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This will be only the second time in NBA history that two teams that won 62 or more games each during the regular season meet in a Game 7.<\/p>\n
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 The last time Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder played a Game 7 it was the ultimate game of ultimate games, one that decided<\/a> last season\u2019s NBA championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s why, as the NBA\u2019s two-time Most Valuable Player spoke about the Game 7 that looms against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night to decide the Western Conference Finals<\/a>, it might have seemed mildly surprising that he said these five words: \u201cBiggest game of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the next game,\u201d he quickly added. \u201cAnd if I lose, my season\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n Simple as that. Game 7. Spurs vs. Thunder (8 ET, NBC\/Peacock<\/a>). The winner goes to the NBA Finals<\/a> to play the New York Knicks starting on Wednesday night, the loser goes home to lament what might have been. The Thunder went 2-0 in Game 7s last season<\/a> on their way to the NBA title, while Spurs star Victor Wembanyama will be making his maiden appearance on the Game 7 stage.<\/p>\n \u201cI know there\u2019ll be a lot of added attention, a lot of eyes watching,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a hostile environment, but we\u2019ve been saying this for a long time: We\u2019ve had a lot of firsts. This one will be a little bit more important or higher-stakes than all the others. That\u2019s the goal as you keep playing and the season gets longer.\u201d<\/p>\n This will be only the second time in NBA history that two teams that won 62 or more games each during the regular season meet in a Game 7. The other was in 1981, when Boston beat Philadelphia 91-90 to win the Eastern Conference title.<\/p>\n And it could be easily argued that Wembanyama is about to play the biggest game of his career. Then again, he might take exception to that.<\/p>\n In the mind of the 7-foot-4 French star, who had 28 points in 28 minutes to lead San Antonio\u2019s romp<\/a> in Game 6 that staved off elimination and got the Spurs into Game 7, every game is Game 7. It\u2019s the attitude that he\u2019s taken to the court for as long as he can remember. It\u2019s the approach that shaped him and probably helped him get to this moment.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, winning in the NBA today isn\u2019t any more important than winning a regional championship back when I was playing in the U-13 division,\u201d Wembanyama said in his native French after the 118-91 Game 6 win<\/a> on Thursday night. \u201cThe competitive drive feels exactly the same.\u201d<\/p>\n Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs strike early in Game 6 and keep up the pressure to force Game 7 against OKC.<\/p>\n Game 1<\/a> was a double-overtime thriller, with neither team ever leading by more than 10 points before the Spurs eventually prevailed. And in Game 2<\/a>, Oklahoma City\u2019s biggest lead was 13 before the Thunder won by nine.<\/p>\n The gaps have grown as the series goes along. Both teams led by at least 15 points at times in Game 3<\/a> (a 15-point Thunder win), the Spurs led by as many as 25 before winning Game 4<\/a> by 21, the Thunder led by 20 before winning Game 5<\/a> by 13, and the Spurs led by 28 before winning Game 6 by 27.<\/p>\n So, the games themselves might not have all been classics. The series, as a whole, looks like one. And after all the ups and downs for both teams, it comes down to one game \u2014 the 12th between the teams this season, with San Antonio 7-4 in the previous 11.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one thing that we\u2019ve learned more than anything is every game has a new life,\u201d said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. \u201cEvery game is earned if you want to win it. Game 7 will be no different. This is obviously a quality opponent. We have to play a lot better than we did (in Game 6) and we understand that from a number of experiences. \u2026 We\u2019ll get some rest and recovery, learn from the tape, take the lessons from (Game 6) that are relevant for Game 7 and be ready to go out there and throw our best punch.\u201d<\/p>\n History shows that\u2019s exactly what the Thunder know how to do.<\/p>\n Since the start of the 2025 playoffs, Oklahoma City is 9-0 in the game immediately following a playoff loss \u2014 winning those by an average of 15.4 points.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just a motivated group and we accept the challenge ahead,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cEvery game is going to present a different challenge and obviously when you lose, it hurts a little more and there\u2019s a little extra motivation and we tend to fight a little bit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n And given that this is Game 7, there will be plenty of fight on both sides.<\/p>\n Gilgeous-Alexander will be in his fourth Game 7. Wembanyama will be in his first. Most of the Spurs\u2019 rotation players will be on this stage for only the first or second time. But everyone knows the stakes.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s been a lot of legendary Game 7s and I feel like we\u2019re a group that wants to be a part of that,\u201d said Spurs rookie Dylan Harper, whose father \u2014 five-time champion Ron Harper \u2014 played in a pair of Game 7s. \u201cWe want to be a part of that kind of history of Game 7. We\u2019re going to go out there swinging. No matter what, we just going to leave it all on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This will be only the second time in NBA history that two teams that won 62 or more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105,217092],"class_list":["post-466934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports","tag-spurs-thunder-game-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}