The series got the finale it deserved.
The seventh game of the Western Conference Finals wasn’t a double-overtime nailbiter like the epic series opener. But, overall, one of the most anticipated matchups in recent NBA history delivered a memorable first chapter for what could be a long-running drama played out in late May for years to come.
The San Antonio Spurs dispatched the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder 111-103 on Saturday to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in the post-Tim Duncan era. They’ll face a New York Knicks team trying to win a title for the first time since 1973.
Either way, it will be the eighth straight season the NBA won’t have a repeat champion. For most of the season it looked like the Thunder were going to do just that. But there’s not much else to say other than this version of the Spurs was better than the Thunder, full stop.
As close as Game 7 was – and it was a roller-coaster with runs going back and forth and a high degree of tension throughout – it was San Antonio making the big plays when it mattered and it was the production the Spurs got from their supporting cast that made the difference.
It’s fair to wonder how much different the outcome would have been had the Thunder had their No. 2 all-around option Jalen Williams (hamstring) healthy, or even the kind of scoring and playmaking punch that Ajay Mitchell (calf) could provide, but the flip side is this: Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is in his third season and is just 22 years old,
Stephon Castle, the fierce guard whose defence gave Shai Gilgeous-Alexander so much trouble in the series, is in his second season and is just 21. Dylan Harper (12 points off the bench on eight shots) is a rookie point guard who turned 20 in March, but the second-overall pick was a responsible as anyone other than Wembanyama for the Spurs winning a Game 7 on the road against the defending champs.
The Thunder were short-handed, and it showed – especially in the way the Spurs were able to load up their defence on Gilgeous-Alexander for stretches of the series.
The two-time MVP was able to crack the code to the tune of 35 points and nine assists in 43 minutes on Saturday in what was probably his best game of the seven. But let’s repeat: this is the youngest and least experienced version of the Spurs we’re going to see over the next 10 years, or however long Wembanyama’s prime proves to be.
Let’s hope that OKC is at full strength a year from now in what feels like an almost inevitable Western Conference Finals rematch, but the Spurs also figure to be that much better, regardless of how they fare against the Knicks in the NBA Finals.
The championship series starts Wednesday in San Antonio.
Here are some takeaways from Game 7.
Luke Kornet, game breaker
There are so many moments in a game or even a series like this that can have an outsized influence, it’s always a bit foolish to pick one. But it’s hard not to look at a sequence with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter as crucial.
The Spurs were up 11 when Thunder big man Isaiah Hartenstein was fouled by Wembanyama on a back-door cut. He dunked it anyway and made the free throw and the lead was down to eight.
It was Wembanyama’s fifth foul and he was headed to the bench. A bucket by Gilgeous-Alexander cut the Spurs’ lead to six and momentum seemed to be shifting.
But the next few possessions went this way: a Hartenstein steal gave the big centre what looked like a wide-open dunk in transition, but backup Spurs centre Luke Kornet sprinted the floor and put himself on a forever highlight film with a spectacular chase-down block before the Spurs scored at the other end.
The Thunder then came down and turned the ball over with Cason Wallace and Hartenstein getting crossed up on what would have been an easy dunk for the latter. Instead, the Spurs came back and Justin Champagnie (20 points, including six threes) hit a triple to put San Antonio back up by 11 with 5:33 to play and Wembanyama back in the game.
All told, it was a nine-point swing at a crucial point of the series and perhaps the difference.
It’s not a matter of if, it’s Wemby
There are so many things that Wembanyama has already done that have him marked for greatness, not the least of which is averaging 27.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 1.4 steals in a seven-game conference final against the NBA’s top-ranked defence and a 64-win team defending a title.
Wembanyama put up 22 points and seven rebounds in Game 7, which was more than enough for him to earn the Western Conference Finals MVP trophy.
But he’s now poised to begin his fast-tracked rise to all-time status with his first NBA Finals appearance. Michael Jordan didn’t win the first of his six NBA championships until he was 27 and in his seventh season. LeBron James won the first of his four when he was 27 and in his ninth year. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the first of his six when he was in his second season at age 23 but didn’t win another until his ninth season at age 33.
There have been exceptions to the long-apprenticeship rule. Tim Duncan won the first of his five championships in his second season at age 23, but they were spread out over a 15-year span. Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson was a 20-year-old rookie when he won the first of his five titles, so maybe he’s the best comparison.
The point is that the Spurs advancing to the Finals opens the door to the NBA’s next great player beginning to write the opening chapters of his legacy at the soonest possible moment. There is nothing about this Spurs team that indicates it won’t be on the rise, and Wembanyama’s rapid year-over-year improvement alone seems to make that inevitable.
Very rarely is a generational talent surrounded by a team this young and this good. History could be unfolding at high speed.
The NBA-superstar-as-Superman myth is well established. In a sport where the best players are often able to summon otherworldly individual performances under the most difficult circumstances, there are plenty of examples to bolster the idea that they never fail and always save the day.
Gilgeous-Alexander had a spotlight on him going into Game 7 because the two-time MVP has been outplayed by Wembanyama, scored just 15 points in Game 6 and was shooting just 37.9 per cent for the series, a steep drop from his unfailing regular-season efficiency.
