The San Antonio Spurs turned a season on its head Sunday morning AEST, hammering the Oklahoma City Thunder 118-91 in Game 6 to force a winner-takes-all Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio did it with pace, precision and a third-quarter burst that buried Oklahoma City before the night could tighten.
That is why thunder vs spurs is suddenly the series everyone is searching: the Spurs have levelled it at 3-3, and one game now stands between either side and the NBA Finals. Game 7 will be played in Oklahoma City on Sunday morning AEST, where the home crowd will get the deciding chapter after San Antonio’s emphatic road win.
The opening quarter set the tone. San Antonio led 35-22 after hitting eight three-pointers, then stretched the game out of reach with a 20-0 run in the third quarter. Oklahoma City went more than seven minutes without scoring during that stretch and was outscored 32-13 in the period, the kind of collapse that turns a close series into a blowout in a hurry.
Victor Wembanyama was central to it. He finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and two steals, and he hit 4-of-9 from beyond the arc as the Spurs kept the Thunder from loading up on him inside. When he gets that kind of perimeter touch on top of his length and rim protection, San Antonio looks like a team that can dictate where the game is played.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, by contrast, never found the same rhythm. He scored 15 points in 28 minutes, shot 6-of-18 from the field and 0-of-5 from three-point range, and added four assists and one rebound. He had scored 32 points in the previous game, which made this the sharpest swing in the series and the clearest sign that Oklahoma City had lost control of the matchup.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said he felt better about the cracks his team had been able to find against Gilgeous-Alexander in the last game, but added that Oklahoma City could not do that nearly as well in Game 6 and that he would not ignore the Spurs’ defence. That leaves the Thunder with one more chance to solve a San Antonio team that now believes, in the words of Stephon Castle, it is the better side.
The result changes everything for the series. Game 7 now carries the full weight of a trip to the NBA Finals, and after the Spurs’ best performance of the postseason, the only question that matters is whether Oklahoma City can answer in time at home.
