Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs have won 18 consecutive games. Will the Thunder challenge them?/AP

18 wins in a row. The San Antonio Spurs are rolling.

Unbeaten in this year’s NBA playoffs, the Spurs swept the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers to reach the Western Conference finals. They’ve been unstoppable.

They haven’t been tested, either, but that’s all about to change Sunday.

Here come the Thunder. The Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Spurs have the best team, but the Thunder have the two best players in the series in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year in James Harden.

So make no mistake. The Spurs will lose a game in this series, but will they lose the series?

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San Antonio's Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich may be the NBA's best point guard-coach duo./AP Photo

The debate is finally going to be settled where it should be settled – on the court.

Chris Paul and Tony Parker are considered two of the top five point guards in the NBA along with Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook and Rajon Rondo.

Some say they’re the top two. They’re generals in their own way.

Paul leads and motivates the Los Angeles Clippers with an iron hand, is the mayor of Lob City and closes games with great decision making and precision.

Parker leads and motivates the San Antonio Spurs with flair and creativity, gets to the rim at will and leads an offense that is arguably the most potent in the NBA.

The question is which one will do more to help their team get one step closer to the NBA Finals?

Will that ultimately determine who’s better? No, but people can use the results of this series as a barometer to pick one over the other.

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Get it out of here.

After turning the ball over, former Erie BayHawks forward Ivan Johnson swatted away a dunk attempt by Nick Young of the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night.

Johnson has become a key reserve for the Atlanta Hawks as they head into the NBA playoffs.

Point guard Mike James played three games for the Erie BayHawks before the Chicago Bulls signed him last month. The Bulls needed a point guard because Derrick Rose was out with a toe injury.

James returned to the BayHawks and has played two games with the latter being Monday night when the Los Angeles Clippers lost Chauncey Billups to a season-ending injury as he tore his Achilles tendon against the Orlando Magic.

So now the Clippers need a backup point guard.

Wouldn’t be surprised if James, a 10-year NBA veteran, got the call as NBA teams could begin to sign players to 10-day contracts Monday. James averaging 24 points and 6.5 assists in his last two games with Erie, which both ended in blowout losses to the Los Angeles D-Fenders in El Segundo, Calif.

When the Los Angeles Clippers did their pregame intros for their home opener, they had to know Mo Williams was in uniform and Chauncey Billups wasn’t.

They had to know Williams wears a headband and Billups doesn’t.

They had to know Williams has hair and Billups shaves his.

So how in the world did they get the two mixed up?

Donald Sloan tries to strip Charlotte rook Kemba Walker in Monday's preseason game./AP Photo.

Check out these articles about how current and former Erie BayHawks are doing:

Hawks blog (Atlanta Journal Constitution) – BayHawks point guard Donald Sloan was described as struggling to stop Charlotte’s D.J. Augustin in Monday night’s preseason game, but settled down later in the game.

Peachtree hoops – Former BayHawks PF Ivan Johnson had the best game of the Atlanta newcomers in Monday’s preseason game at Charlotte according to Kris Willis.

Cleveland Plain-Dealer – BayHawks  SF Mychel Thompson hopes to play for the Cavaliers in tonight’s preseason game against the Detroit Pistons at Quicken Loans Arena.

In other news, BayHawks 7-footer Chris Daniels didn’t play for the Los Angeles Lakers in Monday’s preseason game against the Los Angeles Clippers. … Former BayHawk Blake Ahearn is back with the Reno Bighorns after being waived by the Clippers. … The Denver Nuggets have a preseason game tonight against Phoenix. BayHawks SG Cory Higgins is with the Nuggets.

Garrett Temple (41) has been with Milwaukee since late last month.

In what may be his last game with the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, Garrett Temple didn’t score, but that may not matter in terms of him sticking with them.

Temple, 24, remembered last year when he didn’t play as well as he thought and still stuck with an NBA team.

“Sometimes you play well and they just don’t need you,” Temple said. ” They just try to save money or sometimes you play as well as you think you could have, but they still want you.”

This season, Temple went from the Erie BayHawks to the Milwaukee Bucks and has signed two 10-day contracts. In nine games with the Bucks, Temple averaged just 1.8 points.

