Thunder-Spurs is going to seven, setting the stage for a showdown that could define the NBA’s next era
During the buildup to Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, there is a moment that feels impossible: Victor Wembanyama appears small. It comes after the national anthem, before the San Antonio Spurs’ starting lineup is introduced. The arena goes dark. The hype video kicks off. A sold-out crowd screams as the music swells and spotlights dart from section to section. During all of this, Wembanyama sits on the Spurs bench with his eyes closed, totally still, like he always does before a game. Around him, the NBA machine whirrs into action. Suddenly, the lights couldn’t be brighter. There is an inescapable sense that more than just a trip to the NBA Finals hangs in the balance. The history, the stars, and the stakes are enough to cut even a 7-foot-4 alien down to size.
It doesn’t last long. It is clear in the opening minutes that Wembanyama has come prepared. Two nights prior, he’d played passively and poorly in a Thunder blowout. For 48 hours, NBA chatter had centered on how the Spurs could get Wemby loose near the basket against the Thunder’s impenetrable defense—a sensible aim for one of the most dominant paint finishers in the league. But because Wemby has never been beholden to convention, he responded Thursday night by letting it fly from downtown. Three of his first four shots were 3s. By the time he made his first bucket at the rim—a spinning lefty layin over Chet Holmgren in semi-transition—Wembanyama already had 11 points.
He finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks in a wire-to-wire 118-91 Spurs win. He attacked all night, unleashing 3s rather than settling for them, and then leveraging those deep balls to create open paths to the basket. On defense, Wembanyama was rangier and more committed than he was in Game 5. The Spurs held the Thunder to just 13 points in the third quarter of Game 6, the Thunder’s lowest scoring output in any quarter this season.
Game 7 Fever in OKC, NBA Lottery Reform, and a Mega-Mailbag With Rob Mahoney, David Jacoby, and Joe House
Game 7 Fever in OKC, NBA Lottery Reform, and a Mega-Mailbag With Rob Mahoney, David Jacoby, and Joe House
Game 7 Fever in OKC, NBA Lottery Reform, and a Mega-Mailbag
Thunder-Spurs Game 6 Reactions
Game 7 Fever in OKC, NBA Lottery Reform, and a Mega-Mailbag With Rob Mahoney, David Jacoby, and Joe House
Game 7 Fever in OKC, NBA Lottery Reform, and a Mega-Mailbag With Rob Mahoney, David Jacoby, and Joe House
Game 7 Fever in OKC, NBA Lottery Reform, and a Mega-Mailbag
Thunder-Spurs Game 6 Reactions
For the third time in six games this series, Wembanyama was the best player on the floor. (Not coincidentally, the series is now tied 3-3.) His Game 1 masterpiece established a ceiling that no other player in the NBA can reach, but the rest of the series has been relatively hit-or-miss. The Thunder have been successful at walling off the paint and wearing Wemby down with physicality and multiple bodies; Wembanyama has only sometimes been successful at countering.
So which Wemby will show up for Game 7? In his press conference after Game 6, Wembanyama was more withholding than usual (although not compared to Game 5, when he skipped the postgame interview entirely, prompting a warning from the NBA). His answers were short, even if the pauses to consider them were typically long. When he was asked about the biggest difference between his Game 5 and Game 6 performances, Wemby offered only, “Trusting the game plan. Discussing tactics with the staff and teammates.”
There might not have been much more to say. Wembanyama’s bounce-back performance on Thursday night didn’t result from some off-the-wall strategic adjustment that the Spurs can return to on Saturday. He didn’t abandon the 3-pointer or figure out how to plow his way to the rim every time down the floor. Rather, he played decisively and within himself and let the cascading impact of his talent do the heavy lifting.
As incongruous as it is for the tallest man on the court to shoot so many 3s, it’s always been an effective way for Wembanyama to pry open the rest of his game. The threat of his jumper causes the defense to overextend. That in turn helps Wembanyama access those coveted paint touches.
It also helps unlock his teammates. After struggling the past few games, San Antonio rookie Dylan Harper was electric in Game 6. He scored 18 points on nine shots to go with six rebounds, four assists, and snarling defense. His performance (along with Stephon Castle’s, who had a ho-hum 17 and 9, and De’Aaron Fox’s, who shot poorly but played a composed floor game) served as a reminder that Wembanyama and his guards need to work in concert for San Antonio to reach its full impact.
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The Alien is unique among NBA stars in that he dominates the game without needing to dominate the ball. He’s not a lead guard, but he is the fulcrum of the offense. Coming into Thursday, Wembanyama was averaging just 51 touches per game in the playoffs. For context, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 7576. (Jalen Brunson is averaging 91.) Because of his position, skill set, and body type, Wemby relies on his teammates to find him in the right spots and establish a flow on offense that he can play out of. There’s a big difference between dumping the ball to Wembanyama on the wing and encouraging him to hunt the rim in the flow of the Spurs offense.
Wembanyama does about four things every game that blow your wig back—whether it’s an impossible 32-footer, a procession of balletic tip dunks, or a half-court jumper that barely moves the net. But in this series, many of his most encouraging sequences have been more mundane. A hard roll to the rim or a simple pass out of a trap does more for the Spurs offense, and is significantly less taxing for Wemby, than isolating on the wing vs. Isaiah Hartenstein while a gaggle of OKC chaos agents lurk nearby.
And if anyone can relate to the difficulty of scoring against an elite defense right now, it’s the back-to-back MVP on the opposite bench. Gilgeous-Alexander had his worst game of the playoffs on Thursday night, scoring just 15 points on 33 percent shooting with a negative-28 plus-minus. If you could design the perfect defenders to shut him down, you’d have trouble doing much better than Castle and Wembanyama. On pick-and-rolls, Castle’s length and physicality do just enough to bump Shai off his spots and crowd his airspace in the foreground while Wemby lurks in the background like an ominous weather pattern.
SGA’s efficiency has suffered, but ultimately, he’ll be judged by whatever happens on Saturday. The playoffs aren’t about field goal percentages. They’re about problem-solving and finding a way through the toughest challenges your sport has to offer. For the greatest scorer in the modern game, that means finding a way through, around, or over the only unanimous Defensive Player of the Year in league history.
These are the matchups that make the Thunder and Spurs such perfect foils. They’re why this series has delivered on its promise with an instant classic in Game 1, followed by five tit-for-tat games chock-full of spectacular basketball. Game 7 represents another massive moment for these two superstars, and an even bigger moment for the NBA writ large.
Saturday night feels like a history-making pivot point. The entire season has built to this. The NBA’s strange interregnum of post-LeBron, post-Warriors parity has built to this. Two young, rising powers bringing out the best in each other. The next great star reaching for the crown with the defending champs fending him off. The league’s most precocious team trying to unseat its most overwhelming. The throwback guard vs. the futuristic big man. The battle to be the best player alive. The precise machine vs. the freewheeling talent. The two teams of the moment going toe-to-toe over the future.
Isaac Levy-Rubinett
Isaac joined The Ringer in 2018 as a copy editor. These days, he’s probably editing a story about the NBA or watching Manu Ginóbili highlights.