Douze de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 7
Kick In the Door - Wavin’ the .44. All you heard was, “Wemby, don’t hit me no more.” Ladies, gentlemen, sisters, brothers, and siblings, it is now official. Like a chestburster shedding it’s skin and replacing it’s cells with polarized silicon in order to become a fully grown xenomorph, Victor Wembanyama has shed the “ascending” and is now simply the greatest basketball player in the world full stop. League MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t relinquish his perch at the top of the NBA pecking order without a fight. Let the historians record and the bards cantillate the sensational spectacle that was the breathtakingly epic clash between the San Antonio Spurs and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2026 NBA Western Conference Finals. It was a war of attrition fought over seven grueling battles and it was closely contested all the way until the bitter end. Even though SGA fought admirably to extend his reign as greatest player in the world in Game 7, scoring 35 points and dishing out nine assists, ultimately after Caron Wallace missed a three down six with 12 seconds left in the seventh and decisive battle and Julian Champagnie soared to snag the rebound before quickly hitting De’Aaron Fox with the outlet who then kicked it ahead to Devin Vassell for the break away dunk and eight point lead with four seconds left that sealed the series victory for the Spurs, there was no question that the changing of the guard of the greatest player in the world was earned by Wemby and it was earned through mutual respect and through trial by fire. The Alien wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
When the dust settled and the Spurs were the last team standing having just closed out the champs, defeating them 111-103 in Game 7 of the WCF on their home court at Paycom Center in downtown Oklahoma City on Saturday, May 30th in the year of our basketball gods 2026 to extend our season into June, a series that started on the very same court 13 days earlier with the star player of one team winning a most valuable player trophy ended with the star player of the other team winning a different most valuable player trophy that puts an eternal asterisk on the first award that was given before the war was fought. To be fair, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a deserving recipient of his MVP award based on regular season performance but when the NBA MVP loses in the playoffs to another MVP finalist, that fact will always be remembered and legitimate questions on whether the voters got it right that year will come attached to that part of that MVP winner’s legacy forever. I suspect, though, while those questions are indeed now permanent for SGA, assuming Wemby keeps on his current trajectory, they will become more muted over time for the same reason those questions have become more muted for Charles Barkley (1993) and Karl Malone (1997). People hold it against you less when you suffer that type of embarrassment in your MVP season at the hands of the greatest player of all time. That was the case for Barkley and Malone losing to Michael Jordan (who still remains the goat to this day—the only acceptable name you could put forward to have a reasonable debate on the matter is Bill Russell—you can miss me with that LeBron is the goat nonsense—LeBron has had the best NBA career of any player in any era based on production and longevity but greatness is measured in winning at the highest level and LeBron is 4-6 lifetime in the NBA Finals). If Victor Wembanyama continues on his current trajectory, in 15 years (or so) the asterisk on Shai’s 2025-26 NBA MVP award will have been reduced to a tiny one as it will have born out by then that the embarrassment was suffered at the hands of what will be at that point in the future the new undisputed greatest basketball player of all time 🐐
Back to the here and now for a sec, the debate is officially over on who is the current greatest player in the world. Victor took that title away from SGA because the Spurs defeated the Thunder to win the West and Wembanyama (not the two-time defending regular season MVP) was named MVP of the 2026 Western Conference Finals. He has arrived, indeed. If Vic continues on his current trajectory, the debate over the current greatest basketball player in the world is going to be shut down for the next decade or more. Instead (to the point I was making above about how SGA’s humiliation will age gracefully), we will have a new debate to fixate on if Victor continues on his current trajectory. The new debate will be over how long before Victor Wembanyama earns his place on the NBA pantheon for greatest players of all time with Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabber, San Antonio’s very own Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry + how long will it take him to surpass Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player to ever walk on this planet? This paradigm shift has also arrived and the first notch in Wemby’s “goat belt” can be punched within the next two and a half weeks. If you want start walking down Michael Jordan (and Bill Russell) in the goat conversation, it not only means you need to make it to the NBA Finals a bunch of times but it also means (as Tim Duncan came so painfully close to being the third player to post this type of resume) you need to win it every single time you make it. Based on his Game 7 postgame comments, Victor already gets this and he will be ready to seize the opportunity now in front of him in the 2026 NBA Finals. Case in point, speaking to the press after winning the Oscar Robertson Trophy with his team and the Magic Johnson Trophy individually, Vic observed., “This is the best basketball on the planet that’s being played right now. And the crazy thing is, maybe I’m crazy for that but I want to do that fifteen or twenty more times. Let’s hope it doesn’t become an addiction. Maybe it is already.”
