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The Thunder need to find a way to limit Victor Wembanyama\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a><\/p>\n OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013 The Oklahoma City Thunder have been in this position before \u2013 down 1-0 in the playoffs \u2013 and responded with series victories.<\/p>\n It happened twice last year as the Thunder won the championship. They lost Game 1 to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals and Game 1 to the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. They needed seven games to win both series.<\/p>\n That experience allows the Thunder to act with poise and confidence and an understanding that they have found answers in the past and can figure out how to beat the San Antonio Spurs after Monday\u2019s 122-115 Game 1 double-overtime loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cumulative experience just teaches you that it\u2019s a series,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cGame 1\u2019s a starting point, not an end point. We\u2019ve lost a playoff series that we\u2019ve won Game 1 pretty convincingly, and we\u2019ve also won a series that we\u2019ve won Game 1.<\/p>\n \u201cSo every series is different. It\u2019s the first to four. They\u2019re 25% of the way there, and we\u2019re at zero right now, but there\u2019s a lot of basketball left to be played. This team understands the length of a series, the length of a playoff run, the length of the playoff game. That\u2019s the value of the experiences that we\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are three things to watch in Game 2 Wednesday (8:30 ET, NBC\/Peacock<\/a>).<\/p>\n 1. Can the Thunder limit Victor Wembanyama?<\/p>\n It was no secret entering the series that Wembanyama would be a handful for the Thunder. But that much of a handful? If that\u2019s the Wembanyama the Thunder are going to get, maybe there\u2019s not a game plan that can save them.<\/p>\n He was 13-for-21 on shots in in the paint, and the Thunder had undersized Alex Caruso defend Wembanyama for long stretches in an attempt to be more physical with him.<\/p>\n But it could also require more size with Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Jalen Williams and Jaylin Williams.<\/p>\n Wembanyama\u2019s 48 minutes, 42 seconds were a career high, and the Spurs have been careful with Wembanyama\u2019s minutes. He played 29.2 minutes per game in the regular season and 28.8 per game during the first two rounds of the playoffs. This season, he didn\u2019t log one game with more than 40 minutes played.<\/p>\n And that could be part of the long game for the Thunder \u2013 wear down Wembanyama with heavy minutes. In a series that is played every other day, can Wembanyama play big minutes and still be as effective as the series progresses?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s see if the Thunder have solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything\u2019s on the table,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cIn these series, you can\u2019t just throw one pitch throughout the whole series. We have reasons why we approached the game why we did last night. Some of that was the regular-season matchup. Some of that was the stuff that we saw in the first couple rounds from ourselves and from them.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in these series, one of the things you got to do is you got to figure out what the problems are, and you got to put the fires out pretty quickly. And so that\u2019s our challenge and we got to work on that with the team. We\u2019ll continue to work on it and then we\u2019ll throw our best pitch (Wednesday) night.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s response to Game 1<\/p>\n If Wembanyama played with a chip on his shoulder in Game 1 because he didn\u2019t win Kia MVP and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did, then Gilgeous-Alexander likely will play with a similar chip because of his Game 1 performance.<\/p>\n In the aggregate, it wasn\u2019t horrible: 24 points, 12 assists, five steals, one block, four turnovers. But it wasn\u2019t efficient (7-for-23 shooting), and he was just 1-for-5 from the field with four points in the first half.<\/p>\n That\u2019s from a player who was a 55.3% shooter during the regular season.<\/p>\n He had a better second half and found success with an aggressive approach when the Thunder needed points.<\/p>\n But don\u2019t forget: the Thunder had a 108-105 lead in the first overtime and had a chance to extend it to 110-105. The Spurs know it could\u2019ve gone either way and expect a better Gilgeous-Alexander in Game 2.<\/p>\n \u201cThat game was in the balance multiple times for both teams,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said, adding, \u201cHe missed some shots that he\u2019ll make. That\u2019s unfortunately the control you give up when you play a player who\u2019s that good. You just hope that they\u2019ll miss, and you have to make sure it\u2019s a little harder than the one before it.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. What can the Thunder get from Holmgren?<\/p>\n Through Oklahoma City\u2019s first two playoff series, Chet Holmgren averaged 18.6 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals and shot 60% from the field.<\/p>\n He was perhaps the team\u2019s best player in the Western Conference Semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n In Game 1, Holmgren had a quiet eight points and eight rebounds. He attempted just seven shots, and his first attempt didn\u2019t come until 42.4 seconds remained in the second quarter.<\/p>\n He had a great block on Wembanyama at the rim on the final shot of the fourth quarter that ensured overtime at 101-101.<\/p>\n Daigneault said better team offense will lead to more opportunities for Holmgren.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s running better stuff, but also just collectively having a better intentionality and approach that\u2019s going to give us more advantages (and) put the defense in more dilemmas,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cHe\u2019s 7-1 and skilled, and when we do that, he\u2019s going to show up in a big way. But it\u2019s more of a reflection of our offense collectively. We\u2019re going against a great defense that\u2019s, like I said, an acquired taste.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have to improve as the series goes on on both ends of the floor. I thought we did some good things on offense, especially in the second half. We\u2019ve got to be collectively better, and everybody will benefit from that, including him.\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":"The Thunder need to find a way to limit Victor Wembanyama\u2019s reach. \u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App OKLAHOMA CITY…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[281724,355,99],"class_list":["post-653508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-3-things-to-watch-spurs-thunder-game-2","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}