Oh. It's the halftime score that "renders the game over,"
Yes, clearly that's it. Not the fact that I pointed out that Pop basically conceded the game midway through the third quarter (not halftime) with the 27-point deficit by pulling his starters...
And obviously a better bench and a better system are an advantage. That has nothing to do with anything I said, though. Great, the better system means they eventually lose by a more respectable 13 and 9 instead of 30. They're still losing and they were still getting blown out in those games before garbage time.
None of these games were close, regardless of the final score. The Spurs ran the Thunder out of the building in Games 1, 2, and 5 and the Thunder returned the favor in Games 3 and 4.
If you don't consider +80 any more impressive than +21 then how do you expect me to argue with you? Any game is a complete crap-shoot!
"They won by 30, that's a routing!"
"They won by 15, that's a routing!"
Still a routing all the same. Doesn't mean anything significant to me.
Don't focus as much on the similarities -- look more at the difference between the two.
As I said, the only difference I can see between the two is that San Antonio has a better system, so they can still use their bench to make runs when a game has been conceded. This isn't news to me, though, and it shouldn't be to anyone who knows the Spurs and the Thunder, as I assume you both do.