With those preliminaries out of the way, let’s party like it’s 1999 because the San Antonio Spurs are going to our seventh NBA Finals!! And awaiting us is the New York Knicks, the team we beat to win our first NBA Finals in the last year of the last millennium. With this next generation of dynastic talent on the Spurs roster, playing the Knicks and getting to play NBA Finals games in Madison Square Garden (basketball’s Mecca) again is such a full circle moment. It’s also so wild to me to be feeling this aberrantly euphoric sense of anticipation (which is unique to a Spurs’ finals run) for the first time in twelve years. I’m not surprised that we’re here (more just awestruck in appreciation to be once again experiencing such a fleeting revelry in the afterglow of arriving), I am an eternal optimist in my Spurs fandom, after all. Writing Un de fait after being on hiatus from this project for seven years felt like embarking into the unknown much like it felt when I wrote One Down in 2013 but on both occasions I envisioned the blog series taking us on a journey that would stretch into June because in both cases, I had an instinctive supposition this was a year the Spurs could make a run to The Finals. I won’t lie, though, unlike 2013 (when I had the confidence of rooting for a core group of players who done it many times before), considering our youth, it feels surreal that we actually pulled it off on Wemby & company’s first attempt. The 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs are the youngest team to make it to the NBA Finals since the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers. In other words, this is a once every 50 year outlier and since I’m forty-seven that also means that the 25-26 Spurs are the youngest team to make it to the NBA Finals in my lifetime and in all probability will remain the youngest team to make the NBA Finals for the rest of my lifetime which is mind-blowing. Perhaps a more apt comparison than 2013 (when I first started writing about every Spurs playoff run) to how surreal this moment feels is in fact the aforementioned 1999 run to the NBA Finals. (Also, before we continue (just to name it out loud), another reason to limit the comparison between now and 2013 strictly to the similarity of embarking into the unknown with writing the Black & Silver blog series for the first time—or first time in a long time—is 2013 proved to be the necessary exposition in a two-part story with the 2014 redemption title being the resolution. This journey we are on 2026 is undoubtedly a standalone origin story.)
Now back to the year where I pulled an all-nighter the night before seeing a first run screening of The Matrix in a movie theatre and as consequence, fell asleep 45 minutes in and missed everything else the first time I ever watched the dopest movie made during my formative years (no joke). In other words, back to 1999. It’s so poetic that it’s once again the New York Knicks. It’s so poetic that it’s once again a new crop of Spurs playing their first NBA Finals in the Garden. It feel so incredibly fresh. And it’s that newness of it being the first time we are experiencing it (or in this case the first time with this new generation of players) that creates its own “pinch me, this can’t be real” temporary plain of existence that is simply phantasmagoric. Perhaps the hint of imposter syndrome that comes with doing something for the first time adds an extra ingredient to elevate the provocation of the moment. As similar as this euphoric dream state I’m momentarily floating through feels to ‘99, the imposter syndrome ingredient is even more pronounced this time around because this team is way younger and way newer than the first squad that ever put Larry O’Brien in a boat parade on the San Antonio River. Tim Duncan, our 22-year old superstar and best player was young and new at the same time that Bill Clinton was establishing Pride Month by presidential proclamation, but the rest of the 1999 title team was a veteran ball club. (Happy Pride, San Antonio 🌈) Did I mention that the ‘26 Spurs are the youngest team in 49 years to make the NBA Finals? Yeah. I think it’s safe to say I’m floating on cloud nine in an incomparable way. I can’ t wait to get this thing started. But before we can, we still have some more house keeping to do on that immortal team performance in Game 7 of the 2026 WCF.
Seven players scored in double figure for San Antonio in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals and all seven of them scored in the fourth quarter (we call that the seven and seven) as OKC was tightening the screws hoping to make us crack. This was a complete team effort to hold the champs at bay. As predicted in Onze de faits, Wemby played with determination and force setting the tone from the jump. His first bucket of his first-career NBA playoff Game 7 was an homage to his pantheon mentor Tim Duncan—an 11-foot bank shot to settle down the thunderous crowd. The Alien went on to hit step back threes, volleyball spike a layup attempt by the MVP into the first row, cram right on Chet Holmgren’s lifeless face (to name a few highlights), and played a steady, effective up-for-the-moment game finishing with a team-high 22 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and one endearingly emotional response to winning his first conference title and MVP trophy. The second leading scorer was Julian Chanpagnie with 20. Jules stayed in rhythm dropping the Thunder off for a back-breaking six triples on 6-10 from deep. Hitting six threes to help end a title defense in a Game 7 in the title holder’s own building takes such a NY street ball mentality. Now, the kid from Brooklyn gets to take that cutthroat fearlessness and give his hometown ball club a little something with it in the Garden. Also predicted in the last post, all three of our star guards stepped into the moment of opportunity provided by a Game 7 and seized it with contributions that totaled 43 points, 14 assists and 13 rebounds. I think it’s safe to say Wemby got the help he needed from his buffet menu of sidekick mega-talented all-world guards. The iconoclast Stephon Castle had 16 points, six rebounds and six assists while once again making SGA have to work hard for everything on the other end. De’Aaron Fox (our Iceman 2.0) had been struggling with his shooting after returning to the series in Game 3 from the high ankle sprain he suffered in the second round against the Minnesota Timberwolves but thankfully his cold-blooded sniping returned just in time for Game 7. He hit timely buckets to thwart OKC’s momentum in multiple key stretches in the decisive contest on Saturday night. De’Aaron’s calming veteran presence was absolutely critical to our Game 7 success. Overall, the two-time all-star scored 15 points (on 6-12 from the field and 3-7 from deep) and five assists. Last but not least among our three-headed guard trio, the prodigy Dylan Harper also made some of the clutch-est plays a 20-year-old rookie has ever made this deep into the playoffs in NBA history. Dylan had 12 points (on 5-8 shooting including two massive three pointers), three assists, and seven huge rebounds including two of the most important offensive rebounds of the second half where we went on to score critical points off those rebounds. I said we needed big performances from all three of our star guards in Game 7 to have any shot at knocking out the champs and predicted we would get them so it was really satisfying to see it come to fruition. The Slash Brothers and “Unc” were spectacular on Saturday night.
