{"id":689561,"date":"2026-05-24T00:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T00:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/689561\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T00:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T00:03:09","slug":"san-antonio-spurs-seeking-answers-to-oklahoma-city-thunders-dominance-when-victor-wembanyama-rests-as-west-finals-heads-to-game-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/689561\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs seeking answers to Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s dominance when Victor Wembanyama rests as West finals heads to Game 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 It\u2019s tempting, but the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> will not play Victor Wembanyama<\/a> every minute of regulation against Oklahoma City even as they trail the Thunder 2-1 in the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

Instead, San Antonio has to find a way to play better when Wembanyama rests because Oklahoma City is dominating when the 7-foot-4 star from France is on the bench.<\/p>\n

The Thunder are two wins away from returning to the NBA Finals with Game 4 on Sunday in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City has won two straight by an average of 12 points since Wembanyama had 41 points, 24 rebounds and three rebounds in 49 minutes during San Antonio\u2019s 122-115 double-overtime victory in Game 1 on Monday.<\/p>\n

As the Spurs seek solutions, playing Wembanyama more minutes is intriguing but not viable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is there,\u201d San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said, smiling, \u201cbut, yeah, I think as we\u2019ve seen it, him fresh or somewhat fresh is still the best. … We don\u2019t want to sacrifice our style of play and the identity that we\u2019ve been building since October.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spurs were a plus-4 in Wembanyama\u2019s 39 minutes in Game 3\u2019s 123-108 loss to the Thunder on Friday. That number may seem inconsequential, but San Antonio was minus-15 as a team and its main reserves were in the negative by double digits. <\/p>\n

MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> had a team-high 26 points, but the rest of the starters combined for 21 points. <\/p>\n

Their scoring wasn\u2019t needed Friday.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City\u2019s bench outscored San Antonio\u2019s 76-23 and were a combined 14 for 29 on 3-pointers. The 76 bench points are the most in the conference finals since the NBA went to the 16-team playoff format in 1984.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve dealt with a lot of injuries throughout the year, but it\u2019s built us,\u201d Thunder center Jaylin Williams<\/a> said. \u201cIt\u2019s built us as a team. It\u2019s built us as players to be ready for the moment, to be ready when your name is called.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams had a playoff career-high 18 points, and fellow reserve Jared McCain<\/a> finished with 24 points.<\/p>\n

The Spurs opened Game 3 on a 15-0 run, the longest run to open a game in the conference finals since the play-by-play era began in 1997. San Antonio led 19-4 when Wembanyama subbed out with seven minutes remaining in the quarter but the Thunder cut the deficit to 24-19 when he returned with 3:44 remaining in the first. <\/p>\n

The Thunder\u2019s depth also allows them to throw multiple bodies and looks to wear on Wembanyama and the Spurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m not going to play as many minutes as (Wembanyama) is, so the minutes I\u2019m out there I\u2019m trying to make his job as tough as I can make it,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Making matters worse for the Spurs is two of their primary playmakers and scorers are battling injuries. <\/p>\n

Point guards De\u2019Aaron Fox (sprained right ankle) and Dylan Harper<\/a> (right adductor soreness) played in Game 3 but were not at 100%. Fox also appeared to injure his left ankle in the third quarter but returned shortly after exiting for the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came out of the game, finished on their own accord,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI took them out, so that\u2019s a plus and as of now we expect them to be ready to go. So, those guys are giving us all they got, and I commend them and tip my cap because they\u2019re competing … and they\u2019re not 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no update on their playing status as of Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The diminished health of Fox and Harper along with Oklahoma City\u2019s physicality has slowed San Antonio\u2019s usual breakneck pace offensively.<\/p>\n

The Spurs played reserve center Luke Kornet<\/a> alongside Wembanyama at times Friday in an attempt to improve its rebounding and spark a faster pace, but the Thunder limited that as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been good for us all year,\u201d Castle said of the Spurs\u2019 pace. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s just against them that it\u2019s crucial that we have those possessions, but, I mean, I think that comes from getting stops first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castle did not want to give away any strategy, but he did say the Spurs discovered some \u201cschematic stuff\u201d that should fix their lapses on both ends for Game 4.<\/p>\n

Regardless, San Antonio has to find a way to keep playing with Wembanyama on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like each and every one of us has got to be better,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cYeah, I think it\u2019s just that as a team, as an organization, there\u2019s a lot of new experiences. We\u2019re just going to have to find the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n

Raul Dominguez, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 It\u2019s tempting, but the San Antonio Spurs will not play Victor Wembanyama every minute…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-689561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}