Viewed strictly within the context of the Western Conference Finals, there was nothing all that shocking about the San Antonio Spurs' 111-103 road victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7. That doesn't make what happened on Saturday night feel any less destabilizing.
Consider everything that went wrong for the Thunder throughout this series. Injuries to Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell reduced their all-important depth and left Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with very little support in the offensive backcourt. Victor Wembanyama's mere presence gummed up their offense, leaving their turnover-generating defense and timely shooting from role players as their most reliable methods for producing points. Unless Wembanyama was playing like shit, the Thunder's chances for victory in every game this series were banished to the margins.
This was true once again for the Thunder in Game 7, and even though they effectively pressed the advantages they did have, it made no difference. Gilgeous-Alexander had his most efficient scoring night of the series, putting in 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting. His second quarter, in which he scored 13 points while hitting six of seven shots on a variety of supremely difficult jumpers, was the kind of scoring burst that you expect from a two-time MVP who is ready to carry his team back to the Finals. Look at SGA's Game 7 shot chart, though, and you see the same persistent problem that held him to 37 percent shooting in the previous six games: he only got to the rim four times.
Gilgeous-Alexander's heroic shot-making was briefly supported by the Thunder's size advantage, which finally started to yield some results in the first half. Oklahoma City's ability to keep two bigs on the floor produced nine offensive rebounds in the first half, and for a little while it seemed like they had found an advantage that could carry the day. Not so: They got one offensive rebound in the second half, compared to the Spurs' 11.
And what of the role players? Jared McCain did his part, scoring 10 first-half points while filling in for Mitchell and Williams, and Cason Wallace went 5-of-9 from three-point range. Those tend to be the kind of box-score nuggets you surface when trying to explain how a tested championship team once again got over the hump. Here, they just function as reminders of how difficult the Spurs made every other aspect of the game.
Step inside those margins, where the Thunder so desperately tried to find footholds throughout this series, and you will find something spooky. Yes, I'm talking about Victor Wembanyama and his offense-breaking distortion effects, but I'm also talking about what the rest of the Spurs just showed us. I'm talking about Dylan Harper, a 20-year-old rookie, repeatedly frying some of the best perimeter defenders this league has to offer, crashing the boards for a clutch put-back in the fourth quarter, and hitting a step-back three late in the game to put his team up 12. I'm talking about Stephon Castle, 21 years old, not only absorbing all that defensive pressure that the Thunder rely on to break opposing guards, but then unleashing an equal amount on Gilgeous-Alexander. I'm talking about what this team did to Chet Holmgren, an All-NBA player who is supposed to be the freakishly talented big man that the Thunder's offense and defense are built around. He took two shots in Game 7, scored four points, and never once looked like he belonged on the court in this series. Think about how crazy that is. I mean, really think about it. Holmgren is not some fading star that had the misfortune of running into the best of the next generation a little sooner than he'd have liked to. This is a 24-year-old big man who is precision-engineered to be a dominant force in the modern NBA. He's supposed to be the guy breaking other teams' offenses and playing mismatches off the court, and yet suddenly the Spurs are here turning him into Enes Kanter.
It's not supposed to happen like this. It's not like the Spurs are a good young team that just happened to stumble into the Finals, thanks to some timely performances and an advantageous bracket. This is a team that won 34 games last season and then spent the entirety of this one demonstrating that they are in fact better than the 64-win defending champions. Oklahoma City lost 22 combined games in the regular season and playoffs, and eight of those came at the hands of the Spurs. The Thunder are so good that people were practically throwing parades for the Nuggets and Pacers last season just for taking them to seven games. The Spurs have not only beaten that team in a series, but diminished them in the process. The Thunder have the kind of expertly constructed roster that is supposed to be rounding the corner into its dynastic years, and instead they have just been made to look unremarkable by a team with one starter who was born in the '90s.
Who knows what happens from here. Maybe the Spurs lose to the Knicks in the Finals, and Wembanyama's ascent is delayed. Maybe San Antonio claims five of the next six NBA championships. Or maybe they win this one and end up right where the Thunder are now, and in a year we're marveling at how the, uhhhhh, Utah Jazz(??) have reshuffled the league by knocking off the defending champs. All I know is that for now, things have shifted. I look up at the TV and see Victor Wembanyama dunking on Chet Holmgren, and I feel a little bit like a dinosaur seeing a flash of light in the sky. Whatever that is, it appears to be coming right for us.
