NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates
OKLAHOMA CITY — This series had to go seven.
The Western Conference Finals have felt like a heavyweight fight, with two powerhouses exchanging blows that would have ended just about every other team. All the games (okay, most of them) haven’t gone down to the wire, but they have been entertaining and intense. The level of play has been incredibly high.
Advertisement
“Who doesn’t want to play in a Game 7?” San Antonio’s Stephon Castle asked.
Which team will be left standing when the final bell rings? Here are a handful of keys to Game 7, which you can watch starting at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, or stream on Peacock.
Wembanyama vs. Gilgeous-Alexander
It feels a little reductive, a little simplistic to say, “the team whose star plays better wins.” Except that’s how the first six games of this series have gone — whichever of Victor Wembanyama or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored the most in a game, their team won (both scored 26 in Game 3, an OKC win).
Advertisement
There was Victor Wembanyama’s epic Game 1 masterpiece, with 41 points and 24 rebounds. Or his 33 points in a dominant Game 4. Or how he stepped up when his team needed him most in Game 6 and scored 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting in the first half to help the Spurs pull away (he finished with 28 points in 28 minutes). The Spurs went “back to basics” in Game 6 and used him more in a pick-and-pop role early, and when he hit those 3-pointers early, he got himself and the team going, then he went into the paint and was a force.
While we haven’t seen the most efficient Shai Gilgeous-Alexander this series — he’s shooting just 37.9% — he dropped 30 points in Game 2 and 32 points in Game 5, both Oklahoma City wins.
“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,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of his shooting this series. “But 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.”
SGA carved up the Spurs with his passing and playmaking early in the series, when San Antonio doubled him and tried to force the ball out of his hands….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/san-antonio-spurs-vs-oklahoma-135501472.html
Author :
Publish date : 2026-05-30 13:55:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
