Wembanyama Spurs – Victor Wembanyama and a young San Antonio Spurs team finished the job in Game 7 against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, winning 111-103 on Saturday to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in the post-Tim Duncan era. San Antonio will face a New
The stakes didn’t need explaining. Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals tends to strip basketball down to its most honest form.
So when the San Antonio Spurs finally took control on Saturday. they did it the way young contenders sometimes have to: with intensity. with timely stops. and with just enough help around Victor Wembanyama to make the defending champions uncomfortable. San Antonio beat Oklahoma City 111-103 to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in the post-Tim Duncan era.
The opponent is the New York Knicks, a team trying to win a title for the first time since 1973. Either way, the NBA is headed toward yet another first-time champion—an eighth straight season without a repeat.
For much of the season, it looked like the Thunder were built to run it back. They didn’t. The Spurs version of reality—better defense, bigger swings at the right moments, and a supporting cast that delivered when the game demanded it—was simply too much.
And you could feel the missing pieces in Oklahoma City’s body language across the series. Jalen Williams sat out with a hamstring. Ajay Mitchell was also unavailable, his calf limiting what he could provide. Even with all that. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander carried the load as best as anyone could. finishing Game 7 with 35 points and nine assists in 43 minutes. But the Spurs made his job harder than it looked like it needed to be. forcing him into stretches where he just couldn’t get the Thunder over the hump.
It’s also impossible not to notice what’s standing on the other side of this moment: a Spurs team built around Wembanyama. still only 22. with a roster that looks younger than the idea of winning a title usually allows. After years of waiting for their next era, San Antonio is now one series away from writing the first pages.
The championship series starts Wednesday in San Antonio.
Luke Kornet’s chase-down block changed the feel of Game 7
With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Spurs had an 11-point lead. Then Isaiah Hartenstein was fouled by Wembanyama on a back-door cut. He dunked it anyway, made the free throw, and suddenly the margin was down to eight.
Wembanyama was already in foul trouble. It was his fifth foul, and he was headed to the bench. The next bucket by Gilgeous-Alexander cut the Spurs’ lead to six, and for a moment it felt like momentum had shifted.
San Antonio didn’t let it.
After that, Hartenstein stole the ball and seemed headed for an easy dunk in transition. Backup centre Luke Kornet sprinted the floor and delivered a spectacular chase-down block before the Spurs scored the other way.
Oklahoma City had another chance swing the game back, only for it to end in trouble. The Thunder came down and turned the ball over, with Cason Wallace and Hartenstein getting crossed up on what would have been an easy dunk for Hartenstein.
The Spurs answered immediately. Justin Champagnie hit a triple to put San Antonio back up by 11 with 5:33 to play, and Wembanyama was back in the game.
All of it added up to a nine-point swing at a crucial point—exactly the kind of sequence that can quietly decide a series, even when the scoreboard still looks close.
Wembanyama’s Finals arrival comes fast—and with proof
Wembanyama’s night in Game 7 still looked like it was built for the spotlight: 22 points and seven rebounds, enough to earn Western Conference Finals MVP.
His season-long climb isn’t new to anyone, either. In a seven-game conference final against the NBA’s top-ranked defence and a 64-win team defending a title, Wembanyama averaged 27.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 1.4 steals.
The Spurs are now poised to begin what could become a long-running story. At 22, Wembanyama is already in his third NBA season. Alongside him, Stephon Castle—whose defence gave Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trouble throughout the series—was also only in his second season at age 21.
Dylan Harper, a rookie point guard who turned 20 in March, finished with 12 points off the bench on eight shots. And despite everything the Thunder tried to do to disrupt San Antonio, the Spurs’ supporting cast mattered.
The Spurs’ path to the Finals doesn’t erase how hard Gilgeous-Alexander pushed. It only shows what happens when a great player runs into a defence that can rotate, shade, and double without panic—confident that Wembanyama is waiting to clean up the mess.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished Game 7 at 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting, with nine assists and three steals against just three turnovers in 43 minutes. He also struggled to solve San Antonio’s approach as it repeatedly sent physical defenders after him 40 feet from the basket. with Wembanyama shadowing. shading over. or outright double-teaming him.
The Thunder did create problems, including in the way they used screening actions to get Gilgeous-Alexander matched up against Champagnie. That helped him score 25 points across the second and third quarters. But San Antonio held firm when it mattered most—San Antonio trailed 80-77 to begin the fourth. then couldn’t allow the Thunder to take control from there.
Even the “Superman” idea has limits. At this stage of the playoffs, the best defences can overwhelm anyone. Gilgeous-Alexander’s numbers proved the effort was real. It was the lack of a second push that made the difference.
Chet Holmgren’s Game 7 summed up the Thunder’s problem
The biggest loser in this series, at least statistically, may have been Chet Holmgren. He took just two shots and scored four points in 33 minutes in Game 7.
Across the seven-game series, Holmgren averaged 10.1 points per game—seven points below his season average. Oklahoma City needed more from its other all-NBA player, and it didn’t come.
Lu Dort’s timing could decide more than just basketball tonight
Lu Dort’s role has always been about defence, and his identity didn’t vanish in defeat. But against a Spurs team as strong as this one, the same requirement that makes Dort valuable also exposes him.
Dort struggled to find his offence in this series, especially from three. Through six games, he was 4-for-22 from deep, shooting just 18 per cent.
He had moments in Game 7. His three tied the game with 2:17 to go in the second quarter after San Antonio led by as much as 14 midway through the first. He also made a big steal on an inbounds pass with 43 seconds left in the fourth as the Thunder trailed by six.
But the production wasn’t enough. Dort scored three points in Game 7 at home and finished the series shooting 5-of-25 from three while averaging 4.5 points per game.
The decision tree around Dort may now become impossible to ignore. The Thunder are holding a team option worth $18.2 million on the last year of Dort’s contract. They’re also facing a projected tax bill of $213 million. and with an expensive roster looming. Dort’s struggling shooting could make the choice easier.
Wembanyama’s stretch: impossible shots, and then the receipts
Wembanyama’s impact wasn’t just measured in points and rebounds. It was how quickly he flipped “how is that possible?” into “of course he did.”
For the series, he shot 40 per cent from three, 89 per cent from the free-throw line, and finished with 29 steals and blocked shots compared to just 17 fouls.
In Game 7 specifically, his runs had that kind of chaos that changes how defenders walk out to the perimeter. His first touch included a pull-up jumper off glass. He later cut back door, caught a pass and dunked over Holmgren without jumping—at least it looked that way in real time.
At 10:07 of the third quarter, Wembanyama turned, split a double team and dunked without dribbling starting from outside of the paint. At 8:43 left in the fourth quarter, he hit a step-back three that would make anyone watching feel déjà vu.
Now San Antonio is where it wants to be—one round away from a championship.
Wednesday in San Antonio begins the next chapter, with Wembanyama and the Spurs set to meet a Knicks team waiting since 1973.
NBA Western Conference Finals Game 7 San Antonio Spurs Oklahoma City Thunder Victor Wembanyama Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Luke Kornet Justin Champagnie Stephon Castle Dylan Harper Chet Holmgren Lu Dort New York Knicks NBA Finals