OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Victor Wembanyama is not going to get any shorter before Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. He's not going to get less skilled, and the San Antonio Spurs surely aren't going to become less confident, either.
That means the Oklahoma City Thunder have to get a little smarter.
It took historic efforts — namely a 41-point, 24-rebound game from Wembanyama and a 24-point, seven-steal gem from rookie Dylan Harper — for the Spurs to grab the double-overtime thriller that was Game 1 on Monday. Game 2 is Wednesday, and it's the Thunder who have to answer.
“You've just got to be aggressive, just be smart, I think, more than anything,” Thunder guard and two-time Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of facing the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama. “He obviously is very big at the rim, but we still found cracks in (the defense) at times. We've just got to be willing to work possessions and make sure we get the best shot each time down.”
In other words, the Thunder have some learning to do.
And that's a bit ironic, because that's been the Spurs' mantra.
San Antonio ruled De'Aaron Fox out an hour or so before Game 1, meaning the Spurs were rolling out the youngest starting five in NBA conference finals history — a 20-year-old in Harper, a 21-year-old in Stephon Castle, a 22-year-old in Wembanyama, a 24-year-old in Julian Champagnie and a 25-year-old in Devin Vassell. Most of those guys should still be in college, so maybe the various “we're learning” claims that Wembanyama often offers are both accurate and fitting.
“We want to win everything, and we have the chance to. We have people above us in the organization that know how to do that,” Wembanyama said. “And, so far, it looks like they’ve put the right people together to give us a chance — because right now, we've got a chance. We still got a lot to do, lot to learn, lot of trials to go through that we don’t even know of, but we have a chance.”
Without question, the masterminds of the Spurs — the likes of Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford, the newer wave in general manager Brian Wright and coach Mitch Johnson — know what they're doing. There are banners swaying in San Antonio as proof.
Same goes in Oklahoma City; the Thunder proved last year, by winning a title, that they know what they're doing. And when Game 1 was over, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault — as per his nature — was calm and cool.
“I’m never going to discredit an opponent when they come in here and win like that,” Daigneault said. “But we have a lot of runway to improve. We have a lot of players that can play better. We collectively can play with more intentionality on both ends of the floor, certainly on the offensive end of the floor. We can play better collectively.”
No matter what happens Wednesday, Daigneault will likely say the same thing after Game 2 as well.
“Game 2 is going to end and then we'll need to be a better team in Game 3,” Daigneault said. “That’s how these work.”
The Spurs have reasons to feel good, obviously: They're up 1-0, and they hope they can get Fox back for Game 2. The Thunder, who got 31 points from Alex Caruso in the series opener, might not have reasons to feel good but they shouldn't be in panic mode either: It's highly unlikely that Gilgeous-Alexander (7 for 23 in Game 1) struggles that much from the field again anytime soon, and the minus-21 rebound differential — the team's worst since November 2024 — can be easily addressed.
“That’s what this time of year is about,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’s the highest level of basketball and you’re going to find out exactly what type of player you are, what type of competitor you are and exactly what you need to get better at.”
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