Tomic’s worrying admission as French Open hopes flame out<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Stephon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/b5991b4df8e83312a46cb3c49816f3674478cb75.jpeg\")
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Stephon Castle of the San Antonio Spurs drives to the rim over Isaiah Hartenstein of the Oklahoma City Thunder.\u00a0NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hartenstein contributed 10 points and 13 rebounds in the Thunder’s 122-113 victory, squaring the series at 1-1.<\/p>\n
They aren’t eye-popping numbers but the 28-year-old’s fighting spirit helped somewhat restrict the impact of San Antonio Spurs superstar Wembanyama – who was otherworldly in game one.<\/p>\n
“If you’re not old enough, go and have a look at Hagler v Hearns,” Mike Tirico said on NBC, referencing the legendary middleweight fight in 1985.<\/p>\n
![\"Stephon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7cfb118a9a80c7a958b5b740c7ab171702462cf0.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Stephon Castle of the San Antonio Spurs drives to the rim over Isaiah Hartenstein of the Oklahoma City Thunder.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n
“That’s what this is. Trading punches.”<\/p>\n
The final score doesn’t reflect how tight the contest was, but two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander responded from a shaky game one to pace the Thunder in the frantic final minutes.<\/p>\n
The Canadian led all scorers with 30 points and dished nine assists as the physical, high-paced action took its toll on both squads.<\/p>\n
Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams and boom Spurs rookie Dylan Harper both failed to finish the game with hamstring injuries.<\/p>\n
Spurs All-Star De’Aaron Fox is yet to play in the series because of an ankle issue.<\/p>\n
Game three is in San Antonio on Saturday (AEST).<\/p>\n
Alex Caruso added 17 off the bench, Chet Holmgren scored 13 points and reserves Jared McCain and Cason Wallace each had 12 for Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n
The Thunder finished with a 57-25 edge in bench scoring, plus a 27-10 edge in points off turnovers.<\/p>\n
Castle scored 25 points for the Spurs, who got 22 points from Devin Vassell and a 21-point, 17 rebound, six assist, four block night from Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
![\"Stephon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/893e46940f9526a5db48426a5aa644b9a69e069f.png\")
<\/p>\n
Stephon Castle rises up.\u00a0NBA<\/p>\n
“The guys brought it tonight. Knowing what it would have meant if we lost this one, we brought the energy from the jump,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.<\/p>\n
The Thunder improved to 14-5 after a loss this season – and beat the Spurs for just the second time in seven meetings.<\/p>\n
San Antonio was down by 11 at halftime and trailed by eight going into the fourth quarter, then got within 99-97 off a corner three by Harrison Barnes.<\/p>\n
An 11-0 run by the champions – including a banked-in three by McCain midway through the burst – pushed OKC’s lead to 13.<\/p>\n
But the Spurs were far from done.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama scored down low to make it 118-113 with 85 seconds remaining but Gilgeous-Alexander got one last basket to settle things down and send the series to San Antonio tied. – with AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isaiah Hartenstein was put on a poster in a spectacular play that will grace NBA highlight reels for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-685510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685510","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=685510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}