San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama wanted the ball for the final couple seconds of the first half. He got it, 65 feet from the basket.
He had three Oklahoma City defenders in front of him. He took three dribbles. He got three points.
And he made it look easy, too.
A swished 3-pointer from the midcourt stripe to close the first half brought maybe the loudest roars of his night, but it was hardly the only moment in which Wembanyama was unstoppable in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Sunday.
He got most of the fourth quarter off and still finished with 33 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots as the Spurs beat the Thunder 103-82 to tie the West title series at two games apiece.
“The truth is that we had never been in this kind of situation before,” Wembanyama said. “It was our first deficit in a playoff series and we just responded. It was nothing amazing. It wasn’t magic. We just did what we needed to do.”
In other words, he wasn’t surprised. A 62-win team in the regular season — and a team that has now beaten Oklahoma City six times in nine opportunities this season — shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore.
Game 5 is Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
It was Wembanyama who pointed the finger of blame at himself following San Antonio’s loss in Game 3, saying that the Spurs were “going to see what we’re made of” in Game 4 and that he had to do more to get teammates involved.
He delivered on every level.
“I saw a lot and I’m not surprised,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “I think our competitive response all year has been pretty good — and he’s been at the forefront of that more often than not. I think tonight, not speaking for him, he felt an obligation to set a tone for us in a variety of ways.”
Wembanyama had 11 points in the first quarter, 11 more on 10 shot attempts in the second quarter and capped all that with the beat-the-clock 3-pointer going into halftime.
And on the other end, he might have been even better.
The unanimous Defensive Player of the Year — who was announced on Sunday night as a first-team All-NBA selection for the first time — led an effort that held Oklahoma City to a season-low in points and a season-high-tying 20 turnovers.
The Thunder had at least 108 points in every game in these playoffs entering Sunday.
“We’ve played 12 playoff games. When you play 12 playoff games, they’re not all going to be masterpieces,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “As much as you want to win, there’s nights where you just don’t have it for whatever reason.”
On Sunday, that reason might have been Wembanyama. The Thunder were outscored by 29 points when he was on the floor. They shot 18 of 41 inside the paint, with Wembanyama a big reason for that, so more things got forced outside — where they shot 12 of 50.
He was asked how the Spurs bottled up the Thunder so well.
“I’m not going to get into details, but in general, being more disciplined and just trusting the game plan even more,” Wembanyama said.
There’s a flight for the Spurs to Oklahoma City on Monday for a game on Tuesday, and the winner of that contest will be one game away from the NBA Finals. It’s clear that Wembanyama knows that even after a big win, the job only gets tougher now.
“The series is far from over,” Wembanyama said. “We’ve got six more wins before we can rest.”
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