The Thunder played with confidence as if they knew it was their time. Until a week ago, the Spurs thought the same.

(Spurs coach Gregg) Popovich denied that then, too. “I can tell you with any championship, we’ve never gone into a playoff thinking, ‘You know, this is our year. We’ve got the team. We can get it done.’?”

Maybe not. But this wasn’t like losing to Memphis a year ago. This time, after years of being short on talent and luck, they were healthy, deep and on the cusp of their fifth Finals. Better yet, two flawed teams were waiting in the east.

“I thought this was our time,” (Tim) Duncan said late Wednesday, “to get back to the Finals and push for another championship.”

via Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News