The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 123-108 in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals on Friday night at Frost Bank Center, retaking the series lead 2-1 after spotting San Antonio a 15-0 run to start the game.
The bench did the work
The Thunder reserves scored 76 points. Jared McCain led the unit with 24, a postseason career high. Jaylin Williams hit five three-pointers on his way to 18, also a postseason career high. Alex Caruso added 15 and Cason Wallace had 11. By comparison, the Spurs bench managed 23.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 26 points and 12 assists for OKC, doing the steady work while the reserves provided the swing. Victor Wembanyama matched him with 26 for San Antonio, but the Spurs never recovered the rhythm of their opening burst.
The 15-0 start that didn't hold
San Antonio scored the game's first 15 points. According to ESPN's play-by-play data going back to 1997, that is the longest scoreless opening run of any conference finals game on record. Frost Bank Center sounded like a closeout crowd. Then the second unit checked in and the game changed.
OKC did it without Jalen Williams, who sat with hamstring soreness aggravated in the double-overtime Game 1 loss. Williams is the only Thunder wing built to make Wembanyama work for everything, and his absence on paper was supposed to widen the Spurs' lane. Instead Mark Daigneault leaned into a deeper rotation and the Thunder's bench depth turned into the story.
What this means for the series
The Thunder are now 9-1 in this postseason and have answered every Spurs counter inside 24 hours. Game 1 went to double-overtime in OKC's building and the Spurs stole it. Game 2 was a Thunder grind to even the series. Game 3 came in San Antonio with the Spurs holding home court, both teams banged up, and the Thunder came in without their second-best player and still won by 15.
The single biggest takeaway is that Oklahoma City's bench is a real playoff weapon, not a regular-season luxury. The Spurs have built their depth around Wembanyama plus role players; the Thunder have built theirs around a roster where the eighth man can drop 18 on a conference finals road night. Game 4 is Sunday in San Antonio. The Spurs need to find a third scorer behind Wembanyama and Devin Vassell, and they need to do it without expecting the bench math to even out.
Comments