The last two remaining Spurs players of the seven who scored in double figures in Game 7 were our two longest-tenured players, Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell who both put up eleven points. KJ was able to shake off his up and down postseason so far to come up with a sixth-man-of-the-year-level performance in the fourth quarter with the game in the balance scoring eight of his 11 points on two massive fourth quarter threes in a row (to bookend a Cason Wallace three on the other end) and then scoring a transition bucket later in the frame. Deven played a steady all-around game with stingy defense to help Steph with the MVP (creating two steals) and his series-ending emphatic dunk to seal our seventh trip to the NBA Finals is a play I will never forget. Ironically, the player of the game was not any of the “seven and seven” Spurs. The player of the game was Luke Kornet. Congratulations, Luke. I don’t even have to go back and do the research to know that you have set the record for the least amount of minutes played in earning a Black & Silver player of the game honor. The most underrated free agent signing of the 2025 NBA offseason logged a whopping six minutes of game action in his award-snatching performance and put up the jaw-dropping stat line of two points on 0-3 shooting and four rebounds. Unless you just came out of a coma, you already know why Luke earned player of the game honors. (And if you did just come out of a coma, thanks for immediately turning to theLeftAhead as your trusted news source for catching up on what’s been happening in the world.) Luke may have very well saved our season with his divine intervention of a Isaiah Hartenstein fast break dunk attempt. I can’t emphasize enough how massive that play was in swinging what could have been a four or three point OKC deficit to an eight point Spurs advantage with six minutes to play (after Steph his a midrange jumper on the other end after the block). Luke’s block was the highlight of our entire season so far and it may prove to be the biggest NBA playoff block since LeBron James’ chase down block of Andre Iguodala in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. One thing is for sure, it will be forever memorialized in Spurs playoff lore. Watching it never gets old so I’m just going to leave this right here below for you to enjoy on repeat as many times as your heart desires.
We wouldn’t be providing a comprehensive retrospective on the best playoff series of the decade so far without saying goodbye to some of the OKC villains who (because every chapter in the blog series is organic and each post is written under varying degrees of “time crunch” pressure depending on length of time between games and other outside demands on my attention) didn’t get the Black & Silver coverage over these past seven posts that they deserved. Let’s start by saying goodbye, Alex Caruso. You will not be missed. Your performance was at times chaotic at times brilliant and at times borderline dirty but it was also almost outcome-altering. So good riddance, Caruso. I’m glad we don’t have to see your pale face again until next season (lol). When the Thunder were up 3-2 in the series through five games, one could make a reasonable argument to have Caruso as the front runner for MVP of the 2026 Western Conference Finals. Many pundits were also prematurely trying to give the two-time champion a place amongst the greatest role players of all-time. (Settle down, NBA punditry. Alex Caruso has a long way to go to get in the same conversation as Robert Horry.) Thankfully, Caruso’s out-of-nowhere 31 point (including eight three pointer) off the bench Game 1 performance came in a loss and when the lights got brightest, The Bald Mamba couldn’t rise to the occasion going only 1-6 from deep (and 3-14 overall) in Game 7. We also need to say goodbye to you, Isaiah Hartenstein. Peace out, you ogre. Watching you play football by committing 55 fouls a game on Wemby (knowing the refs will only call four or five of them) because you can’t stop him playing actual basketball was a camp performance in a flop of a movie series that I’m thankful we don’t have to view again. Last but not least, goodbye, Jared McCain. It would have been extremely frustrating if the reason the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder advanced back to the 2026 NBA Finals because of Daryl Morey’s idiocracy. Your inclusion in this good natured ribbing is purely circumstantial, by the way. I think you’re a great shooter and I love watching you play. It just would have been extremely frustrating if you had swung this series simply because the Philadelphia 76ers were too cheap to keep you around and too dumb to realize your value. Thankfully, you didn’t. Well folks, that’s all the goodbyes we need to make to OKC villains from this epic series. Not to pile on but we don’t need to say goodbye to you, Chet Holmgren. Thanks to the Vulcan death grip that Victory Wembanyama has on your soul, you never bothered to show up for the 2026 Western Conference Finals in the first place. And on that note, it’s onward to getting ready to watch the San Antonio Spurs play Game 1 of our seventh NBA Finals tonight back home in the comfy confines of the Frost Bank Center. I am overcome with joy and excitement and can’t wait to get this thing rolling. The #BlackAndSilver have the opportunity to crush a lot of dreams and guarantee it becomes at least 54 seasons that New York Knickerbocker fans have been waiting to celebrate a title. The 1999 nostalgia is going to be fierce with this match up. Just like 1999, we are still the better team and we are still the team with a 22-year old superstar who is the best player in the series. In the intervening 27 years since this Finals match up last occurred, we have won five world championships and established ourselves as one of the greatest franchises in all of pro sports while the Knicks have mostly been in the wilderness. I’m happy the Knicks are finally back to relevance but the more things change, the more they stay the same. We are still the franchise that has been hanging banners in the rafters ever since 1999. We are still D.R.E.
P.S. Congratulations to our old friend Jeremy Sohan for winning his 2025-26 NBA Championship ring.
