Thunder Made the Spurs Rust

The Oklahoma City Thunder locked a spot in the 2012 NBA Finals by knocking out the San Antonio Spurs 107-99 in Game 6 of the series.  The Thunder ultimately won the series 4-2, after the Spurs took the first two games, by growing up before our very eyes.  The Spurs were the favorite going into the series as the number one seed in the West and winning the first two games of the series.  The Spurs Big Three of Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Tim Duncan started the series looking like the young champions they were in 2003.  But, as the series continued, the age of the Spurs’ Big Three caught up with them and the Thunder’s baby-faced stars – Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden – started shaving.  The Thunder’s stars are only in their early twenties (oddly the age of Tim Duncan when he won his first title in 1999) and naturally needed to get their feet wet at the beginning of the series in order to get over their fears of diving in.  The Thunder didn’t fall into a rhythm un...