{"id":680859,"date":"2026-05-19T13:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/680859\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:26:14","slug":"wembanyamas-41-24-double-double-silences-thunder-in-west-finals-the-best-player-in-the-world-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/680859\/","title":{"rendered":"Wembanyama\u2019s 41-24 double-double silences Thunder in West finals: \u2018The best player in the world\u2019 | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Wembanyama had 41 points and 24 rebounds, Dylan Harper finished with 24 points and a team playoff-record seven steals, and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> 122-115 in a double-overtime classic to open the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama sealed Monday night\u2019s game with a pair of dunks in the final minute, one of them leading to a three-point play as the Spurs stole home-court advantage and beat the Thunder for the fifth time in six meetings this season.<\/p>\n

Stephon Castle had 17 points, Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson each scored 13 and Julian Champagnie added 11 for the Spurs, who were without De\u2019Aaron Fox because of ankle stiffness.<\/p>\n

\u201cA great effort from everybody,\u201d said Wembanyama, who, at 22 years and 134 days, became the youngest player with at least 40 points and 20 rebounds in a playoff game.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best player in the \u2026 world,\u201d Castle told NBC after the game when asked about Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman was asked if he agrees with Castle\u2019s assessment. \u201cThe world is 8 billion people,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cThat\u2019s 8 billion opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Caruso scored 31 points, the second-highest scoring game of his career, off the bench for the Thunder \u2013 whose nine-game playoff winning streak dating to Game 7 of last season\u2019s NBA<\/a> finals was snapped.<\/p>\n

Jalen Williams returned from a six-game absence caused by a hamstring strain and scored 26 points for the Thunder, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander \u2013 on the night he received his second straight Most Valuable Player<\/a> trophy \u2013 had 24 points and 12 assists but shot 7 for 23 but struggled for long stretches and admitted after the game that he \u201chad to be better\u201d. Asked whether watching Gilgeous-Alexander win the award served as motivation, Wembanyama said, \u201cYeah, for sure.\u201c<\/p>\n

It was the sixth Game 1 in NBA playoff history to go into double overtime \u2013 the first since a Spurs-Warriors game in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a war of wills,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cThe levels of mental toughness exuded by both teams … we needed every second from everybody that played.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Wembanyama\u2019s final line was 14 for 25 from the field, 12 for 13 from the free throw line, and his lone three-pointer came late in the first overtime, tying the game from well beyond the arc<\/a>. Without that shot, there probably would have been no second overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence through the roof,\u201d Harper said of the importance of Wembanyama\u2019s long three. \u201cI was kind of stunned a little bit. But once the ball went up, I\u2019m like, \u2019Oh, it\u2019s going in.\u2019 It\u2019s kind of just who he is.\u201c<\/p>\n

Wembanyama blocked three shots and changed countless others. He dunked on the Thunder and flexed, more than once. The Spurs outrebounded the Thunder 61-40. Wembanyama even smiled and posed for the cameras at times. This was his first conference finals game, on the road no less, and he was as comfortable as could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a great player with high impact obviously, and when you play against those players it\u2019s kind of an acquired thing,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cYou\u2019re learning as you go. We\u2019ve gone through that with other great players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game 2 is Wednesday at Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama had 41 points and 24 rebounds, Dylan Harper finished with 24 points and a team playoff-record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-680859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}