Featured Image Source: Medium
Headline Image Source: Sole Retriever on Threads
Onze de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 6
Two Six - For every move there’s a counter move. Playing out of check in Game 6 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs have cross-checked reigning two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder with one cunning move. The home team shoved away the pressure of our first playoff elimination game (as a group) and won going away 128-91 on Thursday night. In doing so, we have now forced the Thunder (the very same team that went undefeated through the first two rounds of the playoffs) to face the first elimination game of their title defense. After blowing out OKC for the second time this series (and extending our season series lead over them to 7-4 in the process), we once again proved that (even though it requires suspending disbelief thinking in these terms about a team whose three franchise cornerstone pieces have an average age of the greatest player in franchise history’s jersey number) we’re already, at worst, on equal footing with the defending champs. When you have played an opponent eleven times in a season and have outscored them by a cumulative total of 1303 to 1201, it’s hard to continue to argue for what should be the conventional thinking: a team this young and inexperienced should not be a significant threat to dethrone the most recent team to raise a banner. Even with a Game 7 still ahead of us and despite the outcome of the series still being in the balance, the upstart Spurs have already made a forceful statement in this conference finals. Knotting this epic clash back up at 3-3 on Thursday night was the exclamation point. It can no longer be argued that it will require more seasoning for a Wemby-led San Antonio squad to compete at the highest level. The world now knows we are here for all of the smoke right in this very moment and ready to crash an NBA Finals party that we weren’t supposed to be getting invited to for at least another couple of seasons. The world now knows you can’t use conventional thinking to predict what something as unconventional as an extraterrestrial life form (that walks among us) can or cannot do. The world now knows that The Alien and those pesky whippersnappers from San Antonio are more than capable of marching straight into our first Game 7 on the road in insolently hostile Oklahoma City and knocking off the defending champs. Not only does the world know this but, to the delight of Adam Silver for getting to keep swimming in the reverie of his ratings bonanza, it will be on the edge of its seat holding its breath tonight to see if we pull it off.
Game 6 marks the seventh time the Spurs have held an opponent under 100 points this postseason and the second time against OKC. The type of suffocating defense we played on Thursday is virtually unbeatable. If we can repeat bringing such a ruthless onslaught of physicality and pressure again tonight (and the refs allow the players to decide the game), we will win the series. The problem is that it’s hit or miss whether or not our defensive A game is going to show up on any given night. Luckily, it’s not a home versus road question; we have proven our ability to play at our defensive best on the road during these playoffs. To me, there are two things we need to do in order to ensure that the top-secret otherworldly weapons possessed in Area 51 are unleashed on downtown Oklahoma City tonight. First, we need to come to play with the proper focus and urgency that a Game 7 requires. Every mistake is magnified. Every lapse of concentration could prove to be the thing that ends your season. The Spurs have proven throughout this inaugural playoff run that we always bring the proper focus and urgency on the defensive side of the court when our backs are against the wall and I expect nothing different tonight in our second elimination game. I’m supremely confident that we will bring the necessary focus and urgency to our first Game 7 in order to play defense with the respect and desperation it will require in order to come out on top. The second thing we need to do in order to ensure we paint a defensive masterpiece tonight is we have to protect the basketball. Let’s be honest, the Thunder’s half court office is kinda mid. The reason this team has been elite the past three seasons and won last year’s title is because of their exceptional ability create turnovers and then punish the opponent with the transition buckets those turnovers generate. When they are unable to dominate the turnover and transition battle, the Thunder are not an elite team. With Stephon Castle at the point of attack and Victor Wembanyama lurking in the shadows, the MVP had no answers to the test if the game is played in the half court. If we limit our turnovers tonight, it will allow us to guard in the half court where we will be able to clamp down and slowly turn the screws to suffocate OKC’s offense. The raucous Frost Bank Center crowd shouted “Spurs in Seven” with about 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter of Game 6 on Thursday night and with San Antonio maintaining a comfortable 20+ point lead. If we want to make that chant prophetic, we need to limit our turnovers throughout this Game 7 on the road in as hostile an environment as this group has experienced together so that our singular collection of defensive talent can suffocate the champs in the half court and destroy a city’s hopes of being the first to repeat in eight years.
It was obvious OKC was in trouble for Game 6 the minute Victor entered the Frost Bank Center wearing a thobe in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha on Thursday at 5:00 pm CT. Two and a half hours later when he came out with the conviction and determination of Prophet Musa by draining his first two threes in the opening minutes and then racking up another five points (11 total), five rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block in the first quarter, I was like, okay, Vic. Assalamu Alaikum, brother, Inshallah. The biggest barometer for which team wins any given game in this series has been who had the best player on the court that night. When Wemby has been the best player on the court, the Spurs have won. When two-time reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been the best player on the court, the Thunder have won. After storming out the iron gate like the Battle of Khaybar in the first, Wemby played aggressively but with intention the entire night and slotted Game 6 in his “best player on the court that night” column with ease. The ascending greatest player in the world finished the game with 28 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, two assists and two steals, By contrast, the MVP had his worst game of the series posting 15 points on 6-18 shooting with only three free throws. You heard me right, only three. The contrast between the two stars has never been starker than it was on Thursday. Wemby simply outclassed the MVP on this particular occasion. Given the series trend, Victor’s performance tonight needs to be a tikrar of Game 6. If Wemby is the best player on the floor tonight, the San Antonio Spurs will almost certainly advance to our seventh NBA Finals. The thing that can remove “almost certainly” from the equation and make it a sure thing is if one of our other three all-world talents is also at their dynamic best. In the Game 6 blowout victory, we got that type of performance from the player of the game (and only draft pick in the 25-26 class to make the all-rookie first team and also play in the conference finals) Dylan Harper. Having had a limited impact on the series since injuring his right abductor in Game 2, the straight outta Rutgers electric prodigy exploded in Game 6 for 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and most-importantly only one turnover in 22 exhilarating minutes. Dylan got his groove back just in time to help us save our season at home and set up this winner take all scenario back in OKC. I’ll be elated if he can duplicate that performance again tonight and be the Spurs guard who provides the punch that’s going to be necessary to pair with a dominant Wemby performance in order for us to put ourselves in position to win this game but we know it can be any of the weapons in our three-headed “all-world guard” monster backcourt. Keep in mind, we’ve been saying this entire postseason run Stephon Castle is built for this for a reason. Like Derrick Henry on a Power-O, Steph has plowed straight through every obstacle that has gotten in his way this postseason. There is no question Stephon Castle is built for Game 7. And while it seems the least likely because he has been severely limited in this series with the high ankle sprain suffered during the back nine of the Minnesota series, I have a sneaking suspicion that the former clutch player of the year is going to be able to dig deep enough to find something tonight that he can provide to further cement his reputation as one of the coldest-blooded players in the league. Once again, we are going to have more dynamic talent all over the court tonight than our opponent. It requires one of our three “all-world” guards to have a night alongside Victor for us to beat the champs but as I’m mentally preparing this afternoon for this evening’s proceedings, I’m exuding nothing but calm because I’m filled with the resolve that we’re going to get memorable performances from all three to help ensure this a legendary Game 7.
