Victor Wembanyama scored 41 points and grabbed 24 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-115 in overtime in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night in Oklahoma City. The Thunder had a shot to win it in regulation, but Chet Holmgren blocked Wembanyama at the buzzer to force the extra period.
The game turned on the kind of details that usually decide May basketball. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who received the MVP trophy in a pregame ceremony, dunked over Wembanyama to put Oklahoma City ahead by three with less than a minute left in the first overtime. Wembanyama answered with a pull-up 3 from the spot on the Paycom Center floor made famous by Stephen Curry, tying the game and swinging it back to San Antonio. He finished with three blocks as well, and the Spurs left with a one-point edge in the only place that mattered.
Oklahoma City looked in control early enough to make the ending harder to explain. The Thunder made 37.2% of their field-goal attempts over the first two quarters and hit 27.3% from 3-point range, yet still went to halftime up by seven after scoring 12 points off eight Spurs turnovers. That gap mattered because San Antonio was already operating without De'Aaron Fox, who was a late scratch because of a high right ankle sprain.
In his place, Dylan Harper started alongside Stephon Castle, and San Antonio used the youngest starting lineup in NBA conference finals history, with an average age of 22 years and 346 days. It was a bold answer to a brutal assignment, especially against the defending champions and the top seed in the West’s final round. Castle’s 11 turnovers nearly buried the Spurs, but the game never fully slipped away because Wembanyama kept dragging it back to even ground.
That is what made this one feel bigger than a single upset in Game 1. The Thunder entered the series ranked third in postseason 3-point shooting percentage at 38.4%, and they are still built like a team that expects to own moments like these. The Spurs, though, showed they can survive mistakes, answer runs and ride one star for a night. Game 2 is Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET in Oklahoma City on NBC and Peacock, and the series already looks like a test of which young contender can handle the last five minutes when the shot clock and the crowd both start to tighten.
