The San Antonio Spurs are facing elimination on Thursday night and are well aware that they will need to be in control of the entire game if they want to stay alive.
The San Antonio Spurs are 48 minutes away from having their season come to an end. They are also 48 minutes away from getting one last shot to return to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014.
The Spurs are down 3-2 to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio entered the series as narrow underdogs, and so far, everything has gone pretty much as expected. The Spurs' season exceeded expectations, but only two wins away from the Finals, losing on Thursday simply isn't good enough.
The Spurs know that they can't allow themselves to be outmatched, outplayed, or outhustled in Game 6, and are looking to make the correct, simple plays all game long. In short, the Thunder will have to beat the Spurs; they won't beat themselves.
Spurs Reveal Mindset Before Game 6
Both fans and players are well aware that Game 5 was called one-sided by the officials, but the team knows that they can't use that as an excuse. Allowing the Thunder to draw foul after foul is a way for the Spurs to beat themselves, and with the season on the line, they can't afford that.
"The overly physical stuff, if you give the ref the opportunity to call it and now someone gets free throws and didn't really have to work to get to that or get us in a spot where we were at a disadvantage, you know, that's where numbers can get big for giving up points in a quarter," said Mitch Johnson.
"I think both teams are very physical. I think we both try to impose our wills on the game in that physicality stage," agreed Dylan Harper. "I don't think every game will be called perfectly. I think that we've just got to kind of fight through that and just understand what we're going up against, kind of understand the ebbs and flows of the game, and just not get down on things we can't control."
While the Thunder might get the benefit of a friendly whistle, the Spurs need to create advantages elsewhere. 3-point shooting, up-tempo play, and smothering defense are all on the table.
"There are a lot of things all over the place where even when we had advantages, we just didn't make simple plays that take advantage of the opportunity in that possession," said Johnson of the Game 5 effort. "And in this type of game, you got to be sure of everything you're doing in a very secure, mature way."
The Spurs have made it clear that nothing beyond Game 6 matters, and they will look to prolong their season in front of their home fans.