But these things do happen. At this stage of the playoffs, the best defences can overwhelm even the best players in the world. The way the Spurs defended Gilgeous-Alexander – rotating a trio of big, physical athletic defenders to pressure him 40 feet from the basket, confident that Wembanyama was lurking as the ultimate safety net – was a problem the Canadian struggled to solve throughout the series.
But he’s not alone. Remember the 2015 NBA Finals? Golden State Warriors wing Andre Iguodala was named Finals MVP in large part because he held peak James to 39.8-per-cent shooting, or 10 percentage points below his regular-season mark while making nearly four turnovers per game.
James being James, he still was dominant, putting up 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists for a short-handed Cavaliers team, but the struggle was real.
Or how about Michael Jordan in the 1995-96 Finals? The Bulls won 4-2 over Seattle, but Gary Payton helped hold Jordan 27 points on 41.5-per-cent shooting after the then-four-time MVP had averaged 30 points per game on 49.5-per-cent shooting in the regular season. It was the ‘worst’ Finals performance of Jordan’s career, though it gets overlooked because the Bulls won and he still earned Finals MVP.
Steph Curry had some rough ones on his way to establishing himself as one of the greatest guards in NBA history. In the 2016 Finals, he was coming off his second consecutive MVP award and one of the greatest seasons ever as he averaged 30.1 points per game while hitting an NBA record 402 threes (that’s what happens when you hit 45.4 per cent on 11.1 three-point attempts per game).
But he went cold in the Finals and averaged just 22.6 points on 40.3-per-cent shooting overall as the 73-win Warriors blew a 3-1 lead and lost to James and the Cavaliers.
Gilgeous-Alexander deserves full credit for trying. He was as close to his usual standard in Game 7 as in any game in the series. He finished with 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting, while adding nine assists and three steals against just three turnovers in 43 minutes against a multi-pronged Spurs defensive approach that always featured Wembanyama shading over, shadowing or outright double-teaming him.
The Thunder had some success running screening actions to get Gilgeous-Alexander matched up against Champagnie, and it was enough to help the Hamilton native shake loose for 25 points combined in the second and third quarters. The Thunder trailed 80-77 to start the fourth.
But Gilgeous-Alexander couldn’t get the Thunder over the hump and he didn’t have enough help. It was a brilliant individual performance after a difficult six games, but proof that even a two-time MVP needs a partner against a defence as robust as San Antonio’s.
An aside: the biggest loser in this series was Chet Holmgren, who had a chance to make a name for himself on both ends.
Instead, he took just two shots and scored four points in 33 minutes. He averaged 10.1 points per game for the series, seven points below his season average. The Thunder needed something more and their other all-NBA player couldn’t deliver.
It could be a Luuuuuong off-season for Lu Dort
Timing is everything in sports. This time a year ago, Montreal’s Lu Dort was playing some of his best basketball in helping the Thunder to their first NBA championship. It was a crowning achievement for the rugged defender, who often is referred to as the organization’s heartbeat, having joined OKC as an undrafted free agent and working his way up to being a valuable starter on a championship team.
He shot a career-best 41.2 per cent from three in the regular season and 44.5 per cent from deep in the Finals as OKC won the title, but Dort struggled in the playoffs this year, especially against the Spurs.
Through six games he was shooting just four-for-22 from three (18 per cent). His defence never wavers but with the Spurs enjoying such relative success bottling up Gilgeous-Alexander, having wings that demand attention offensively is crucial.
Dort had some moments in Game 7 – his three tied the game with 2:17 to go in the second quarter after San Antonio had led by as much as 14 midway through the first, and he had a big steal on an inbounds pass with 43 seconds left in the fourth as the Thunder trailed by six, but OKC couldn’t convert the chance. Overall, Dort scored three points in Game 7 at home and finished the series shooting 5-of-25 from three and averaging 4.5 points per game. Not enough.
That Dort hasn’t developed a reliable counter when teams close him out or leave him alone doesn’t hurt the Thunder too much against lesser opponents; Dort’s defence is worth it. But against an opponent as good as the Spurs, every weak spot gets exposed – and Dort’s lack of punch was an issue.
It’s tough timing because the Thunder are holding a team option worth $18.2 million on the last year of Dort’s contract. They are also staring down the barrel of one of the most expensive rosters in NBA history, with a projected tax bill of $213 million. It seems inevitable that the Thunder will do something, and Dort’s performance might make the decision easier.
In my notes from the game, I include ‘lol’ alongside each of the plays that the seven-foot-five impossibility that is Wembanyama pulls off that make me laugh out load. There were ‘only’ four in Game 7, but they were astonishing, at least to me. In order:
• His pull-up jumper off glass to on his first touch of the game. Like sure, he’s hitting fadeaway jumpers high off the square now. Why not.
• He cuts back door, catches a pass and dunks all over Holmgren without jumping, it looked like. He may have jumped, but in the moment it looked like he dunked over a fellow seven-footer, one of the best shot-blockers in the NBA, without leaving his feet, or only barely. The game is three minutes old and we’re at two lols.
• At 10:07 of the third quarter, Wemby turned, split a double team and dunked without dribbling while starting from outside of the paint. It’s an eight-foot jumper for mortals. Hilarious.
• With 8:43 left in the fourth quarter, he hit a step-back three that would make Curry proud.
For the series, Wembanyama shot 40 per cent from three, 89 per cent from the free-throw line and had 29 steals and blocked shots compared to just 17 fouls. Good luck with that, Knicks.