Spurs to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> 111-103 in Game 7, but it wouldn\u2019t have happened without the incredible contributions of his supporting cast. Including Wemby, seven players scored in double figures for the Spurs.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s a look at seven of the best plays in Game 7 by a Spur not named Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
The Spurs landed the first punch and got out to an early 18-8 lead in the first quarter after this De’Aaron Fox steal that led to a Devin Vassell fast break and a Stephon Castle putback dunk. Castle finished with 16 points on 7-for-15 shooting (47%), along with six rebounds and six assists.<\/p>\n
Late in the first quarter, rookie guard Dylan Harper gave the Spurs a nine-point lead with a crafty baseline move against Thunder forward Kenrich Williams. After briefly pausing his dribble in the paint, Harper snuck under Williams and scooped in a right-handed layup. He finished with 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting (63%), along with seven rebounds and three assists.<\/p>\n
Fox left Thunder guard Cason Wallace off balance late in the third quarter before driving into the paint for a floater over Thunder big man Isaiah Hartenstein. He finished with 15 points on 6-for-12 shooting (50%), along with five assists and three steals.<\/p>\n
Early in the fourth quarter, Keldon Johnson hit back-to-back three-pointers that kept the Spurs ahead in a very tight contest. After the game, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson called KJ\u2019s pair of triples \u201cmonster threes.\u201d Johnson finished with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting (50%) and added three rebounds.<\/p>\n
Julian Champagnie was on fire from deep, hitting an impressive 6-for-10 from behind the arch. In doing so, he became just the third player in NBA history \u2013 alongside Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry \u2013 to hit six or more threes in a Conference Finals Game 7. \u201c[Julian] is the kind of guy [who] makes you wanna die for him on the court because he gives so much effort,\u201d Wemby said after the game. Champagnie finished with 20 points on 6-for-11 shooting (55%) and added six rebounds.<\/p>\n
With about six and a half minutes remaining in the game and the Spurs up by six, Hartenstein stole a pass and raced ahead for what appeared to be an easy basket. But Spurs backup center Luke Kornet had other ideas. Sprinting back in pursuit, he blocked Hartenstein at the rim and created a four-point swing. \u201cThe biggest play of the game might\u2019ve been Luke Kornet\u2019s block,\u201d Coach Johnson said after the game. Judging by Wemby\u2019s reaction from the bench, it may well have been.<\/p>\n
Vassell put an exclamation point on the game with a tomahawk dunk in the final four seconds. The power behind the slam was a statement. He finished with 11 points, along with six rebounds, three assists and two steals.<\/p>\n
OK, we lied. We just can\u2019t finish out the month of May without revisiting Wemby stealing Chet Holmgren\u2019s soul in Game 7. Goodnight, Chet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After receiving the Earvin \u201cMagic\u201d Johnson Trophy as Western Conference Finals MVP on Saturday night (May 30), San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[847,87604,87602,87603,820,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-316493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-mysanews","tag-mysapuro","tag-mysasports","tag-mysaspurs","tag-mysastaff","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}