<\/p>\nHLs: Wemby leaves no doubt with 33 in Game 4<\/p>\n
Victor Wembanyama set a personal record of first-half points in a playoff game that was capped by a half-court buzzer beater and resulted in a 33-point night when Game 4 was all said and done.<\/p>\n
While we haven\u2019t seen the most efficient Shai Gilgeous-Alexander this series \u2014 he\u2019s shooting just 37.9% \u2014 he dropped 30 points in Game 2 and 32 points in Game 5, both Oklahoma City wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the shots that I\u2019m shooting, I\u2019ve shot plenty of times before and they feel good. They\u2019re just not going in,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said of his shooting this series. \u201cBut it\u2019s too late to abandon my work and abandon my game and who I am. This late in the season, I got to trust it and live or die by it.\u201d<\/p>\n
SGA carved up the Spurs with his passing and playmaking early in the series, when San Antonio doubled him and tried to force the ball out of his hands. However, since the Spurs switched to a more straightforward defense (led by Castle) with help coming when he drives into a dangerous position, SGA has really struggled.<\/p>\n
Maybe it is as simple as which superstar has the better night.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City\u2019s starting five<\/p>\n
With Jalen Williams (left hamstring) and Ajay Mitchell (calf) missing time \u2014 and they are both out for Game 7 \u2014 Mark Daigneault has had to adjust his rotations.<\/p>\n
His starting five the last couple of games has been Gilgeous-Aleander, Jared McCain, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein \u2014 and they have not been good together. There\u2019s a reason the Spurs race out to an early-game lead seemingly every game, forcing OKC to dig out of a hole.<\/p>\n
The biggest issue has been Dort and his lack of shooting \u2014 he is shooting 35.5% overall and 18.2% from 3, giving the Spurs an easy person to help off of and ignore. Daigneault may want to consider starting \u2014 or subbing in very early \u2014 Cason Wallace for Dort.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City also needs a more aggressive night from Chet Holmgren. This has been a rough series for him, but when he is a scoring threat, like Game 5, the Thunder become that much more dangerous. He has to be that guy in Game 7.<\/p>\n
Can Thunder force turnovers then run?<\/p>\n
As mentioned above, the Spurs\u2019 half-court defense has frustrated the Thunder and Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n
What has fueled the Thunder this season has been forcing turnovers with their aggressive defense, then turning those into easy transition buckets the other way. If the Thunder wins this series, they have scored 20, 20 and 27 points off Spurs turnovers; in the last two losses, it was 11 and 13 (Game 1, with its double overtime, was kind of its own thing).<\/p>\n
If OKC can get some easy transition buckets, that\u2019s huge for them in Game 7.<\/p>\n
3s and bench stars<\/p>\n
Two other quick keys in this game. One, the Thunder have been streaky from 3-point range this series, they need to be on in Game 7 or it\u2019s a big mountain to climb.<\/p>\n
Second, which super-sub has the better game, Dylan Harper or Alex Caruso? Both have been brilliant this series, if one steps up big in Game 7 it\u2019s a huge advantage for their team. Or, maybe it\u2019s another sub \u2014 Game 7s have a way of bringing unexpected heroes to the front of the line.<\/p>\n
Home court, experience<\/p>\n
Will being at home and having played in big Game 7s before \u2014 including Game 7 of the NBA Finals a year ago on this very court \u2014 be the difference on Saturday?<\/p>\n
Historically, experience and home court matter (stats via NBC\u2019s research team):<\/p>\n
\u2022 Home teams have a 26-12 (.684) record in conference finals Game 7s (this excludes the bubble).
\u2022 Oklahoma City won two Game 7s at home on its way to last year\u2019s title (Denver and Indiana).
\u2022 Oklahoma City is 4-1 in Game 7s (since relocating to OKC, we\u2019re not counting the Seattle years or the loss in the bubble). All four of those wins are at home.
\u2022 The home team has won three in a row in this series.
\u2022 If San Antonio wins Game 7, it would become the third road team to win a Game 7 in these playoffs (Cavaliers over Pistons, 76ers over Celtics), which would be a record for a single postseason.
\u2022 The last time the teams with the two best records in the league met in a Game 7 was 2002, when the 58-win Lakers led by Shaq and Kobe beat the 61-win Kings.<\/p>\n
All that said, the Thunder aren\u2019t banking on being at home mattering.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything can happen in a Game 7,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cIt\u2019s win or go home. It being in your building is nice, but it doesn\u2019t really mean anything. You have to go out there and be the better basketball team or else your season\u2019s done and that\u2019s what it comes down to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 This series had to go seven. The Western Conference Finals have felt like a heavyweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-706353","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\/706353","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=706353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}