May 25, 2026 11:00 AM
Victor Wembanyama's brilliance and a suffocating defensive scheme stifled the Thunder's high-octane offense, forcing 20 turnovers to level the Western Conference Finals in a commanding home victory.
Although it may not have been in the fashion that they had in mind, the San Antonio Spurs have evened up the Western Conference Finals at two games apiece with the Oklahoma City Thunder after a 103-82 win at home.
After back-to-back losses against the reigning NBA champions, Wemby and company were able to defend their home court, and the defensive side was a huge part of it.
Defensive Dominance
The Spurs had a top 10 defense throughout the regular season in terms of points they allowed to their opponents, and that has absolutely carried over the playoffs.
Oklahoma City scored the fifth-most points in the league during the season, but San Antonio held them to just 82 points in, which is by far their lowest mark of the postseason, as well as the regular season.
As a matter of fact, it was only the third time this entire season that the Thunder have finished a game with less than 100 points. If that isn't pure dominance on the defensive end, I don't know what is.
Solid Star Play
It has become expected for Victor Wembanyama to have a spectacular performance in this playoffs. This game was no different, as he finished with 33 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and three blocks.
After missing the last two games for the Spurs, De'Aaron Fox came in and scored 12 points and a very impressive 10 rebounds, which surprisingly led the team.
And even though he didn't have the craziest game at 13 points, Stephon Castle was able to effectively limit the turnovers. He finished with a combined 20 in the first two games of the series, but only had one in Game 4 with six turnovers.
Capitalizing on Mistakes
The defense has already been mentioned, but it was so good that San Antonio's ability to force turnovers needs to be talked about separately.
The Spurs turned the ball over 13 times themselves, but they were able to force a whopping 20 turnovers from the Thunder. And that is made even more impressive when you know that OKC had the second-fewest turnovers in the league during the regular season.
Not only was San Antonio able to force those mistakes, but they were able to capitalize with 18 points off of turnovers compared to just seven from the Thunder.
The Spurs will travel back to Oklahoma City for Game 5 of the WCF, where they will be hoping to win on the road and take a series lead back to San Antonio to close it out at home.
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