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Ben Golliver
Multiple Authors
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sounded the alarm on Christmas after his Oklahoma City Thunder suffered their third loss in 12 days to the San Antonio Spurs.
“You don’t lose to a team three times in a row in a short span without them being better than you,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We have to get better [and] look in the mirror. That’s everybody from top to bottom if we want to reach our ultimate goal.”
By season’s end, the Spurs had won four of their five games against the defending champion Thunder, including in the NBA Cup semifinals with Wembanyama returning after missing nearly a month. Oklahoma City, which had looked unbeatable against most of the league, suddenly had a San Antonio problem.
Entering the Western Conference finals, conventional wisdom held that Oklahoma City’s stars would be responsible for flipping the script against their new rivals. The more experienced Gilgeous-Alexander would need to outplay Spurs center Victor Wembanyama in a showdown between MVP finalists, and Thunder wing Jalen Williams would be asked to provide a much-needed scoring boost after missing most of the season with multiple injuries.
Instead, Oklahoma City has turned to a cast of unlikely heroes to claw its way back to the top. With Gilgeous-Alexander struggling to score efficiently and Williams sidelined by another injury (hamstring), the Thunder pushed the Spurs to the brink of elimination Tuesday with a 127-114 victory in Game 5.
Let’s examine some of the less-heralded factors that have helped Oklahoma City reassert control and take a 3-2 series lead:
An easy adjustment
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has made a long list of creative adjustments against the Spurs, but the biggest one was also the most obvious: Play Alex Caruso more minutes.
Caruso, 32, is an all-world defensive disruptor and the oldest player on Oklahoma City’s youthful roster. As such, the Thunder kept Caruso in bubble wrap for most of the regular season, playing him more than 25 minutes in just one game that was decided in regulation. Caruso also got to take it relatively easy during a first-round sweep of the Phoenix Suns and a second-round sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Caruso opened the West finals with a blistering shooting performance in a Game 1 loss, and he has provided crucial contributions to all three of Oklahoma City’s wins. During the regular season, he averaged just 9.5 points in 20.6 minutes in four appearances against the Spurs. He is up to 17 points per game in 24.7 minutes while shooting 58.1% from beyond the arc in this series.
The nine-year veteran has supplemented the uncharacteristic deadeye shooting with his signature defensive impact and hustle plays. Through these five games, Oklahoma City is plus-45 with Caruso on the court and minus-36 with him on the bench. No player, not even Wembanyama, has a higher raw plus-minus total.
“[Caruso] is not some uber-talented 6-foot-7 guy with a 7-foot-3 wingspan and shoots lights-out,” Gilgeous-Alexander. “But he’s one of the best competitors in the NBA, night in and night out. He sets that tone for us as a group. It’s coming full-fledged in this series.”
A bigger look
The Thunder entered this series knowing Wembanyama would pose major challenges. San Antonio’s star center has led the NBA playoffs in player efficiency rating during his first playoff run, and his defensive presence short-circuited Oklahoma City’s offense during the regular season.
Though Wembanyama has enjoyed several sensational performances, the Thunder have limited his effectiveness in their three victories. He got off to a slow start in Game 5 and mustered only 20 points on 4-15 shooting, and Oklahoma City’s 127 points were the most it scored in 10 games against San Antonio this season.
Because Wembanyama is taller, longer and more talented than Chet Holmgren — Oklahoma City’s lanky big man — Daigneault regularly opted for crossmatches during the regular season. Often, the Thunder would deploy smaller defenders such as Caruso to crowd Wembanyama and make him uncomfortable.
As the West finals have unfolded, the Thunder have returned to center Isaiah Hartenstein, a physical 7-footer who delights in scrapping with Wembanyama. Hartenstein had his best showing in Game 5, finishing with 12 points and 15 rebounds.
Hartenstein’s lack of shooting range posed a big problem in their Game 1 loss, enabling Wembanyama to camp in the paint. Since then, the Thunder have encouraged Hartenstein to attack the empty space in front of him and launch his patented lefty floater over Wembanyama.
On the defensive end, Hartenstein has sought to wear down Wembanyama and limit his rebounding opportunities with diligent boxouts. Wembanyama shot 27% (3-11) with Hartenstein as his primary defender in Game 5 after shooting better than 50% over the first four games of the series, according to tracking from ESPN Research. All in all, Hartenstein has executed the “You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him” approach to battling superstars in textbook fashion.
A fresh face
No team has repeated as champion since the Golden State Warriors in 2018, with well-qualified candidates such as the 2021 Los Angeles Lakers and 2025 Boston Celtics falling short due to health concerns that inevitably mounted during taxing title defenses. There’s an old NBA adage that says a team can’t go back-to-back unless it adds a meaningful player to its championship roster.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti mostly sat on his hands last summer, content to bring back the top 12 members of his 2024-25 group. But his relative inactivity ended at the Feb. 4 trade deadline when he acquired guard Jared McCain from the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for a 2026 first-round pick and three second-round picks.
The acquisition of McCain, a 2024 first-round pick who had fallen out of favor in Philadelphia, didn’t generate much national buzz in its immediate aftermath. After all, Oklahoma City had a surplus of young guards and McCain had less big-game experience than the incumbent alternatives.
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Thunder top Spurs in pivotal Game 5 to take 3-2 series lead
Thunder top Spurs in pivotal Game 5 to take 3-2 series lead
But injuries to Williams and Ajay Mitchell during the West finals have forced Daignault to turn to McCain, who scored 20 points and hit three 3-pointers in Game 5, his first career playoff start. McCain has picked up some ballhandling and offense initiation duties to lighten Gilgeous-Alexander’s load, and his fearless 3-point shooting in the fourth quarter helped ice Game 5.
“I never take it for granted when someone steps into a role like that in a game like this,” Daigneault said. “I’m certainly not surprised. He’s got great moxie and confidence.”
An open mind
Many coaches are loath to change their starting lineups unless they conclude they have no choice. The Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers are two notable examples of teams that should have been more proactive with their lineup changes this postseason.
Daigneault, meanwhile, has deployed four different starting looks in five games against the Spurs. While he has been forced to juggle due to injuries, he has long deployed a flexible and experimental approach to his lineups, including during the 2025 championship run.
After losing Williams and Mitchell, Daigneault gave defensive ace Cason Wallace a chance to start Game 4. The 22-year-old guard didn’t play well in his new role, and Oklahoma City’s starting lineup, which featured multiple non-shooters, struggled to create space around Gilgeous-Alexander.
Moving McCain into the Game 5 starting lineup kick-started Oklahoma City’s attack, particularly during a 9-0 run to open the third quarter. The change also made better use of Wallace, who registered two blocks, two steals and posted a game-high plus-29 in his 31 minutes off the bench.
McCain’s readiness for his promotion and Wallace’s willingness to accept a demotion are both evidence of Oklahoma City’s elite culture.
Another twist?
Oklahoma City isn’t home free yet: The Thunder learned the hard way during a 103-82 loss in Game 4 that the Spurs are still capable of giving them fits. For San Antonio to stave off elimination, Wembanyama must be more involved and more aggressive in Game 6 (Thursday, 8:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock). There’s really no other option, given that the Spurs’ guard corps has looked increasingly mortal and mistake-prone.
While 81% of Wembanyama’s field goal attempts came from inside the arc during San Antonio’s two wins, that figure dropped to 63% in the three losses. To combat the Thunder’s multipronged strategy, he must return to being the most dominant force on the court.
“He’s got to take more than 15 shots,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said of his franchise center. “He’s going to have to score more than 20 points, for sure.”