For my money, there is nothing better than the memories created by a legendary Game 7 in the NBA playoffs. I have fuzzy memories of watching Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics defeat Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the 1984 NBA Finals with my family when I was five but the first one I truly remember is the epic 1988 NBA Finals Game 7 clash between Magic’s Lakers and Isaiah Thomas and the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons when I was nine. My dad was born in Detroit and was a lifelong fan of all of the city’s major sports teams so our family had a strong rooting interest in that game. Isaiah Thomas was a super hero to nine-year-old me. After spraining his ankle in Game 6 only to score 25 points in the third quarter (the NBA Finals record for most points in a quarter still to this day) but coming up one point short of sealing the title in six, I was convinced he could repeat the feat and finish the job in Game 7 but it wasn’t meant to be as Thomas was less effective performing through the injury two days after having suffered it and the Lakers closed out the series by the skin of their teeth winning Game 7 at home by only three points. Nine-year-old me was very sad but Zeke and the Bad Boys got sweet revenge the next year sweeping the Lakers in the 1989 NBA Finals to the delight of ten-year-old me. More recently, two of the most memorable Game 7s that come to mind for me are Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals when LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers (after climbing out a 3-1 hole) took down the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the Bay in stunning fashion and Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals when the late Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Boston Celtics in a war of attrition for Kobe’s fifth and final title. Of course most of my most vivid Game 7 memories in my four decades + of watching the NBA playoffs involve the San Antonio Spurs. Some painful, some euphoric. The most painful, given the stakes, was obviously Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals. After somehow putting the Ray Allen shot and the most heartbreaking defeat in franchise history behind us in 48 hours in order to get ourselves to what we now refer to as a “clutch time” situation on the road in Miami in Game 7 only to come up just short to the Heatles after Tim Duncan missed a six-foot jump hook he makes 98 times out of a hundred was devastatingly painful. The only other one that even comes close to that level of disappointment was the 2006 second-round Game 7 at home against Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks where after playing from behind the entire game, Manu Ginobili hit a three to give us a three point lead in the final seconds only to commit a boneheaded foul while Nowitzki was driving to the basket on the very next possession which allowed the German hall-of-famer to convert a three-point play to send the game to an overtime where the visitors eventually prevailed. On the positive side, you can’t get more euphoric than the Game 7 we played the year prior to the Dirk debacle, a Game 7 that took surviving a rock fight against the three-time (and defending) champion Detroit Pistons to earn the third title of our own. Watching the Spurs win Game 7 of the 2005 Finals on June 23, 2005 was the most emotional sports-viewing experience of my entire life because the euphoria from watching my team grind out one of the hardest fought titles in league history was soon engulfed with conflicting emotions when I called my dad (who had recently been diagnosed with dementia) after the game and told him that my Spurs had beaten his Pistons. While he was happy for me that my team won but he also asked me, “Who scored the most touchdowns?” That was the moment that I knew the opportunity to make new Game 7 memories with my dad (like the ones we made watching his Pistons take on the Lakers in 1988) was gone forever which was hard at first but over time allowed me the cherish those Game 7 memories I had made watching with my dad even more deeply. The San Antonio Spurs euphoria-inducing Game 7 victory which is most applicable to the task at hand tonight is the Game 7 from the 2008 Western Conference Semifinals against early-prime Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. Even though it was a Game 7 victory against a less experienced opponent that only secured a conference finals birth (a regular occurrence during the Duncan-era), there are two reasons it is the most applicable Game 7 victory for facing the champs in OKC later this evening. First, it’s the only time in franchise history that we have won a Game 7 on the road. It really was the epitome of the Spurs’ pound the rock mentality. We just kept plugging away and plugging away throughout the series until eventually the damn broke in Game 7. This brings me to the second reason this Game 7 memory is most applicable. In that second-round series against the Hornets in 2008, there was no doubt in my mind that we were the better team. We just couldn’t figure out a way to maintain the upper hand long enough to knock them out in five or six but ultimately talent won out and our superiority as a team proved to be a more decisive variable than the opponent having the precious advantage of hosting the win-or-go-home contest in their building. The way I felt about our matchup with the New Orleans Hornets in 2008 is exactly how I feel about our matchup with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in 2026. I believe we are the better team and I am confident that our superiority as a team will be a more decisive variable than the champs having the precious advantage of hosting this contest that will decide the Western Conference in their building in a few short hours. I believe the #BlackAndSilver are going to make us (their fans) a euphoric new memory tonight by winning only the second road Game 7 in franchise history and in so doing, slaying the championship dragon that is currently still standing in the way of us getting where we believe we deserve to be. Not where we deserve to be in a couple of years. Not where we deserve to be after taking our playoff lumps. We believe we are the best team in the Western Conference and therefore, we deserve to be in the NBA Finals right now. Tonight, I believe we are going to kick in the door.
