Jordan McLaughlin got his chance late in Game 2, and he made it count. The 30-year-old guard, mostly out of the rotation for the last two years, was inserted with 1:34 left in the first quarter and promptly hit a 3-pointer when the Oklahoma City Thunder dared him to shoot.
He finished with two 3-pointers in seven minutes, including another late in the third quarter off a Victor Wembanyama feed. It was a sharp reminder of why McLaughlin became a fan favorite in Minnesota, where he spent the first five seasons of his career from 2019-20 through 2023-24 and served as the main backup point guard behind D’Angelo Russell, Ricky Rubio and Mike Conley.
McLaughlin’s path to that moment has been uneven. He had seven starts across his Timberwolves tenure, but his role has shrunk since then. He has mostly been out of his team’s rotation for the last two years, first with the Sacramento Kings and now with the San Antonio Spurs, and this playoff run has pushed him back into a setting where every minute matters.
That matters even more for San Antonio because the backcourt has been stretched thin. De’Aaron Fox missed the first two games of the Western Conference finals with a sprained ankle, and Dylan Harper exited Game 2 with a right leg injury. With the Spurs short on guards, the bench options around McLaughlin lean heavily toward big men Kelly Olynyk, Bismack Biyombo and Mason Plumlee.
McLaughlin’s Game 2 line was modest, but the context was not. He played 6.4 minutes per game over 44 regular season contests, which made his seven-minute burst in the conference finals feel like a rare chance to influence a game built around deeper rotations and stars carrying the load. The Spurs needed a guard who could enter cold, make a read and punish a defense willing to leave him open.
Game 3 was scheduled for Friday night, and San Antonio may need McLaughlin again if the injuries keep the backcourt in flux. For a player who has spent much of the past two seasons on the edge of the rotation, even a brief playoff spark can change how a team sees the minutes still available.
