San Antonio Spurs Must Stop Beating Themselves to Salvage Series vs. OKC Thunder

Before the San Antonio Spurs even think about climbing out of the 3-2 series hole they dug against the Oklahoma City Thunder, they must first push back against a more pressing opponent.

Themselves.

The Thunder, to be sure, did plenty to overwhelm the Spurs during their 95-91 Game 5 victory on Tuesday.

Russell Westbrook rallied after a tumultuous first-half performance, tallying 21 points, nine rebounds and six assists through the final two frames. He flirted with yet another triple-double in the end, leaving AT&T Center with 35 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. San Antonio had no answer for his probing drives, and he, for the most part, made the Spurs pay whenever they went under him on screens.

Kevin Durant has seen more efficient outings (8-of-21 shooting, five turnovers), but he partnered his 23 points with six rebounds, five assists, two steals, one block and, most importantly, exhausting situational defense on Kawhi Leonard.

Steven Adams came up huge for Oklahoma City as well. He pestered the Spurs on defense, dominated the glass on both ends (11 boards) and destroyed San Antonio's bigs with his crafty touch around the basket.

This was nevertheless a winnable game for the Spurs. In fact, it was one they should have won.

It was them, not the Thunder, who built a 13-point lead midway through the third quarter. Danny Green drilled six of his nine three-point attempts. Leonard, despite facing impossibly suffocating defenders, powered and patrolled his way to 26 points, six rebounds, five steals and four assists.

But just as they did at the end of Games 2 and 4, the Spurs wilted down the stretch, beating themselves in very un-Spurs-like fashion, as Seth Partnow of Nylon Calculus noted:

"

Just a lot of mental errors you don't expect from the Spurs. Losing track of shot clock. Not playing to whistle. Bad gambles defensively.

— Seth Partnow (@SethPartnow) May 11, 2016"

Scoring droughts punctuated the second half. San Antonio shot 6-of-21 in the fourth quarter alone. LaMarcus Aldridge couldn't buy a basket, also finishing 6-of-21 from the field.

Someone else, aside from Leonard, needed to come through in the clutch. And they didn't.

That's the story for the Spurs since Game 1. They can't, as ESPN.com's Zach Lowe deftly described, piece together a complete performance for a full 48 minutes:

Ball movement devolves into lethargy. They hesitate, then waffle some more, abandoning the identity for which they're best known, as SB Nation's Pounding The Rock explained:

When the Spurs do find their systemic mojo, it's short-lived. They followed up 12 assists on 21 made shots during the first half of Game 5 with seven assists on 14 makes in the second half.

Many of these stylistic struggles are a credit to Oklahoma City's defense, which is enjoying inspired efforts from just about everyone, including, at times, Enes Kanter and Dion Waiters. (Seriously.) But San Antonio is more often making it too easy.

Heading into Tuesday night, the Spurs were shooting under 43 percent on wide-open looks against the Thunder, including just over 32 percent on uncontested triples, since Game 1. And they weren't much better in Game 5.

Fourth-quarter meltdowns are becoming commonplace. San Antonio is barely shooting 35 percent in the final period for the series, and Oklahoma City has responded with a 50-plus percent clip and point differential that, as CBS Sports' Matt Moore highlighted, will likely be keeping Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich up at night:

"

The Thunder have outscored the Spurs by 31 points in the fourth quarter over five games.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 11, 2016"

Indeed, certain aspects of this 3-2 deficit are beyond San Antonio's control.

Durant is shooting 50 percent on contested and heavily contested looks. The Thunder, as a team, are seeing their prayers answered late in the shot clock—particularly Westbrook:

There is also no denying the referees have missed some pivotal calls. Game 2 ended in a blaze of miscues, and Leonard's intentional foul on Westbrook, with San Antonio trailing by one, went unnoticed at the end of Game 5:

The Spurs are a call or two, a bounce or two, from being in control of this series. And while that's of little consolation, this second-round battle isn't yet over, as Popovich is quick to point out, per the Oklahoman's Anthony Slater:

But now San Antonio has to win two straight against a Thunder contingent that smells blood, starting with Game 6 in Oklahoma City on Thursday. That's a tall order for any team, let alone one playing some of its most puzzling and unsettling basketball of the season.

More than one or two of Aldridge, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Green, Leonard and Tony Parker must play up to snuff in any given game. Duncan specifically needs to find his touch around the basket, lest Popovich be forced to bench him and lose the defensive value he still holds.

Oklahoma City cannot maintain control of the rebounding narrative. San Antonio has to get more from its reserves, who shot only 5-of-18 from the field in Game 5. And the Spurs cannot allow the Thunder to record more turnovers than assists and still win, as they have twice this season. 

They can't allow the Thunder to win again, period. 

Squads that hold 3-2 leads in best-of-seven sets advance 85 percent of the time, according to WhoWins.com. The Spurs are perennial exceptions to the rules and statistics, but this 67-regular-season-win team won't reach the Western Conference Finals playing like this—as a fractured and unrecognizable version of themselves that, as of now, is more of a threat to their postseason survival than even the Thunder.

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @danfavale.