Things felt great coming into the game: the Spurs had their full roster available, they did what they needed to do in OKC by stealing a win, and they had appeared a healthy guard trio away from a big win. While they got their wish in that regard, outside of an insanely hot start in which they quickly got ahead 19-4, the Spurs’ offensive rhythm and bench production was nonexistent, and once they were behind by double digits early in the second half, they couldn’t do enough to make any kind of comeback attempt, losing Game 3 108-123 and handing homecourt advantage back to the Thunder.
Victor Wembanyama led the Spurs with a steady but quiet 26 points while only grabbing 4 rebounds, and Devin Vassell quietly continued to be their most steady player in this series with 20 points on 50% shooting, including 3-6 form three. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 26 points on an inefficient 6-17 shooting but 12-12 from the line, and Jared McCain gave them 24 off the bench.
Observations
- The Spurs got two big announcements about an hour before tip-off: that Victor Wembanyama made the All-Defensive First Team, and more importantly, that De’Aaron Fox (ankle) and Dylan Harper (adductor) were cleared to play — in Fox’s case, for the first time this series. On the other side, the Thunder got two players on the All-Defensive Teams in Chet Holmgren (1st) and Cason Wallace (2nd), but Jalen Williams was ruled out after he left Game 2 having aggravated the same hamstring that kept him out of the first two rounds.
- The Spurs were red hot right out of the gate in front of their fired up home crowd, starting on a 10-0 run in the first two minutes. It was kicked off by Fox looking like himself and driving by Lu Dort for a lay-up, Wemby hitting a step-back three over nemesis Isaiah Hartenstein, and Devin Vassell hitting a transition three off a defensive rebound. It stretched to 15-0 after a Thunder timeout before a Hartenstein floater got them their first points. The Spurs just missed the record for a run to start the game in the play-by-play era, which is a 16-0 run.
- But of course, the instant Wemby (and Fox) sat, the Thunder went on a 15-5 run in no small part thanks to Alex Caruso and Jaylin Williams (the other JWill) getting hot from three, and a 19-4 lead was quickly cut to five. Considering how good the Spurs bench has been all season, it’s bizarre how ineffective they’ve been in this series. Luke Kornet hasn’t been nearly as effective protecting the rim, and scoring has been inconsistent all around.
- The lead was gone after the Thunder opened the second quarter hitting three straight threes as part of an 11-0 run that spanned both quarters before the Spurs hit a couple to briefly get their offense going again. The Thunder went on another 9-0 after the Spurs had taken a 45-43 lead again while Wemby — who admittedly was cold in the quarter — sat, and then they went on a 6-0 run to take 58-51 halftime lead. After that 15-0 start, the Spurs only hit 11 shots the rest of the half, with little ball movement and seemingly no one willing to step up.
- The Spurs were still slow out of halftime with the Thunder stretching the lead to double digits. Then, Ajay Mitchell committed a flagrant foul on Castle as he drove to the hoop off a steal. Vassell came to his defense and shoved Mitchell, he pushed back, and both to receive technicals. Vassell (or “Vastle”, as the refs continue to call him) is usually pretty chill, so it was good to see someone step up and try to light a fire under the team after they had been so sluggish ever since that 19-4 start to the game.
- The turnovers were down some (15 on the night) with Castle no longer on ball-handling duties, so he only had one, but that also diminished his effectiveness on offense. He was just 1-8 from the field but at least seemed to be trying by driving and drawing free throws, where he was 11-14 from the line.
- Fox re-aggravated his ankle twice late in the third quarter before limping off and looking dejected on the bench, although he gave it another go in the fourth quarter. While he was the best of the three guards with 15 points and 6 assists on 7-14 shooting, Harper and Castle were very limited in their offensive contributions, with a combined 20 points on 3-15 shooting. Coming in, it seemed like a boost to have all three guards again, but instead no offense was being run: no pick and rolls, no set plays, seemingly just everyone taking turns playing iso-ball, with no one being effective.
- The Spurs remained between 8-15 points behind throughout most of the second half largely by getting to the line, but similar to the second half of game 2, they could never find enough offensive rhythm or get enough consecutive stops (or stop committing dumb fouls) to go on any kind of game-changing run.
- The Spurs are going to have to find some production from their bench if they want to get back in this series. The second unit was vastly outscored for the third game in a row, this time 76-23. While no one stepped up for the Spurs, the Thunder got a combed 57 points from Caruso, JWill and McCain. While none of the starters were great in this one (outside of maybe Vassell, Wemby was merely solid), it was the bench minutes where the Spurs ultimately got behind and couldn’t climb back out.
