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| Kawhi Leonard shut down Russell Westbrook. He also scored 60 points. |
The Claw would not be stopped in this game, showing off the entire repertoire of skills, vowing to minimize the damage done by Westbrook in Game 3 & Game 4 and avoid it if possible. Leonard did quite well in that regard, sneaking several steals on Westbrook for crowd-pleasing jams down the court.
Leonard dropped 22 points in the opening period, making layups at the rim, drawing fouls, dunking over the Thunder players, only seeming to become angrier once the score stayed close, until the Spurs won the 1st Quarter 40-23. The rest of Kawhi's rise came in the 3rd, the Spurs winning that one 37-25. Leonard made seven 3PTers, dished out 5 assists and had a career-high 10 steals.
In the loss, Carmelo Anthony had 26 points. Westbrook also had 26 points but due to Kawhi, 7 turnovers that proved fatal for OKC. Paul George had 16 points on 6/17 shooting. Steven Adams had 18 points and 10 rebounds. For the Spurs, Patty Mills had 13 points on just 5/19 shooting and Bismack Biyombo corralled 13 rebounds and swatted 3 blocks. After another cold night for Shumpert, Jeremy Lamb had 14 points, driving to the rim and making both of his 3PT attempts. Tony Parker had 8 points, Rudy Gay had 7&7; Kyle O'Quinn controlled 10 rebounds with 2 blocks of his own.
Truthfully, if Leonard hadn't taken charge, the Spurs may have lost this game, heading back to OKC with a 3-2 deficit, due to poor play outside of Kawhi. Luckily, he took charge and now the Spurs can close this game out in Game 6...still two games past their desired point of elimination, but better than the alternative that could've been after the two upsetting and shocking losses in OKC.