Oklahoma City vs. San Antonio Game 6 preview: Can more aggressive, desperate Spurs force Game 7?

For all the talk about matchups, defense, rotations and depth (not to mention a poorly officiated game), the real difference in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals was much more basic:

Oklahoma City made the play harder adjustment. The Spurs did not.

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“I just think [the Thunder] were the more desperate team tonight,” Julian Champagnie said. “I think they wanted the game more than we did.”

Oklahoma City wasn’t perfect, but they showed real game-plan discipline and went hard, like a team that has been in this moment before and knew how to respond. San Antonio looked tired and a step slow.

Six games into any series — let alone this situation where these teams have now played each other 10 times during the season and playoffs — there are no more surprise adjustments to be made. There are no secrets. It’s about playing harder. It’s about executing the game plan better than your opponent.

If the Spurs don’t do that on Thursday night, their season ends.

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“I feel like we’ve been great when we’re desperate all year,” Stephon Castle said. “I’m excited to see how we’ll respond.”

You can watch that response starting at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday night, a gam you can watch on NBC or stream on Peacock.

Starts with Wembanyama

If San Antonio is going to make the play harder adjustment in Game 6, it has to start with Victor Wembanyama.
The math in this series is straightforward:

• The Spurs are 30-4 this season when Wembanyama scores 12 or more points in the paint.
• Wembanyama scored 26 points in the paint in Game 1, a Spurs win.
• Since then, with Isaiah Hartenstein drawing the primary defensive assignment (and with a lot of help), Wembanyama has averaged 10.5 in the last four games.
• He scored just eight points in the paint on 4-of-9 shooting in Game 5.

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It’s not just shots in the paint, it’s getting up shots period. Wembanyama took 25 shots in Game 1 and 22 in Game 4, the two Spurs wins. In the three losses, he took 16, 15 and 15 shots.

“He’s got to take more than 15 shots, even with the free throws. He’s going to have to score more than 20 points, for sure…” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson…

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Publish date : 2026-05-28 03:00:00

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