Featured Image Source: 24Hip-Hop
Headline Image Source : The Athletic
Dix de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 4
Supersonic - That was for Downtown Freddie Brown, Spencer Haywood, Lenny Wilkens, Gus Williams, Jack Sikma, Dennis Johnson, Slick Watts, Xavier McDaniels, Detlef Schrempf, Nate McMillan, Dale Ellis, Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen and Kevin Durant. That was for the city of Seattle + every former player, coach, team employee and fan of the Supersonics and their iconic emerald and gold. Seattle is a beautiful, special city. Trust me, I would know. I’ve been everywhere, man. At one point or another in my life, I’ve visited 48 states and nearly every major city in this country (Burlington, VT and Anchorage, AK are the only two that come to mind that I have yet to visit but plans are in the works because I’m hoping to join the All Fifty States Club by next year) so I think my frame of reference is grounded when I tell you Seattle is a top-five American city. I have spent more time in Seattle than anywhere else besides Denver (where I live) over the past ten years and I know many wonderful people there who still talk about how much the Sonics are missed so cry me a river Thunder fans but it’s an objective fact that Seattle deserves their NBA franchise way more than Oklahoma City. The good people there didn’t deserve to have their Sonics stolen away because a greedy, two-faced rich guy owner cared more about being a big shot in his hometown than being the steward of a renowned franchise and a past-his-prime commissioner cared more about short-term profits than the longterm health of the league. In 2007, Clay Bennett used the lack of a new tax-payer funded arena as a pretext to move a beloved franchise from a vibrant, booming city to his obscure, mundane backyard and NBA Commissioner David Stern committed a dereliction of duty by allowing it to happen. As a lifelong NBA fan, there has been a faint but ever-present nagging melancholy providing a slight but real diminishment from my overall enjoyment of the league over the past eighteen seasons, the melancholy being the NBA is simply not the same without the Seattle SuperSonics. A league without the Sonics will always have something missing. So yeah, when Seattle-native and current San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson made the necessary game-to-game adjustments on Sunday night to help the Spurs go supersonic on the Thunder in our Game 4 103-82 Western Conference Finals-evening victory, that was definitely for the city whose team was stolen by Oklahoma City. That was for Seattle. And given that the architect of OKC’s most humiliating defeat since winning the title is the son of a legend from the Sonics 1979 championship team, most of all, that was for Mitch’s father. That was for John Johnson.
On Sunday, the #BlackAndSilver delivered one of the most dominant team defensive performances I have ever seen in my 45 years of watching the NBA playoffs. The adjustment made by Mitch Johnson giving Stephon Castle the sole responsibility for relentlessly guarding the point of attack worked to perfection overall but especially in accomplishing its primary objective. Two-time reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (who had been comfortable in Games 2 & 3 and picking our defense apart) was back to seeing ghosts again. While Steph’s point of attack defense was the catalyst, it took a total team effort to spook OKC’s leader. Every player gave maximum effort and stayed disciplined with our attention to game plan detail for defending the MVP the entire night. It was a sight to behold. With Castle hounding the ever-loving hell out of Shai immediately every time the Thunder gained possession, Wemby and Luke Kornet met him in the paint (while also covering the weak side) and our perimeter defenders crowded him inside the arc (while still getting out to contest shooters). All five Spurs defenders were connected playing on a string the entire night. The most important byproduct of Mitch giving SGA a pop quiz in parapsychology (that he didn’t yet have the answers for) was it prevented the best playmaking guard in the league from elevating his teammates in Game 4 the same way he had been the previous two games. OKC’s role players, who had played like world beaters in Games 2 & 3, were forced by our suffocating defense to start regressing to the mean. Remember how Jaylin Williams and Alex Caruso shot a combined 8-11 from deep in Game 3? Clearly the adjustments worked because in Game 4, Jaylin Williams shot 1-7 from distance and Alex Caruso (whose stellar play in the first three games of the series had the media’s talking heads impulsively anointing him as the greatest role player of all time 🙄) laid a goose egg (zero points on 0-1 shooting). All told, Oklahoma City shot 6-33 from deep and 30-91 overall. For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s a putrid 18 percent from beyond the arc and a frigid 33 percent from the field. It all added up to 82 points, OKC’s third-lowest final score in their playoff history. There’s no question San Antonio (led by the tenacity of Stephon Castle) gave a defensive performance for the ages last night. Perhaps the most exciting part of getting that type of defensive performance in response to our backs being up against the wall for the first time in the 2026 NBA playoffs is that it’s proof of concept that when we play at our best, there is not a team in this league that can match our ceiling. Even though it’s supposed to be way too early because we’re supposed to still be way too young, when we play at our best, we are already unbeatable.
