Tim Duncan's San Antonio Spurs Destroy Oklahoma City Thunder in Series Opener

The San Antonio Spurs seem to age and age, yet they get no worse. This was, and still is supposed to be the Oklahoma City Thunder's year, and their chance to get one over on the Spurs, and quite possibly the Miami Heat, but they've got an awful lot of work to do if that's the case. The Spurs from start to finish absolutely destroyed the Thunder, not only winning game 1, but perhaps stripping their confidence away, too.

Tim Duncan scored 27 points as his side beat the Thunder 122-105, giving them the 1-0 advantage in the Western Conference finals. Although veteran Tony Parker has had a hamstring injury it played no part, with him scoring 14 points and dishing out 12 assists in 36 minutes. Parker explained their plans, saying "We always want to try to penetrate. We always want our ball movement, that's how we play - kick and pitch and stuff like that. You know, obviously it's a little bit better with (Ibaka) not being in the paint, but we're still going to try to penetrate and make stuff happen.''

Thunder coach Scott Brooks was in no mood to make excuses: He explained "We're a no-excuse team. Serge is out. He's not coming back. We have to play better. We have to play better. If we expect to beat one of the best teams in basketball, and a very good offensive team, we have to play and we're not going to make an excuse.''

Kevin Durant and his Thunder side are more than capable of winning games to make this a competitive series, but has this damaging defeat cost them more than the opening game of the series, or will they show the resolve of champions and bounce back stronger than ever before?