Spurs blow out Thunder, force Game 7 in the West on Saturday
San Antonio took Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals 118-91 to even the series at 3-3, with the winner-take-all Game 7 set for May 30 in Oklahoma City.
- San Antonio won Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals 118-91 to even the series at 3-3.
- Wembanyama posted 28 points and 10 rebounds; the third quarter, which the Spurs won 32-13, decided it.
- The deciding Game 7 is set for May 30 in Oklahoma City.
- The winner faces the New York Knicks, already waiting, with the NBA Finals starting June 3.
Last five minutes of the third quarter in San Antonio, and the building is already on its feet. No tension, no nail-biting, just the sound a home crowd makes when it knows the work is done and nobody is climbing back into this one tonight. Oklahoma City calls a timeout, then another, but it looks less like a tactic than like trying to wave down a moving train. The gap on the scoreboard keeps climbing, and out on the floor a seven-footer is moving like a man eight inches shorter. Right there, in those few minutes, San Antonio decided this series would go the distance.
Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals ended 118-91 for the home Spurs. The series is now even at 3-3, and everything moves to a winner-take-all Game 7.
The turning point was not any single basket but an entire stretch of the third quarter. San Antonio ran off a 20-0 burst and took the period 32-13. After that the game had no story left. When you hold an opponent to 13 points over 12 minutes, you do not win with shooting, you win with defense, and defense is exactly what San Antonio had been chasing the past two games and finally found.
The numbers
Victor Wembanyama finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and two steals, on 4-of-9 from three. The 28 points are not the impressive part. The impressive part is how he got there: no forcing, inside the flow of the game, while sealing off the paint with three blocks and pushing Oklahoma City to hunt shots from the outside, where their hands ran cold tonight.
On the other end, Oklahoma City’s leading man Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 15 points on 6-of-18 from the floor. That number explains the whole night. When your first option shoots under a third from the field and the home team buries you in a single quarter, no game plan brings that back. San Antonio did not outrace the Thunder in a track meet; it shut off their main source of points and let the rest take care of itself.
What’s next
Game 7 is set for May 30 in Oklahoma City. The Thunder host the decider as the higher seed from the regular season, and that is the one thing that did not go San Antonio’s way tonight: the Spurs won the game, but not home court for the one that counts.
Whoever advances draws New York in the NBA Finals. The Knicks closed out the East far earlier and far more calmly, sweeping Cleveland 4-0, and they have been resting since. The Finals begin June 3, which means the winner of this Western Game 7 has barely more than two days to pull itself together against a team that has been fresh for weeks.
That is the whole catch. San Antonio and Oklahoma City will empty the tank in one game on Saturday, and then that drained winner walks into a rested New York two days later. Game 7 is the best thing in sports and the worst possible preparation for a Finals.
Is there even a way to come out of a Game 7 and be ready, two days later, for a rested New York? Saturday night we’ll find out who has that problem.
