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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 30 points and added nine assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 122-113 in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals Wednesday, tying the series at 1-1.
The Thunder overcame the loss of Jalen Williams, who exited the game after rejoining the Thunder’s lineup in Game 1 for the first time since the first round of the playoffs. Alex Caruso scored 17 points to lead four Thunder bench players in double-digit scoring. Isaiah Hartenstein added 10 points and 13 rebounds for Oklahoma City.
Stephon Castle scored a team-high 25 points and had eight assists for the Spurs, but he turned it over nine times after a franchise playoff-record 11 turnovers in Game 1. Victor Wembanyama scored 21 points and added 17 rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots in the loss.
The Spurs also saw rookie guard Dylan Harper exit the game with an injury.
Here are some takeaways with Game 3 set for Friday night in San Antonio.
Hartenstein gets double-double, frustrates Wemby
Hartenstein played 12 minutes in a double-overtime game two nights ago. He more than doubled those minutes Wednesday, and proved infinitely more impactful.
In Wednesday’s win for the Thunder, he snagged eight offensive rebounds, one fewer than Oklahoma City collected as a team on Monday. He pushed Wembanyama, a galactic threat inside 10 feet, further from the rim. He matched physicality. He set bruising screens. He extended possessions.
More than anything, he made winning plays and proved to be playable after appearing questionable in Game 1. He gave Wembanyama an obstacle, which previously seemed like a prayer. — Joel Lorenzi, Thunder writer
Spurs dealing with injuries at guard
The Spurs need their guards to win this series. They’re down two of them and couldn’t keep their offense consistent enough to keep up with SGA on Wednesday.
Winning Game 1 was a big enough series-shifter to still be in a good position to advance in the end, but they will need at least one of Harper or De’Aaron Fox to do it. The news on Harper’s leg is still to be determined, but the Spurs are reliant upon all their guards to open things up for Wembanyama. That can’t happen if it’s just Castle out there.
The Spurs had their second 20-turnover game of this series, something they had done only once since mid-November. Their offense already was struggling to run smoothly without Fox, who has been their metronome and palate cleanser when things get messy. Castle had nine turnovers in Game 2, with a crucial bad pass to an open Julian Champagnie in the closing minute putting an end to a Spurs comeback attempt.
San Antonio played well in this game, but they couldn’t handle Hartenstein’s rebounding in the fourth quarter, and they needed to find some more creative ways to get Wembanyama the ball in the fourth quarter. He had one good play when he got a defensive rebound and then sprinted down the floor to get a post-up on Hartenstein and score. But when Hartenstein kept dominating the offensive glass, the Spurs couldn’t get out in transition and create the easy buckets they needed. — Jared Weiss, Spurs writer
SGA delivers another MVP performance
Wembanyama might’ve seethed while Gilgeous-Alexander received the MVP trophy before Game 1 Monday, but on Wednesday, he got a front-row seat to see why the guard earned it.
With the Spurs’ defense bending towards him with every dribble, Gilgeous-Alexander somehow managed to find enough space enough times. His final jumper, to extinguish the Spurs’ late-game run, ended with a subtle fist pump. It was his 29th and 30th points of the game on 12-of-24 shooting.
His nine assists, his two blocks, his lone turnover — the totality of it all — was representative of the kind of all-around efficiency the two-time MVP hits more nights than not. — Dan Woike, senior writer
Turnovers plaguing Castle, overshadowing offensive effort
Twenty turnovers. That’s how many miscues Castle had in two games in Oklahoma City this week. It’s an NBA record for consecutive playoff games.
It also took the shine off some electric moments from the Spurs’ second-year pro, whose team-high 25 points included a shocking poster dunk of Hartenstein in the second quarter that caused even the partisan crowd here to “Ooooooohhhhh!” in awe.
The way Oklahoma City beats teams is by forcing turnovers and not giving the ball away. The Thunder forced 21 turnovers in a narrow defeat in Game 1, 21 more in Game 2, but committed only 10 themselves in evening the series tonight.
Those 11 extra possessions were essentially the story of the game, on a night the Spurs outshot the Thunder from the field, from 3 and from the line.
Recent events only put a bigger magnifying glass on the Spurs’ mistakes, and especially Castle. With Fox out for the first two games and Harper exiting in the third quarter with an injury of his own, and with the tail end of San Antonio’s bench offering little support (tiny journeyman Jordan McLaughlin is the only other ballhandling option for a club that bizarrely rosters five centers), Castle will have to be sharper and more secure for the Spurs to prevail as the series heads to San Antonio. — John Hollinger, senior writer
