The San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder will meet for Game 7 of the Western Conference finals on Saturday after the Spurs’ 118–91 Game 6 win on Thursday.
San Antonio bounced back from a 127–114 Game 5 loss on Tuesday, and the Spurs have a shot at an NBA Finals appearance for the first time since 2014. Spurs star center Victor Wembanyama led the way with a double-double of 28 points and 10 rebounds.
“[It] just feels like it erases kind of all the little mistakes that we do that are human nature, whether it’s in the regular season or previous games,” Wembanyama told reporters afterward regarding the turnaround.
“Just got to fight that all the time and put your backs against the wall. It feels like it’s the best opportunity to be able to play.”
Wembanyama, who finished third in the MVP voting, will lead the Spurs in a matchup between two top-three MVP finalists, which hasn’t been seen in a conference finals Game 7 since 1982. Thunder star guard and reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will look to get the defending champions back to the NBA Finals in their home building.
“Honestly, anything can happen in a Game 7. It’s win or go home. It being in your building is nice, but it doesn’t really mean anything. You have to go out there and be the better basketball team, or else your season is done, and that’s what it comes down to,” Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters after the game.
“Now, it’s going to be nice having our fans behind us and cheering us. But we gotta go out there and be better, and if we’re not better, our season will be over,” he added.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t have his best game of the series on Thursday with 15 points on 6–18 shooting. That marked a series low for him, but he also failed to hit at least 20 points for the second time in three games.
“Yeah, I’m not too sure to be honest. A lot of the shots that I’m shooting, I’ve shot plenty of times before, and they feel good. They’re just not going in. But yeah, it’s too late to abandon my work and abandon my game and who I am. This late in the season, I got to trust it and live or die by it,” Gilgeous-Alexander said about his shooting problems.
San Antonio held the Thunder to 37.2 percent shooting overall for the game and outrebounded the Thunder 52-42. Spurs guard Stephon Castle emphasized their need to make stops to keep the season alive.
“I just think all of our focus and attention was on the defensive end,” Castle told reporters.
“I don’t think scoring against them has been a problem for us. I think just our self-inflicted mistakes, like turnovers and allowing them to get offensive rebounds and easy buckets, is what slows us down.”
San Antonio has averaged 113 points per game through six games in the series, and the Thunder have averaged 110 points per contest. The Spurs have held the Thunder under 100 points twice in the series, both times in the past week, in two of the last three games.
“I’d never discredit the defense and the opponent. There’s always that. There are things I think we can do better,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault told reporters afterward.
Oklahoma City will also need answers for Wembanyama. The 7-foot-4 star has averaged a series-best 28.2 points per game plus 11.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.5 steals, and three blocks per contest.
“He’s not always perfect, and we’ve got to help him at times, obviously,” Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson told reporters.
“He’s 22 years old, but his passion and desire for being right where he is and at the forefront of it all and to take the responsibility and 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.”
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