San Antonio rode a stout defense and guaranteed at least one more WCF game at the Frost Bank Center.
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama wanted the ball for the final couple seconds of the first half. He got it, 65 feet from the basket.
He had three Oklahoma City defenders in front of him. He took three dribbles. He got three points.
And he made it look easy, too.
A swished 3-pointer from the midcourt stripe to close the first half brought maybe the loudest roars of his night, but it was hardly the only moment in which Wembanyama was unstoppable in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Sunday.
He got most of the fourth quarter off and still finished with 33 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots as the Spurs beat the Thunder 103-82 to tie the West title series at two games apiece.
“The truth is that we had never been in this kind of situation before,” Wembanyama said. “It was our first deficit in a playoff series and we just responded. It was nothing amazing. It wasn’t magic. We just did what we needed to do.”
In other words, he wasn’t surprised. A 62-win team in the regular season — and a team that has now beaten Oklahoma City six times in nine opportunities this season — shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore.
Game 5 is Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
It was Wembanyama who pointed the finger of blame at himself following San Antonio’s loss in Game 3, saying that the Spurs were “going to see what we’re made of” in Game 4 and that he had to do more to get teammates involved.
He delivered on every level.
“I saw a lot and I’m not surprised,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “I think our competitive response all year has been pretty good — and he’s been at the forefront of that more often than not. I think tonight, not speaking for him, he felt an obligation to set a tone for us in a variety of ways.”
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Wembanyama had 11 points in the first quarter, 11 more on 10 shot attempts in the second quarter and capped all that with the beat-the-clock 3-pointer going into halftime.
And on the other end, he might have been even better.
The unanimous Defensive Player of the Year — who was announced on Sunday night as a first-team All-NBA selection for the first time — led an effort that held Oklahoma City to a season-low in points and a season-high-tying 20 turnovers.
The Thunder had at least 108 points in every game in these playoffs entering Sunday.
“We’ve played 12 playoff games. When you play 12 playoff games, they’re not all going to be masterpieces,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “As much as you want to win, there’s nights where you just don’t have it for whatever reason.”
On Sunday, that reason might have been Wembanyama. The Thunder were outscored by 29 points when he was on the floor. They shot 18 of 41 inside the paint, with Wembanyama a big reason for that, so more things got forced outside — where they shot 12 of 50.
He was asked how the Spurs bottled up the Thunder so well.
“I’m not going to get into details, but in general, being more disciplined and just trusting the game plan even more,” Wembanyama said.
There’s a flight for the Spurs to Oklahoma City on Monday for a game on Tuesday, and the winner of that contest will be one game away from the NBA Finals. It’s clear that Wembanyama knows that even after a big win, the job only gets tougher now.
“The series is far from over,” Wembanyama said. “We’ve got six more wins before we can rest.”
Pregame:
After winning Game 1 in dramatic fashion, the San Antonio Spurs have dropped two in a row and are now down 2-1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder going into Game 4.
To avoid going down 3-1 to the defending champs, San Antonio must figure out a way to defeat Oklahoma City like they did in Game 1.
In Game 3, the story of the game was bench scoring: Oklahoma City had 76 points, tied for fifth most points off the bench for a team in an NBA playoff game. Leading the bench was Jared McCain, who scored 24 points on 10/21 shooting (+28 plus/minus). Jaylin Williams added 18 points including five 3-pointers, Alex Caruso scored 15 (+28 plus/minus) and Cason Wallace scored 11.
Of the starters, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 26 points on 6/17 from the field while Chet Holmgren had 14.
On San Antonio’s side, the game started great, getting off to an electric 15-0 start. However, the Thunder were able to weather the storm, eventually going up by 18.
Victor Wembanyama had 26 points, four rebounds, three assists and two blocks. He also shot 8/15 from the field. Devin Vassell continued his hot streak with 20 points on 3/6 shooting from 3-point range.
De’Aaron Fox in his return from injury had 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Fox was able to alleviate the pressure from Stephon Castle, who struggled taking care in Games 1 and 2. In turn, Castle only had one turnover. He did struggle from the field however, scoring 14 points on 1/8 shooting. He did add five rebounds and seven assists.
With Fox playing, the Spurs took care of the ball a bit better, only turning the ball over 15 times.
While Oklahoma City’s bench had 76, San Antonio’s bench largely struggled, only scoring 23. Dylan Harper had the most points off the bench with six.
Another big factor was 3-point shooting, Oklahoma City shot 17/28 for a scorching 45% from long range. San Antonio shot 13/41 from that range for 32%.
If the Spurs want to tie this series up, they’ll need to try to limit Oklahoma City’s bench production as well as the 3-point onslaught.
As far as injuries go, Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell are both listed as out for the game. The Spurs don’t have anyone listed as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
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End of 4Q: Spurs 103, Thunder 82
San Antonio’s defense met the occasion as they held the defending champs to a season-low output of 82 points. Victor Wembanyama roared to life with 33 points and nine rebounds.
End of 3Q: Spurs 78, Thunder 60
A De’Aaron Fox 3-pointer put the Spurs up 23 during this scorching 3rd quarter.
A few Thunder buckets cut the lead to 21.
Wemby now has 31 after a 3-pointer to them up 24.
Kenrich Williams of OKC then hit two straight 3-pointers to trim the lead to 18 at the end of the third quarter.
3Q, 7:17 remaining: Spurs 65, Thunder 43
The half started with a 3-pointer from Cason Wallace followed by an alley-oop dunk to Wemby.
Two Stephon Castle layups blew the lead up to 16.
Castle then stole the ball from Hartenstwin, leading to a Wemby dunk. He has 27.
The third steal in a row for the Spurs led to an alley-oop to Castle who slammed it home to put the Spurs up 22.
Halftime: Spurs 40, Thunder 32
Hartenstein continues his hot start with 12 early points.
Two free throws from Wemby (17 points) puts the Spurs back up 10.
A pair of layups from the Thunder make the score 41-36.
A Wemby half-court shot at the buzzer balloons the score to 50-38. Wemby now has 22.
2Q, 7:32 remaining: Spurs 35, Thunder 26
The Thunder have stormed back with a 10-0 run to put them down four.
OKC has six turnovers while the Spurs only have three, a contrast of Games 1-3.
Wemby’s midrange jumper puts the lead back to 9. Wemby has 13.
End of 1Q: Spurs 28, Thunder 19
Two Wembanyama free throws put the Spurs up 15, the same lead they had to start Game 3.
Wemby has 11, outscoring the Thunder by himself.
An SGA midrange shot finally stopped the bleeding, making the score 23-10.
Vassell hit another 3-pointer to put the Spurs up 28-14. Jaylin Williams, one of the heroes for OKC in Game 3, answered with a 3-pointer of their own.
The quarter ends 28-19 in the Spurs favor.
1Q, 4:39 remaining: Spurs 21, Thunder 8
Out of the first timeout, Stephon Castle hit a 3-pointer. Devin Vassell’s 3-pointer then gave the Spurs a 12-0 run.
A Vassell block on Jared McCain turned into an alley-oop to Wemby on the other end, ballooning the run to 14-0. The Spurs lead 21-8.
1Q, 6:13 remaining: Spurs 13, Thunder 8
Wemby started the game off by hitting a 3-pointer, followed by four floater push shots from Isaiah Hartenstein, who has scored the first eight Thunder points.
Pregame
Before Game 4 tipped off, Victor Wembanyama was named to the All-NBA First Team alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham. Wemby finished third in MVP voting and now has his first All-NBA team selection on his resume.
Wemby was one first team vote away from being a unanimous member of the first team, but received one second team vote.
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