The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the San Antonio Spurs 123-108 on Friday night, taking a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference finals. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and 12 assists for Oklahoma City. The Thunder overcame an early 15-point deficit to secure the win.
OKC’s Bench Proves Decisive
Oklahoma City’s bench outscored San Antonio’s 76-23. Alex Caruso contributed 15 points off the bench for the Thunder. Jared McCain added 24 points and Jaylin Williams had 18 for Oklahoma City.
The Thunder played without Jalen Williams, who was sidelined with left hamstring soreness.
Wembanyama Reflects on Loss
Victor Wembanyama scored 26 points for San Antonio. Devin Vassell added 20 points, and De’Aaron Fox scored 15 in his series debut. Wembanyama’s 26 points came in 39 minutes; during that time, the Spurs outscored the Thunder by four points.
However, the Thunder outscored the Spurs by 19 in the other nine minutes. Wembanyama acknowledged the need for personal improvement. “I have trouble making my teammates better right now,” Wembanyama said. “I should do better. My shooting splits aren’t terrible. I need to be more of a team player.” He added, “Facilitate better, rebound the ball better. Push their defense a little bit more, to fight further and see how much they’re willing to help off of my teammates and feed them.”
Spurs’ Hot Start Fades
The Spurs started strong, racing to a 15-0 lead. This was the longest run to open a game in the conference finals since the play-by-play era began in 1997. However, they were then outscored by 30 the rest of the way.
Emotions Flare as Series Heats Up
The series continued to be chippy, with emotions running high early in the second half. Stephon Castle went to ground on back-to-back dunk attempts. The second incident resulted in a flagrant 1 foul against Ajay Mitchell and technical fouls on Mitchell and Vassell after the two exchanged words following the foul.
“We just went out there and competed,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They obviously jumped on us early. First game in their building, their crowd behind them, they were excited to play. We just wanted to make sure we competed from that point on. We obviously didn’t give our best effort to start that game, but can’t do nothing about it. It’s behind us. All we can do is focus on the next possession, and we did that.”
For the first time since Wembanyama joined San Antonio, the Spurs are trailing in a playoff series. “It’s my first playoffs. It was the first playoffs for many of us,” the 22-year-old French phenom said. “Of course, there was going to be hard trials. It is to be expected. But now, we’re going to see what we’re made of.”