Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Western Conference Finals opener delivered an unforgettable double-overtime thriller between two elite teams — the Thunder and Spurs.
- Victor Wembanyama dominated with historic defensive intensity while Alex Caruso sparked endless crucial plays for his team.
- The series presents a major health and safety challenge with both teams logging exhausting minutes in Game 1.
There are few joys in this absurd, callous world quite like when you’re so ridiculously excited for a sporting event, build your evening around watching it, and then it packs itself into a USPS priority mail envelope because it just delivers.
Was Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs the greatest basketball game ever played? Probably not, but if we categorically refuse to correct for recency bias, then … yep, greatest game ever played, Victor Wembanyama is the greatest basketball player ever, Alex Caruso is the second best, oh and they should cancel all other NBA games for the next 10 years and just have these two teams play an 100 game series to determine the champion.
Double overtime?! A 30-foot gotta-have-it 3-pointer from downtown Bordeaux in the exact spot Stephen Curry hit the “double bang” shot in the same building?! That’s a tell-your-grandkids shot. Everyone stepped up, even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who struggled all night got to the rim big time in overtime and gave his team a real chance to win. Alex Caruso stepped up so much he ran out of stairs. There were like seventeen how-did-he-pull-that-off moments in the fourth quarter and both overtimes. It was seismic, nuclear, Death Star-ic.
I’m going to run out of hyperbole, so let’s just get to some takeaways before the metaphor police arrest me for comparing Julian Chapagnie to Poseidon.
1. You don’t stop Victor Wembanyama, he stops you
There are no words in English, French, Entish or the tongues of men electrified enough to describe Victor Wembanyama’s impact on that basketball game. For the first time in recorded history, Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson took the kid gloves off and loosed 49 minutes of Wemby on the basketball world, and the results were scintillating.
41 points and 24 rebounds. He also three blocks and, by my count, about 100 “vibe blocks” in which a Thunder player was so disturbed by the defensive presence they didn’t even attempt the shot. He was doing that to Shai. Nobody does that to Shai.
He brought such intensity, such moxie, such infectious competitiveness to a series we all hoped would overflow with it. He gives his teammates, young 20-somethings all, such supreme confidence because he literally has their backs. If they get beat, he’s got them. If they miss, he can get the board. If they can’t get a shot, he’s all over that too.
Pack up any of the ceilings you had for Wemby and throw them into the Seine. Any concerns about inexperience or the fact that he’s 22 are hereby dubbed irrelevant. He is a supreme, unrivaled talent in a system that affords him freedom and glorious purpose. The Spurs can undoubtedly win the NBA Finals right now, captained by a 22-year-old. Yep.
2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and OKC’s fifth guy problem
Gilgeous-Alexander is also a supreme talent, but he struggled mightily against Wembanyama’s rim protection, which we might more accurately call “rim denial.” Shai passed out of so many drives, realizing that the smothering arm of Wembanyama wouldn’t even allow him to plausibly draw contact since his reach neutralized the advantage. He has 12 assists, and was finding the open shooters Wembanyama was helping off of; frequently, that was Alex Caruso, who we will get to … do not worry.
Much of Shai’s impact comes from creating impossible situations around the rim for his opponents, either by drawing contact or with mid-range slashing mixups that cause opposing defenses convulsions. He always has support from Isaiah Hartenstein and Holmgren, and that is the engine that drove OKC’s offensive machine.
He can’t do that against Wembanyama in the paint, and so OKC will have to adapt by shooting ever-more threes and making them, forcing Wemby to stay home on the corner rather than ctrl-alt delete buttoning everything that gets in the paint.
And while Shai and Jalen Williams were still able to score enough, Wembanyama singlehandedly eliminated Hartenstein and Holmgren from the game offensively; Dort was basically useless and, had it not been for Caruso, OKC — yes, the endless Death Star of options in OKC — would have run out of guys. It’s crazy to say, but San Antonio is simply that good defensively. They are so physical, and have the single most destructive defender ever out there. Seems good.
3. Dylan Harper and Alex Caruso are folk heroes
Caruso’s impact is self-evident. He had 31 points, hit eight 3-pointers, and about fifteen-billion deflections/winning plays/loose ball creations/other stuff. It was a phenomenal performance, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Caruso starts going forward. He clearly had a defensive theory against Wembanyama and the instincts to muck things up for him. That’s all well and good, but I already knew that Caruso has won a role player Lifetime Achievement Award; but I just cannot believe how good Dylan Harper is. He had 24-11-6 with seven steals and 20 years on planet earth. This is ridiculous stuff. Like simply ridiculous stuff.
One of these young guys on San Antonio has to crack eventually, right? Without De’Aaron Fox in this game, Stephon Castle and Harper had to play basically the whole game, and Castle certainly struggled a bit — he had 11 turnovers on the night. But he was still impactful, and Harper looks like a future Hall of Famer. If you can’t tell, I’m a little excited.
4. Will either team survive this series?
I’d give San Antonio an edge after Game 1, though either team could easily have come away with that one. But they would not have walked away with it or run away with it or done anything other than fight for every square inch of hardwood. After one game, four quarters and two overtimes, this series looks like a health and safety hazard.
It wasn’t a violent game, but it was impossibly draining. The Conference Finals schedule of every-other-day-no-matter-what doesn’t help things, and San Antonio specifically needs to get Fox back if they want to play more than five guys burgers and fries in Game 2. Interestingly, nobody was in foul trouble on both teams despite the two overtimes — that almost never happens in a game that long. The referees made a concerted effort to let this one go, and it was a better product for it.
But Jalen Williams’ health is always a question, and he played 37 minutes. Wembanyama spent the year on a loose minutes restriction — he played 49. Gilgeous-Alexander and Devin Vassell, who made some huge plays, both played 51 minutes! 51!
If you’re the New York Knicks or Cleveland Cavaliers, your response to “who do you want to see in the Finals?” is “the winner of Game 7.” Because we might go seven games, 28 quarters, 11 overtimes, 55 burgers, 55 fries, 110 taters … the works. I can’t wait for Game 2.
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