Spurs vs. Rockets in Western Conference finals begins Sunday

The Spurs will have to win in Houston for the second time this series to avoid a Game 7 in San Antonio.

Some fans thought the San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors would be the inevitable Western Conference championship matchup anyway. San Antonio continued to sizzle, leading by as many as 42 points in the second half.

Houston, which relied on its 3-point shooting to get this far, couldn’t make shots from long-range going 13 of 40. It’s pretty much a pupil, teacher relationship dating back to Kerr’s playing days with San Antonio under Pop.

National Basketball Association fans will finally get the matchup they’ve been clamoring for since the Warriors became a league power when Golden State clashes with the San Antonio Spurs starting Sunday in Oakland.

And those images will linger for some time.

Harden finished with 10 points on two-of-11 shooting with seven assists and six turnovers. Coach Mike D’Antoni added Sam Dekker to the rotation after being criticized for not adding anyone to the rotation Tuesday in the first game since Nene suffered a season-ending thigh injury.

Since then, Lil B has taken credit for all of Harden’s playoff missteps. But he insisted that he’s fine and will be ready to go on Thursday.

“It’s frustrating definitely”, he said. Now, as James, Durant and their teammates wait on the next opponent for the respective conference finals, the world is watching as they move their unblemished, 8-0 teams ever closer to an anticipated Cavs-Warriors rematch that might finally come to fruition at last in a matter of weeks. Three of these players started against the Rockets.

But despite all of those accolades, and the obvious advantages he brings to this team (especially the over-25 points per game), you wouldn’t have known the Spurs were missing anyone during their game six demolition of the Rockets.

Despite the uninspiring performance, general manager Daryl Morey said that Harden’s struggles on Thursday night shouldn’t negate what he accomplished this season. “So I was willing to take some contested shots tonight and got into my rhythm early”. “The guy that’s hardest on James is James”.

That will be a task for Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey, who did a brilliant job last summer in hiring D’Antoni and then building a team that fit his vision – including a pair of questionable signings in Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson that proved to be flawless fits. He still seemed stunned by what transpired and used the word “shell-shocked” three separate times on Friday. “I don’t know what happened”.

He and MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard will go head-to-head, with the latter dealing with an ankle injury that kept him out of the series-clinching Game 6 victory over the Rockets.

On the other hand, the Spurs is said to be proving their skill in adapting to drastic gameplay changes as a team since ESPN has noted that stats show the Spurs has won five out of five games where key players Leonard and Parker are not present. It was also the fewest points he had scored in a playoff game since the 2012 NBA Finals when he came off the bench for the Thunder.

“I’ve got nothing negative at all to say”, D’Antoni said. They can shut down an opposing team with the way that they rotate and help out. “They’ve beaten everybody. but yeah, it hurts”. The offense will get better. “Maybe he does need to take a game off here and there”.

“Mikey has done a great job”, Popovich said when he chose to get serious.