![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SGA-WCF-Game-3.jpg\")
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (26 points) leads the Thunder toward a third consecutive win over the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a><\/p>\n SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Operating on little sleep, befitting a coach seeking a second consecutive NBA championship, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault met with reporters Saturday morning.<\/p>\n It was at the Thunder team hotel in a unique library room surrounded by a diverse collection of titles: Under the Texas Sun: Adventures of a Young Cowpuncher; Western Water Made Simple; The Ranch That Was Us; Handbook of Data on Organic Compounds; and Maps of Paradise.<\/p>\n It was about 12 hours after he left Frost Bank Center with his Thunder up 2-1 following Friday\u2019s 123-108 victory<\/a> against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals<\/a>.<\/p>\n He attended a postgame team dinner, met with his parents, and \u201cthen I watched the film last night,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cI usually watch film the night of the game. I\u2019m usually pretty wound up after the game anyways.\u201d<\/p>\n The start of the game could\u2019ve induced nightmares as the Spurs took a 15-0 lead. From that point on though, it was all Thunder \u2013 an unusual 123-93 run \u2013 and Daigneault could rest easier before waking up and getting ready for Game 4 Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a great win last night, and you just know Game 4, you\u2019re going to have to really earn it if you want to go get that game,\u201d Daigneault said, \u201cand so the gears just start turning on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are three things to watch in Game 4 on Sunday in San Antonio (8 ET, NBC\/Peacock<\/a>).<\/p>\n 1. What can Wembanyama deliver in Game 4?<\/p>\n The Thunder defeat the Spurs, 123-108, in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals to take a 2-1 series lead.<\/p>\n The Thunder won\u2019t be so presumptuous as to think they\u2019ve figured anything out against Victor Wembanyama. For starters, that would be foolhardy. Also in the series, the Spurs have a positive net rating when Wembanyama is on the court, scoring 114.2 points and allowing 108 points per 100 possessions.<\/p>\n Problem is, the Spurs can\u2019t keep him on the court for the entire game, and the Thunder are crushing it in the non-Wembanyama minutes. In the nine minutes Wembanyama was on the bench in Game 3, the Thunder outscored the Spurs 35-16, including 15-5 in the first quarter and 9-0 in the second quarter.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t play him 48 minutes, so you can\u2019t lose by 20 in those minutes,\u201d said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. \u201cThere\u2019s a combination of who are we playing, what are we running, what\u2019s the game plan during that time, and I\u2019ve got to make sure I help that group, and the group when Victor\u2019s in there has to be better, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Wembanyama still had 26 points in Game 3, but there have been diminishing returns in certain areas of his production. Let\u2019s start with rebounding. He had 24 rebounds in Game 1, 17 in Game 2 and four in Game 3, including nine offensive rebounds followed by five followed by zero. His paint points have decreased from 26 in the Spurs\u2019 series-opening victory to 10 paint points in each of the two losses.<\/p>\n In other words, the Thunder are doing a decent job of making sure Wembanyama doesn\u2019t dominate the paint especially with easy dunks.<\/p>\n Oklahoma City has found success defending him with multiple defenders<\/a>, including Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren (first-team All-Defensive selection this season) and Jaylin Williams. According to NBA data, a different Thunder player each game has spent the most time on Wembanyama.<\/p>\n It\u2019s different players, different looks and different levels of physicality in attempt to wear down Wembanyama.<\/p>\n \u201cVic creates our advantages for us more than anybody else,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThat\u2019s very easy to observe. The way we execute those advantages throughout the season has been with our three guards (De\u2019Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper) mostly with the basketball in their hands. Just being blunt, those guys aren\u2019t 100% right now.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have to adjust while not changing how we play but understanding how we can continue to take advantage of those things. \u2026 We have to continue to evolve and that\u2019s what goes into being in a chess match and they\u2019ve done some good adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Thunder enjoying road success<\/p>\n The Thunder remain unbeaten on the road in the playoffs (5-0) and are now 10-5 in playoff road games the past two seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to win playoff games on the road,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cAs you saw last night, that took all of our best punch to win that game the way we did last night. And it still wasn\u2019t easy despite the fact that it was a 15-point win. It\u2019s challenging. You don\u2019t graduate to it. It\u2019s going to be just as hard (Sunday) night.\u201d<\/p>\n In five road playoff games this season, the Thunder give up more points than at home but they also score more points on the road than at home, too.<\/p>\n A road win in Game 4 would put the Thunder up 3-1 in the series and send it back to Oklahoma City for a chance to close out. That would lock in a return to the NBA Finals<\/a> for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to have a presence of mind, emotional regulation and the ability to cut through distractions and execute with poise and confidence,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cAnd this team has that, and that does grow the more that you\u2019re in the situations and this team\u2019s done a great job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. A deeper look at Thunder\u2019s deep bench<\/p>\n Jared McCain (22 points) and Jaylin Williams (18 points) both score playoff career-highs as the Thunder bench propels them to win.<\/p>\n This bench stat is generating discussion: Oklahoma City\u2019s bench has outscored San Antonio\u2019s bench 183-64 in the series, including 76-23 in Game 3. The 76 points were the most a bench has scored in a conference finals game since the conference finals debuted in 1970-71.<\/p>\n Those are staggering numbers.<\/p>\n Of the Thunder\u2019s 47 3-pointers through three games, the bench has made 37 of them and is shooting 48.5% from the field and 44% on 3s. Thunder reserves also have accounted for 24 of the team\u2019s 35 steals.<\/p>\n Alex Caruso scored a playoff career-high 31 points in Game 1, four non-starters reached double-figures in points in Game 2 and Game 3, including 24 from Jared McCain and 18 from Jaylin Williams in Game 3. Williams is shooting 58.3% on 3s.<\/p>\n Cason Wallace was named to the NBA\u2019s All-Defensive Second Team<\/a> on Friday, and he opens the game on the bench. He\u2019s averaging 10.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals and shooting 50% from the field.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of guys that we trust,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cWe also play in a way that demands a lot of energy. We play with a lot of pressure. We provide a lot of help, which puts us in longer closeouts. We want to be a great transition defense team. \u2026 We want to crash the offensive glass. Everything we want to do that gives you the best chance to win requires energy and there\u2019s different ways to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can try to condition eight guys to doing that, and that can be successful. But when you have a team as deep as we are, we choose to deploy those guys and keep fresh legs on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Jeff Zillgitt has covered the NBA since 2008. You can email him at\u00a0jzillgitt@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (26 points) leads the Thunder toward a third consecutive win over the Spurs in the Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85,337558],"class_list":["post-691799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports","tag-spurs-thunder-game-4-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691799","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=691799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}