Spurs outpaced, outgunned in Game 3 loss to Thunder; OKC nabs 2-1 Western Conference Finals lead

SAN ANTONIO — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and 12 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder climbed out of a 15-point hole minutes into the game to beat the San Antonio Spurs 123-108 on Friday night and take a 2-1 lead in their series.

Jared McCain had 24 points and Jaylin Williams added 18 for Oklahoma City. The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who sat out with left hamstring soreness.

Oklahoma City’s bench outscored San Antonio’s 76-23, including 15 points by Alex Caruso.

Victor Wembanyama had 24 points for San Antonio. Devin Vassell added 20 and De’Aaron Fox had 15 in his series debut.

The Thunder have won two straight after the Spurs’ double-overtime victory in Game 1. Game 4 is Sunday.

Fox (sprained right ankle) and Dylan Harper (right adductor soreness) were cleared to play 45 minutes prior to tipoff.

Fox’s return sparked a historic start.

The Spurs raced to a 15-0 lead, the longest run to open a game in the conference finals since the play-by-play era began in 1997.

Fox opened the run by wrapping in a driving layup and Wembanyama followed by crossing over Isaiah Hartenstein to drill a 3-pointer. Vassell’s 3-pointer put the Spurs up 10-0, leading to an early timeout by Thunder coach Mark Daigneault.

Hartenstein broke the drought with a runner over Wembanyama, but the center was immediately greeted with thunderous boos after his physical play against the Spurs in Game 2.

The Thunder went on a 13-2 run when Wembanyama went to the bench and closed the first quarter trailing 31-26.

It was a pattern the Spurs could not overcome.

The series continued to be chippy with emotions boiling over early in the second half. Stephon Castle hit the court on back-to-back dunk attempts. The second resulted in a flagrant 1 foul against Ajay Mitchell and technical fouls on Mitchell and Vassell after the two exchanged words following the foul.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams extended Oklahoma City’s first lead to 35-31.

Game 3 blog below.

The Spurs could never close the gap down the stretch as the Thunder kept their engine humming. San Antonio loses consecutive games for the first time since mid-January. 

Victor Wembanyama scored a team-high 26 points to go along with four rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocks. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also scored 26 for OKC, including a perfect 12-for-12 from the charity stripe; he scored all of his points after the first quarter. 

San Antonio has closed the gap back to single-digits as they look to make the score closer with time winding down. Once again in the matchup, San Antonio’s bench is being out pummeled by the OKC reserves, 60-18.

Things started looking grim before fans were able to take some sigh of relief as Fox returned to the game and immediately began to contribute like nothing ever happened.

A scary injury to Fox’s ankle was not the way the Spurs wanted to end the 3rd quarter, especially with their deficit extending to 11 points with 12 minutes left to play.

With less than a quarter and a half left to play in regulation, the threes from OKC began to stop falling at such an alarming rate but the trips to the foul line allowed them to keep separation as Wembanyama headed to the bench for some rest.

Tempers began flare after a few hard fouls to start the 3rd frame, leading to a double technical foul being called on Devin Vassell and Ajay Mitchell following a brief scuffle between both teams.

OKC managed to add to their lead despite several early trips to the line for Castle and the Spurs.

Despite a 15-0 run to start Game 3, the Spurs allowed OKC to claw back before ultimately taking a 7-point lead heading into the locker rooms for halftime.

After SGA left the game for some rest, the Thunder’s bench came alive and helped take back the lead before he returned with four minutes left in the 2nd quarter.

OKC started the second frame on a 9-3 run to take their first lead of the game, but the Spurs quickly responded and tied it back up with a few threes of their own.

It’s been a competitive start to Game 3 of what’s been a competitive series so far. After San Antonio turned the ball over 44 times in Games 1 and 2, they coughed it up four times in the first quarter; but the Thunder turned it over five times thanks to strong early defense from the Silver & Black. 

De’Aaron Fox has nine points to lead all players early. Even more crucially, San Antonio kept MVP Shai-Gilgeous Alexander scoreless in the first dozen minutes of play. 

Oklahoma City responded to San Antonio’s game-opening 15-0 run with a 19-9 sprint of its own to pull nearly even. 

The Spurs are reaping the rewards of being at full-strength in the first frame; De’Aaron Fox has six points for San Antonio after he missed the first two games of the series. Vassell has six points of his own to match. 

Well there’s a way to begin the first Western Conference Finals game in San Antonio in nine years. 

The Spurs have hit three of their first four shots – two of them from downtown – to launch themselves into a 10-0 lead against the defending champions early one. The treys are courtesy of Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell, with De’Aaron Fox also scurrying to the bucket for the first Western Conference Finals points of his career. 

Less than an hour before tipoff, the Spurs announced that both De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper were available to play in Game 3. 

Fox will make his Western Conference Finals debut after an ankle sprain kept him out the first two games against the Thunder. Harper, who had started in his place, left Game 2 after suffering an adductor injury. Fox and Harper have been the third and fourth-leading scorers for the Spurs, respectively, during this playoffs run, with Harper enjoying a breakout postseason debut in his rookie year. 

Wemby honored again

In an expected encore award to his first NBA Defensive Player of the Year accolade, Victor Wembanyama was named to the All-Defensive First Team along with Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, Detroit’s Ausar Thompson, Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and Boston’s Derrick White. 

But only Wemby’s selection was unanimous, mirroring the way he won Defensive Player of the Year honors. 

The selections were announced before Game 3 on Friday night. Stephon Castle and Houston’s Amen Thompson both just missed the cut, each receiving the most points of NBA players who didn’t make the All-Defensive First or Second Teams.