Spurs Down Thunder, Advance to NBA Finals vs. Knicks Behind Wembanyama
Theo Al Jazeera English
Victor Wembanyama scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the San Antonio Spurs past the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-103 in Game 7, booking the franchise’s first NBA Finals trip since 2014. They will face the New York Knicks.
The San Antonio Spurs, powered by superstar Victor Wembanyama, clinched their first NBA Finals berth since 2014 by defeating the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder 111-103 in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals on Saturday. The Spurs will host the New York Knicks on Wednesday to open the championship series.
“We still want one more win, but this feeling is hard to describe, it’s so powerful,” Wembanyama said. “We want four more wins. We aren’t done yet. Go Spurs go.”
Wembanyama, the 7-foot-3 French center, finished with 22 points and seven rebounds. Julian Champagnie added 20 points on six three-pointers, and Stephon Castle contributed 16. San Antonio led for nearly the entire game.
“We have a good team, a great team,” Champagnie said. “We just had to stay on course and play a good game. We moved the ball, played together. Went out there and competed together. We never knew if we could get this far, but when you have the best player in the world, anything is possible.”
That praise was for Wembanyama, who was named Western Conference finals MVP and NBA Defensive Player of the Year. “That doesn’t mean anything to me except that we are a team,” Wembanyama said of the honor. “I accept this award for all of us and for all the fans here.”
Wembanyama delivered a stellar performance in his first Game 7. He was emotional at the final buzzer, laughing and crying as he hugged teammates. “Realizing that a piece of a childhood dream is about to come true,” the 22-year-old Frenchman said of his reaction.
The victory sets up an NBA Finals rematch of this season’s NBA Cup, where the Knicks beat San Antonio 124-113 last December in Las Vegas. “They are physical, they attack the glass,” Champagnie said of the Knicks. “It will be a fun challenge for us.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA MVP, led Oklahoma City with 35 points. “He was great, had a terrific game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “He showed up. It was a huge game for him. That will be one of the storylines of the game if we had found a way to win.”
Daigneault said defending the title was not a factor in the loss. “You can be proud of our effort, our growth, our level … and we can be very disappointed. We feel like we could have won this series. We were right there. We don’t think there is anyone we can’t beat. I think we were good enough to win, but credit to San Antonio, they got it done.”
The Spurs had only one player with Game 7 experience but overcame the more seasoned Thunder, who won a Game 7 last year en route to the title. “In October, we knew we had a chance to be pretty good,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “A lot gets talked about – competitiveness, determination, togetherness, execution, who cares about experience? They had to go out and execute, and they did.”
Wembanyama knocked down two three-pointers during a 17-9 run to start the fourth quarter, pushing San Antonio ahead 97-86 with eight minutes left. He picked up his fifth personal foul seconds later and had to sit, giving the Thunder hope, but Gilgeous-Alexander could not rally the defending champions.