If Milwaukee wants to keep him, it must sign him for the remainder of the season.

Before Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers, I talked with Temple about his time in Milwaukee, his experience with 10-day contracts and how the Erie BayHawks have fared without him.

How has your experience been with Milwaukee? “It’s been a great experience. Anytime you get a chance live your dream to be in the NBA, it’s always much appreciated. I just feel very blessed to have this opportunity. I got a lot of great veteran guys here that I’ve actually gotten close to.  Keyon Dooling. Corey Maggette. Earl Boykins. They got a good mix of young guys and old guys. Brandon (Jennings). CDR (Chris Douglas-Roberts), Larry Sanders, (Andrew) Bogut, guys that I can really relate to. I like the group. I like the coaching staff. Wish we could get some more wins and hopefully turn this thing around.”

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First-round pick Ivan Johnson gives the Erie BayHawks an inside scoring presence.

The Erie BayHawks enter their third training camp with a new coach in Jay Larranaga, who approached the 2010 D-League Draft with three main objectives:

1. Get bigs.

2. Get guards who can shoot and exude toughness

3. Get guys who aren’t coming straight out of college.

After Monday’s draft, Larranaga feels as if he accomplished those goals in the eight-round draft. That remains to be seen, but for now, let’s take a look at who he picked.

1. Ivan Johnson (6-8, 230, PF, Ca. St.-San Bernadino). He played 45 games in the D-League and averaged 13.9 points and 6.7 rebounds in 2007-08. Big guy. Inside presence, but while playing overseas in Korea this past season, he got kicked out of a pro league for swearing and delivering an obscene gesture to a referee. Now apparently it was the final game of a championship series his team lost, but you can look at this two ways. One, that’s poor sportsmanship, but two, his team was in the championship series and I’m sure he had something to do with that, too. What Erie is getting is a guy who at age 26 is likely making his last push to get in the NBA. So he should be driven.

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Mike Gansey averaged 15.6 points in his last three games with the D-League Select team in NBA Summer League play in Las Vegas.

Erie BayHawks guard Mike Gansey reached double figures in his last three games with the D-League Select team in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, NV.

Playing 38 minutes, Gansey had 15 points and 10 rebounds in the D-League Select’s 79-78 win Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers. Mark Tyndale of the Iowa Energy hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The D-League Select team finished 1-4 in its games against NBA teams using their summer league rosters.

Gansey averaged 12.8 points and shot 55 percent (11-of-20) from 3-point range in the five games. He scored a summer-league high 17 points in a 101-85 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies after scoring a summer-league low two points against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Gansey is from the Cleveland area.

As for the Cavaliers, who are an NBA affiliate of the BayHawks along with the Toronto Raptors, their second-year forward, Danny Green, averaged 12.8 points in his four summer-league games with Cleveland. Green had a summer-league best 17 points against the Miami Heat.

Green is eligible to play for the BayHawks this season as NBA teams can send down their first or second-year players down to play for the D-League team they’re affiliated with.

Latavious Williams became the first player to go from high school to the D-League to the NBA. Has he started a trend?

1. D-League rookie power forward Latavious Williams was drafted by the Miami Heat in the second round, but was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The move makes sense because the Thunder are Tulsa’s lone NBA affiliate as they own the D-League franchise. The 6-8 Williams was set to go to Memphis coming out of high school, but didn’t qualify academically.

 So after failed attempts to go overseas, Williams went to the D-League where he was a first-round pick in 2009. Since his high school graduating class has been out of school a year, Williams became eligible for the NBA Draft.

In the D-League this past season, he averaged 7.7 points and shot 52.8 percent from the field in 47 regular-season games for the 66ers. In eight playoff games, Williams put up 11.3 points a game and shot 6.12 percent from the field. 

2. The Los Angeles Clippers drafted forward Al-Farouq-Aminu with the eighth overall pick. The Wake Forest star is the younger brother of Alade Aminu, who was a D-League rookie All-Star this past season.

Alade played for the Erie BayHawks before being traded to Bakersfield for guard Blake Ahearn. Aminu finished his season in the NBA with the Miami Heat.