Shai Gilgeous-Alexander recorded 26 points and 12 assists as the Oklahoma City Thunder overcame an early 15-point deficit to defeat the host San Antonio Spurs 123-108 on Friday night, seizing a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
Thunder's Bench Dominates
Oklahoma City's bench outscored San Antonio's reserves 76-23, with Alex Caruso contributing 15 points. Victor Wembanyama led the Spurs with 26 points, while Devin Vassell added 20 and De'Aaron Fox chipped in 15 in his series debut.
This marks the first time since Wembanyama joined San Antonio that the Spurs trail in a playoff series, following two consecutive losses after winning Game 1 in double overtime.
“It’s my first playoffs. It was the first playoffs for many of us,” said the 22-year-old French star. “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.”
Wembanyama's Self-Critique
Wembanyama played 39 minutes, during which the Spurs outscored the Thunder by four points. However, in the other nine minutes, the Thunder outscored the Spurs by 19. Despite his scoring, Wembanyama finished with only four rebounds and three assists, leading him to criticize his own performance.
“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.” When asked what that entails, he replied, “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.”
Jared McCain scored 24 points and Jaylin Williams added 18 for Oklahoma City, who were without Jalen Williams due to left hamstring soreness.
“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.”
The Spurs opened with a 15-0 run, the longest to start a conference finals game since the play-by-play era began in 1997, but were outscored by 30 the rest of the way.
The series remained physical, with emotions boiling over early in the second half. Stephon Castle hit the court on consecutive dunk attempts, the second resulting in a flagrant 1 foul on Ajay Mitchell and technical fouls on Mitchell and Devin Vassell after an exchange of words.
