The Oklahoma City Thunder is a great, young talented team with three of the league's most dynamic scorers in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. They have the league's best shot blocker in Serge Ibaka and the league's top scorer in Durant. They also have a veteran championship presence with Derek Fisher, Kendrick Perkins and Nazr Mohammed. So far in the playoffs, they've defeated two talented teams in the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers. BUT, those two teams proved to be inadequate in their challenge of the Thunder due to their lack of playmakers and their limited offensive attack: two problems that the San Antonio Spurs simply to not suffer from.

Bottom line: the Spurs will defeat the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals because the Spurs have too many threats on the offensive side of the ball, and the Thunder have no answer for Tim Duncan.

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Truth is a slippery fish. We have a strong desire to pin things down with understandable chunks of information. We want to give things a name to neatly define what they are. But things are complicated. We may not like it, but that's just the way the world is. Why is Europe's economy on the brink? Why did my girlfriend dump me? Why do Adam Sandler movies do so well at the box office? These important questions all require rather complex answers, but we usually feel much more comfortable with simple answers, smoking guns.

Why are the Spurs so good? I have read plenty of smoking guns on that one. It seems that lately everyone has their pet theory. Like any overly-simplified answer, there is an element of truth in each of them, but there really is no easy answer to that question. Like most really good things, the Spurs are kind of complicated.

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The Ultimate Playoffs (of Ultimate Destiny)

Leaving the first round behind, we now turn to a new set of match-ups as battle-hardened contenders struggle to make their marks upon the pages of history.

And for those who missed anything:

• The back-story for each team and the beginning of half the battles
• The introduction to the rest of the battles
• The resolution of Heat/Knicks & Pacers/Magic
• The conclusion of Thunder/Mavericks & Spurs/Jazz
• The termination of Lakers/Nuggets & Sixers/Bulls
• The culmination of Celtics/Hawks & Clippers/Grizzlies

Survivor Series ground rules: I chose a different group from literature, cinema or pop culture for every playoff team, based on the qualities inherent to that team, and now I'm bending genres to create a single, unified story woven together from these fictitious groups battling it out at the same time the NBA teams they mirror are competing. The playoff results will dictate the plot of each story, and I'll continue this until the champion is crowned, and the characters representing that team will be the last to survive.

And now, on to the Second Round

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With the Spurs steam-rolling opponents by playing fantastic team basketball, individual performances are sometimes overlooked, especially underwhelming ones. When a team operates at such a high level, it's OK to do so, since it's clear that the whole is better than the sum of its parts and everyone is contributing enough for the team to win.

Role players in particular get excused because match-ups determine how big an impact they have, while stars are supposed to rise above that and contribute consistently. Tony Parker was amazing in the first round, and while his production dropped, he still won his match-up in the second. Tim Duncan has been consistently the best big man in both rounds of the playoffs, gifting us with some throwback performances. The only part of the Big Three that hasn't shined yet is Manu Ginobili.

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The Conference Finals showdown between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs gets underway Sunday evening. It's a power packed series with almost everything a basketball fan could ask for - two Conference foes with explosive offenses and tough defenses, loaded with clutch, play making All-Star (and Hall of Fame) talent. The only thing missing is bad blood.

But does that mean a rivalry can't exist between these two teams?

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So, as all of you know by now, the Spurs' opponent in the Western Conference Finals will be the Oklahoma City Thunder. And while the matchup has been relatively one sided in recent years(8-2 in favor of the Spurs), our frenemies from the wrong side of the Red River will likely prove to be an extremely formidable oppenent. This is going to be a much tougher series than the Spurs had in the previous two rounds, so let's talk about some of the things the Spurs need to do in order to get back to the NBA Finals.

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The Spurs long ago earned their reputation as a defensive juggernaut under the stern eye of Gregg Popovich. David Robinson and Tim Duncan formed the awe-inspiring Twin Towers that proved championship-worthy in 1999. Bruce Bowen's stint in silver and black solidified him as the premier perimeter defender in the league and one of the best of all time, and he set the tone on that end of the court for the 2003, 2005, and 2007 NBA Champion Spurs teams, while perennial All-NBA defender Duncan backed him up in the paint. But Bowen last took the court for San Antonio on April 28, 2009, and the team has struggled to find a defensive identity since. Until 2012.

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