For all the talk about matchups, defense, rotations and depth (not to mention a poorly officiated game), the real difference in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals was much more basic:
Oklahoma City made the play harder adjustment. The Spurs did not.
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“I just think [the Thunder] were the more desperate team tonight,” Julian Champagnie said. “I think they wanted the game more than we did.”
Oklahoma City wasn’t perfect, but they showed real game-plan discipline and went hard, like a team that has been in this moment before and knew how to respond. San Antonio looked tired and a step slow.
Six games into any series — let alone this situation where these teams have now played each other 10 times during the season and playoffs — there are no more surprise adjustments to be made. There are no secrets. It’s about playing harder. It’s about executing the game plan better than your opponent.
If the Spurs don’t do that on Thursday night, their season ends.
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“I feel like we’ve been great when we’re desperate all year,” Stephon Castle said. “I’m excited to see how we’ll respond.”
You can watch that response starting at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday night, a gam you can watch on NBC or stream on Peacock.
Starts with Wembanyama
If San Antonio is going to make the play harder adjustment in Game 6, it has to start with Victor Wembanyama.
The math in this series is straightforward:
• The Spurs are 30-4 this season when Wembanyama scores 12 or more points in the paint.
• Wembanyama scored 26 points in the paint in Game 1, a Spurs win.
• Since then, with Isaiah Hartenstein drawing the primary defensive assignment (and with a lot of help), Wembanyama has averaged 10.5 in the last four games.
• He scored just eight points in the paint on 4-of-9 shooting in Game 5.
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It’s not just shots in the paint, it’s getting up shots period. Wembanyama took 25 shots in Game 1 and 22 in Game 4, the two Spurs wins. In the three losses, he took 16, 15 and 15 shots.
“He’s got to take more than 15 shots, even with the free throws. He’s going to have to score more than 20 points, for sure…” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said after Game 5. “OKC did a good job. We’ve got to do a better job.”
It has to be more than just Wembanyama. De’Aaron Fox is playing through an ankle sprain and scored a playoff career low nine points on 4-for-15 shooting (26.7%) in Game 5. Dylan Harper has not shown the same ability to get to the rim and finish since his adductor injury, and he had five points on 1-of-5 shooting in Game 5.
The one standout was Stephon Castle, who scored 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting with six assists. San Antonio needs to get him some help.
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Does experience matter?
It’s easy to read into Game 5 and say that experience won out. It’s more than just poise in the moment, it’s the understanding of conditioning and level of effort and commitment required to reach this level and win. The Thunder are leaning into that.
“The thing that you take from those experiences is the mental part of it — not getting too high, not getting too low and just going in there knowing you have to come with a certain sense of urgency,” Hartenstein said. “I think our group does a great job of just not being too emotional with it. I think when you go into any playoff game and your emotions are too high or too low, that’s kind of when it doesn’t work for yourself.”
Just don’t tell the Spurs that experience matters.
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“That experience does not matter,” Devin Vassell said. “Experience does not matter. We’re here. We’ve had all the experience we’ve needed this regular season, and we’re going to keep proving everybody wrong.”
One thing we have seen in this series is that the Thunder bring the effort every game. Even in Game 4, when OKC lost by 21, it was more about execution — and an ice-cold shooting night — than effort. On the Spurs side, the effort has been less consistent game to game.
Expect the Spurs to feel desperate and bring that effort in Game 6 at home. Will that be enough is another question, the Thunder have been here before and know how to close a team out.
The only thing that seems certain is that Game 6 is setting up to be a classic.