“Wembanyama, I think he’s gonna go. I think he’s gonna go… from half-court. Got it!” As the spotlight and stakes keep getting bigger and bigger, the player of the game’s ability to always meet the moment (when responding to adversity) is a stunning thing to continue to witness over and over again. Wemby was aggressive throughout Game 4 tallying 33 points (11-22 from the field, 3-7 from deep, 8-9 from the line), eight rebounds five assists, three blocks and two steals in the process of racking up a team-high +29 point differential in his 33 dominant minutes. His magical half-court buzzer-beater at the end of the first half was not only amazing in a vacuum but in this particular scenario it had the outsized psychological impact of allowing us to go into the break with a double-digit lead and momentum just when it looked like the Thunder (after cutting another 15-point first quarter lead down to nine) were going to start walking us down for the second consecutive game. Just when things were starting to tighten up and it was starting to feel like OKC was possibly going to claw there way back, the longest shot of Victor’s career (so far) provided reassurance heading into halftime that Game 4 wouldn’t be a repeat of Game 3. The Spurs never looked back in the second half and won the game running away. Considering that going down 2-1 in the WCF to the defending champs is supposed to be the type of pressure that a team as young and with as little playoff experience as us is supposed to wilt under, it was quite a rewarding experience to watch San Antonio respond so emphatically by playing our best game of the entire season. Unfortunately, there’s no time to savor the moment. We’re back in the orange and blue Paycom Center belly of the beast tonight and we’re still playing the champs, a team with a short memory and one that is more than capable of figuring out an adjustment to our adjustment, winning Game 5, and putting our back squarely back against the wall. How would Victor Wembanyama and company respond to the adversity of facing elimination from the 2026 NBA playoffs for the first time? That is not a question I want to be faced with answering 12 hours from now. The good news is we won’t have to if we replicate the same level of effort and performance that we displayed on Sunday. It’s clear that the San Antonio Spurs when playing at our best can already reach a level of play that the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder can’t match. It won’t be easy to do what we did on Sunday again tonight on the road against a now equally-desperate team and in front of 18,000 hostile spectators but if any team is too young and too inexperienced to know that we’re not supposed to march into OKC in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals and replicate our best performance of the season, it’s the 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs. Can’t hurt to give it a shot. We’ve already secured another home game on Thursday. The pressure is squarely on the two-time defending MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the champs tonight to come up with some answers to the latest test. If we play with the same defensive intensity tonight as the last game and combine it with playing fast and loose on offense, we’re going to be one step closer to heading somewhere we haven’t been in 12 years. The inaugural playoff run of the Wembanyama-era has been quite a journey already and I have a sneaking suspicion it’s still far from over. Chapter 16 will be written tonight so sit back, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.
Cinq de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 3
Sleep Now In the Fire - Give them credit. They were the better team in Game 3. Not by the margin they won by but there’s no arguing they weren’t the better team last night. This is the first time I’ve had to objectively concede another team outplayed us in the 2026 NBA Playoffs. Considering the first game against Portland was five weeks ago and it took until Memorial Day weekend before we even blinked once, I don’t expect us to blink again for a while if at all but that was a tough loss. It’s also a valuable teaching moment. We almost broke them in the first few minutes of the game but when we didn’t, we lost our edge and weren’t able to get it back. We should now know that letting your guard down in that scenario against a team this good means you lose. That’s a hard lesson we couldn’t have received any better way than being schooled by the MVP and his defending champs. So yeah, it’s a hard loss but one I expect us to learn from and grow because if we don’t, the Thunder are good enough to make us more than blink. If we don’t draw a line in the sand by coming out in Game 4 with a focus that shows we know our season is on the line for the first time and we don’t like this feeling cause we don’t want it to end so we’re angry and about to do something about it, the champs will wrap this up in three blinks of an eye.
I don’t know about y’all but I’m not ready for this magical season to end. It would be very easy to kick our feet back after Game 4 tips tomorrow evening and just enjoy the show stress-free. The 2025-26 season has already been a smashing success, after all, with us having already completed one of the greatest one-year turnarounds in NBA history from 13th in the West last year to the Western Conference Finals this year. Even this Thunder team we are trying to dethrone got bounced in the second round on their first crack at the postseason (2023-24). It would be very easy to allow ourselves to finally succumb to accepting the premise that it is impossible for a team with a core this young to win the title after starting the postseason as playoff virgins. Your lack of experience will eventually bump up against a team that knows how to exploit it ergo the only way this thing can possibly end is with us taking our playoffs lumps. It certainly would be very easy to succumb to that premise but I say screw that. That premise just doesn’t fit with how anomalously special this team has been this season. This might be the most talented young core ever assembled on an NBA roster and I haven’t even yet mentioned the variable that renders a premise derived from historical data null and void…the magic of who Victor Wembanyama is as a basketball player is singularly unprecedented. If anyone is supposed to be capable of computing the ways in which his team was beaten on Friday at AMD Ryzen speed and then making the necessary adjustments to punch right back tomorrow, it’s the fierce young challenger from Le Chesnay, France who’s been prophesized to be basketball’s messiah and hath risen to meet every challenge of his basketball career head on so far. I expect nothing different tomorrow night. I’m not ready for this season to end and while I’m concerned that we are down in a series after three games for the first time, I’m not panicking and I’m certainly not succumbing to the premise that this inaugural postseason run has met an expiration date because I know Wemby is not interested in taking incremental steps. There is a trophy available for us to be bold enough to bear down and take this year. There’s no question that Victor understands this and will treat the opportunity with the resoluteness necessary to meet the moment and tie this series.
