Thunder Before Game 6: 'We Have to Break the Spurs in Their House'
OKC lead 3-2 in the Western Conference Finals, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 33 in Game 5, Victor Wembanyama went 4-of-15 from the field, Game 6 is Friday night in San Antonio.
In the Paycom Center locker room after Tuesday’s game, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sat down on a stool, looked at the ceiling, pulled the towel off his face and told reporters:
I am not happy with this, this was not a good game.
That was his comment on 33 points he had just put on the Spurs, plus nine assists and two steals. The reporters around him did not understand what he meant. Only when Luguentz Dort walked past did it become clear. The guard was looking at the scoreboard, which showed OKC had blown a 28-point third-quarter lead inside the final five minutes.
The score, and what is next
OKC won Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals 120-106. That puts them up 3-2 in the series. Game 6 is Friday in San Antonio at 2 a.m. CET, which means Saturday morning in Europe.
The Spurs have one game to flip the series. In NBA history, climbing back from 2-3 has never been easy.
The stats that matter
With his 33 points in Game 5, SGA is now averaging 32.8 points per game in the playoffs. That is only four points off Michael Jordan’s 1993 record.
The difference is the efficiency:
- 92 percent from the free-throw line
- 50.2 percent from the field
- 38 minutes in Game 5
That means when he drives, you know he either scores or earns two free throws. OKC head coach Mark Daigneault gave him 38 minutes in Game 5, just two below his ceiling.
The other side, Wembanyama
Victor Wembanyama scored 18 with 11 rebounds and three blocks. But he went 4-of-15 from the field and 0-of-5 from three.
Daigneault made an adjustment in Game 5 that will sting the Spurs. On every Wembanyama touch, he sent Chet Holmgren into a double team. That forced the Frenchman to make decisions before he wanted to. Holmgren had six blocks in Game 5, an OKC playoff record.
The third number, Caruso
Alex Caruso played 27 minutes off the bench and recorded eight steals. That number has only happened three times in NBA playoff history.
Caruso is the defensive dog. In Game 6 he has to be as much counter-energy as SGA is offence.
What next, if the Spurs hold
If the Spurs win Game 6, which is realistic given their 32-9 record at the Frost Bank Center this season, Game 7 goes back to OKC on Sunday. There the matchup tilts against Wembanyama. The Paycom floor in the playoffs runs about five degrees cooler than San Antonio, which his legs do not love. In the regular season, the Spurs went 0-2 in OKC.
On the other side, if OKC closes it out in Texas, Game 1 of the Finals in Oklahoma is Wednesday, June 3, at 2:30 a.m. CET. The Knicks are already waiting. Home court goes to OKC because of their 64 regular-season wins.
My pick
Personally, I give OKC 65 percent to advance in Game 6. The reason is that the talent gap is narrower than the series score suggests, but the bigger factor is that the Spurs cannot answer two rotating centres on Wembanyama.
Holmgren and Hartenstein cycling on the Frenchman. Wembanyama has slept on one-on-one defenders in the playoffs. But when two bigs come, he looks for the wing, and that is not his natural read.
Daigneault said after Game 5 in what felt like an official communique:
We have a job on Friday, we have to break the Spurs in their house, if we get through there, the Knicks will have to play without home court advantage in Game 1.
This is a coach in his first NBA Finals run, going in without pressure. That makes him more dangerous than the players on his team.
