It was a normally scoring game, but there weren't any special performances during this day. Nonetheless, some players performed well enough to get a spot on this list. That being said, who ranks on the top? Without any further ado, here's the list!
3. Tony Parker
I start off the list with the Spurs' point guard Tony Parker. In a night where his team played poor when all is taken in consideration, the Frenchman found ways to be effective. However, one man cannot do so much as he and his Spurs failed to win on the road after a really long time.
Tony seemed to be in his usual mood: attacking. He led his team in scoring and was pretty solid in all the other categories. He committed many more turnovers than he usually did and didn't have a spectacular performance in a night where he should have stepped up.
Although he wasn't spectacular, he wasn't that bad either. The stats back that up. He ended up with 16 points, dished out four assists, grabbed three boards, committed five turnovers, shot 6-12 from the field, 2-4 from distance and 2-2 from the stripe in 27 minutes of action.
2. Thabo Sefalosha
Unlike the two other members of the list, Thabo Sefalosha isn't a star. In fact, he's a starter on a very deep team that's called to provide superb defense on stars on the perimeter and do some of the little things on the court out there. However, on that night, he did more than that.
Thabo stepped up his game and brought the spark for his Thunder in a night where the usual contributors in Westbrook and Harden couldn't. Although he's not a scorer, he found ways to score a bunch of points. He was also good on the glass and excellent as always on defense.
The stats show his impressive game. He scored 19 points, grabbed six boards, recorded six steals, blocked a shot, dished out an assist, shot 7-16 from the field, 4-10 from the field, 1-1 from the stripe and didn't have any turnovers in 36 minutes of action. From a statistical and overall point of view, this is easily his best performance of the playoffs so far!
1. Kevin Durant
Although this isn't even close to a normal game for a standard of an elite player that Kevin Durant is, he still gets the nod over anyone else in this playoff day with his solid performance. He was the biggest contributor to Thunder's victory over the visiting Spurs.
Kevin didn't take a bunch of shots, but the ones he took, he made the most of them. In a game where the bench also stepped up, he still ended up as the leading scorer. Additionally, he was solid on the glass, in distributing the rock and playing defense as well. From a statistical point of view, he was decent.
Durant scored 22 points, pulled down six boards, dished out five assists, recorded a steal, committed three turnovers, shot 8-17 from the field, 0-4 from distance and 6-6 from the charity in 38 minutes of action. So overall it wasn't a bad neither a spectacular performance, but it was enough for OKC as they got the win.
Darko Mihajlovski is a columnist at FootBasket. He also contributes to Hoops-Nation. You can read more about him at our Staff page.
