities. Well the Warriors still managed to pull down 19 offensive rebounds (the Spurs had 15, five of which came in that 19 second stretch of overtime), but managed to keep the Warriors to only 16 second chance points (5-of-19 on second chance opportunities).
• Despite the horrid shooting, there were some positives in the turnover category. Golden State turned 12 Spurs turnovers into only 5 points, while the Spurs turned 18 Warriors turnovers into 18 points. Sadly none of those Warriors turnovers happened in the overtime period.

Some telling statistics from our favorite Twitter peeps to show how putrid the Spurs offense was, especially in the last half of the fourth and in overtime:

Spurs missed 14 of their last 16 shots.

— Dan McCarney (@danmccarneysaen) May 12, 2013

Today was the first time the Spurs have gone <= 36 FG%, <= 26 3FG%, <= 56 FT% since a loss to the Supersonics ….. in 1997.

— Matthew R Tynan (@Matthew_Tynan) May 13, 2013

Is…is that good? RT @espnstatsinfo: The Spurs shot 16% from the field in the final 9:40 of the game

— John (@JohnxDiaz) May 12, 2013