As many suspected and hoped, the series between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder is going seven games, with the Spurs winning by 27 points.
As many suspected and hoped, the series between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder is going seven games. While not every game has been an instant classic like Game 1, these two teams have traded blows all the way to a seventh game this weekend. Each team would find an advantage, and then the other would react and find their own new advantage.
Back and forth it went, and with their backs on the line in a home elimination game on Thursday evening, the Spurs found an advantage once again and blew out the Thunder. Now, it all comes down to a final contest in Oklahoma City this weekend for a spot in the NBA Finals.
Things were pretty even through one half of basketball between the Spurs and Thunder. San Antonio never trailed, but they couldn’t really put Oklahoma City away for a while. The deficit dropped to about six halfway through the third quarter, which is when San Antonio really turned it on.
They closed the quarter on a 22-4 run to put the Thunder on ice. They ended up winning by 27. Victor Wembanyama, who refused to speak to the media after the tough Game 5 loss, led the way with 28 points after a disappointing outing in the previous game. Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said the team needs to continue to help him “at times” when he’s not “perfect.”
“He’s 22 years old. But his passion and desire for being right where he is, at the forefront of it all, to take the responsibility, the role, and the burden of what he does, I don’t know what else to say. He is comfortable with that regardless of the outcome and what that may look like. That’s maybe his biggest growth this year: not waiting for it to be perfect or to necessarily know what to do all the time, but attack the moment, have the right approach and live with the results,” the coach said.
Wembanyama finished with 28 points (on 10/21 shooting), 10 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and three blocks. He also connected on four of his nine three-point attempts, and he was +17 in the blowout win.
The Thunder got a huge injury boost before Game 6 with Jalen Williams, who’s been in and out of the lineup this playoffs after playing less than half the regular-season games, being active. He was unfortunately not very helpful, though.
Williams played just 10 minutes, but he was -18 in those minutes. He shot just one time and missed, finishing with a single point. His MVP teammate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was also uncharacteristically bad on Thursday. He shot 6/18, missed all five three-point attempts, and was a -28, the worst mark of anyone on the floor.
“He’s obviously not 100%,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “He didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what to expect. So it was a matter of getting him out there in kind of an insulated role and see what he can bring to the team. He’s an All-Star player, he’s an All-NBA player. He hasn’t done a full return to play like he would if this was the regular season.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, who is averaging 24.3 points on 37.9% shooting in the series, struggled again. “A lot of the shots that I’m shooting, I’ve shot plenty of times before and they feel good,” said the MVP. “They’re just not going in. But it’s too late to abandon my work and abandon my game and who I am. This late in the season, I’ve got to trust it and live or die by it.”
