The Thunder must find answers for Victor Wembanyama — and it starts with the MVP

I hope we fully appreciate what we witnessed in the Western Conference finals.

A remember-where-you-were Game 1 was the start; a fight-to-the-figurative-death Game 7 was the end. In the middle were five games — decided by double-digits, but defined by absolute haymakers.

Advertisement

By virtue of net rating, the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs were the two best teams in the NBA. Within the broader context of the league, they were arguably the most important.

On one end, you had the defending champion Thunder, headlined by one of the greatest guards ever, backed by one of the best defenses in league history. On the other were the Spurs, headlined by the most unique superstar in league history with hard-to-quantify dominance, backed by a supporting cast that is equal parts talented and strikingly unafraid of anything or anyone.

The “you do this, we counter with that” of it all permeated this round. The Spurs tweaking how much help to send toward Shai Gilgeous-Alexander; the Thunder shifting who got the Victor Wembanyama assignment. The Thunder stationing their bigs at the wing to move Wemby around the board; the Spurs running every variation of pick-and-rolls with two screeners to stretch the limits of the Thunder’s defense.

This was one of my favorite playoff series of all time. While I’m kinda sad it ended, it does set the stage for what should be a fabulous Finals matchup between the Spurs and the New York Knicks, with the East rep currently sporting (checks notes) the biggest point differential in NBA playoff history. 

Advertisement

Before we get there, it’s worth zooming out with the Thunder.

We start with well-deserved praise. Winning 64 games in today’s NBA is not easy. It’s even more difficult coming off a championship that took seven games to capture; it’s even more difficult to do so while dealing with injuries across the board.

I mentioned this in my MVP piece about SGA, but it’s worth hammering home just how impressive it is that the Thunder had the season they had while 10 rotation players missed at least 10 games. Add in the eventual (re)injuries of Jalen Williams and Ajay…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/the-thunder-must-find-answers-for-victor-wembanyama–and-it-starts-with-the-mvp-213341176.html

Author : Nekias Duncan

Publish date : 2026-06-01 21:33:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.