OKLAHOMA, MAY 13 : If this was Tim Duncan's final game, he went out on his shield. His Spurs were flushed out of the NBA Playoffs by a hungry Thunder team on Thursday night, 113-99, despite a throwback 19-point performance from the future Hall of Famer. San Antonio suffered through a lethargic second quarter and scored only 31 points in the first half -- its lowest halftime output of the season. That hole was ultimately too deep for San Antonio to climb out of in Thursday's season-ending loss.
That early slump couldn't have come at a worse time. Oklahoma City, feeding off a frenzied home crowd in Game 6, shot its way into the Western Conference Finals behind 37 points from Kevin Durant, 28 from Russell Westbrook, and a surprising 14-point showing from Andre Roberson. Duncan finished his 2015-16 season with 19 points on 7-14 shooting and five rebounds in 34 minutes. Kawhi Leonard led the Spurs with 22 points in defeat.
San Antonio started the game hot and built a 19-13 lead midway through the first quarter, but Gregg Popovich's first shift change of the night gave the Thunder all the latitude they needed to start bullying the Spurs. A 12-0 run closed out the first quarter with Oklahoma City up 25-19, and the game would never be that close again.
The Spurs couldn't buy a bucket in the first half, shooting barely 31 percent from the field as their jumpers clanged off the rim and into the hands of OKC's big men. Durant's dagger three with two seconds remaining in the second quarter made it 55-31 Thunder as the two teams headed to the locker room.
San Antonio, behind a rested Duncan, chipped away at that lead in the second half. After a back-and-forth third quarter, the Spurs opened the fourth with a 19-6 run that had Thunder coach Billy Donovan burning multiple timeouts to deflate the visiting team's comeback chances. The veteran Spurs cut the lead down to 11 with three minutes remaining but never clawed any closer than that.