Not even an alien can do it alone, though. It’s a team sport, after all. It requires not just individual talent but also five teammates executing a game plan together and when the opponent solves your game plan, it requires making the necessary adjustments in strategy to give them a new puzzle. The second most important person in determining if the Spurs will punch the champs right back to even the series after losing Game 3 123-108 at home in the Frost Bank Center on Friday night isn’t De’Aaron Fox (and what we can get from our all-star vet on an ankle sprain that won’t stop getting re-aggravated) or Dylan Harper (and what we can get from our rookie prodigy on an abductor strain) or Stephon Castle (our 2nd-year iconoclast who has finally corrected his turnover issues by only coughing it up once in Game 3) or even player of the game Devin Vassell (who had 20 points, seven rebounds, and two assists while earning the distinction by being the only player on the team to continue playing Game 3 with the appropriate sense of urgency after OKC had answered our 15-0 start). The second most important person in determining whether we will win Game 4 isn;t any of Wemby’s teammates, it’s the son of a 1979 NBA champion, a Gregg Popovich-protege and our 2nd-year head coach, Mitch Johnson. The Thunder have solved our game plan predicated on limiting the MVP by making Shai Gilgeous-Alexander play in a crowd and daring his teammates to try to beat us from the perimeter. In Game 3, they did.
Last night, SGA’s supporting cast accepted our dare and made us pay. Jaylin Williams and Alex Caruso alone made 8-11 from deep. Control of the series has flipped so the most important thing that needs to happen tomorrow night besides Wemby reasserting his dominance is Coach Mitch has got to make an adjustment with how we are defending SGA. Now that we know Gilgeous-Alexander has the answers to the test, the Stanford graduate who accepted the responsibility of following in the footsteps of a legend among legends needs to give the MVP a pop quiz in parapsychology. Mitch (with a scheme adjustment courtesy of his defensive guru associate head coach Sean Sweeney) needs to get Wemby back in the types of defensive positions that will get Shai seeing ghosts again. Not only does he have Sweeney’s world class defensive scheme designs to draw from in order to get SGA back to being uncomfortable in order to walk down this series but he also has the stories his dad, John Johnson, must have told him about the Seattle SuperSonics responding from a gut-punching Game 5 loss at home to the Phoenix Suns to go down 3-2 in the 1979 Western Conference Finals only to win two straight and clinch the series in seven as well as the guidance of his mentor, Coach Pop, who has won the Western Conference Finals six times. Mitch Johnson has done a phenomenal job so far at the impossible task of replacing one of the most decorated and revered basketball coaches of all time. One of the reasons he has been so successful is that he’s learned from Pop the power of drawing from every available resource to gain the decisive edge over the opponent. Tomorrow night, I expect Coach Mitch to make the definitive adjustment of this series and show the basketball-viewing world that the #BlackAndSilver have no intentions of letting this magical season end. The irony or perhaps the symmetry of the opportunity that the Spurs head coach and Seattle native has to immediately flip this series back on its head is that he’s facing the city that stole his beloved team, the team his father helped win its only title and the team that served as a tapestry for his entire childhood. If any city deserves to be on the receiving end of the first masterclass coaching performance of Mitch Johnson’s career, it’s Oklahoma City. Tomorrow night, the bright young coach who used to bleed green and gold will have Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs ready to stare down the Thunder and go straight up supersonic.
Featured Image Source: The Economic Times
Headline Image Source: The New York Times
Neuf de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 1
Paint It Black - I just kept thinking over and over again… this is as good a chance as we can expect to get here, we have to cash it in. Over and over again. Build a lead. Over and over again. Give it back. Over and over again. Build another one. Over and over again. Give it back. Over and over again. Go down a bucket. Over and over again. Get it back. Over and over again. Punch them back on their heals. Over and over again. Swing again and miss. Over and over again. Make a clutch shot. Over and over again. Give up a clutch shot. Over and over again. Score to put them away. Over and over again. Let them score right back. Over and over again. 48-minute grind isn’t enough. Over and over again. Play five more. Over and over again. Go to the mat in OT. Over and over again. Get up and deliver a body blow for the ages. Over and over again. 53-minute grind isn’t enough. Over and again. No choice but to grind some more. Over and over again. Battle physical and mental fatigue. Over and over again. Don’t be the one to blink first. Over and over again. Finally knock them out in double OT. Just keep pounding the rock. Over and over again.
* * *
That was so huge. It doesn’t guarantee we will win this series. Far from it but damn that was so huge. After the 58th minute had been played and the buzzer sounded with a scoreboard that (blink twice) really was in our favor, I melted with relief into the couch faster than a bag of Reeces Pieces left on a car’s dashboard during a triple-digit summer day. That’s right, there I was on my couch, one giant bag of melted relief-es pieces. As relieved as I was to come out on top in one of the greatest “battle of wills” basketball competitions I have ever seen in my life, one of the first points of reference my mind went to as soon as the game was over in order to make a comparison to the relief I felt given the gravity of such a massive Game 1 victory on the road was Tony Parker’s game-winner on the road in American Airlines Arena to defeat the defending champion Miami Heat in Game 1 of the 2013 NBA Finals. I remember thinking at the time, “we just stole home court advantage and now they have to beat us four out of the next six times.” We all remember how that worked out. Of course, there is one glaring difference we can point to now with this current iteration of the Spurs that should bring us some comfort for our prospects moving forward in this year’s Western Conference Finals against the backdrop of the most painful and traumatic series loss in team history; if Victor Wembanyama had been playing for the 2012-13 San Antonio Spurs, the Ray Allen shot would have been blocked into the third row.
Space-time continuum hypotheticals aside, the point is that the massive advantage gained from edging out the champs in the 2013 NBA Finals did not prove dispositive in winning the series. This should serve a warning to every Spurs fan that we cannot let our guard down for one second against an Oklahoma City Thunder team who has overcome this type of adversity before (they lost both Game 1 of last year’s Western Conference Semifinals to Aaron Gordon and the Denver Nuggets as well as Game 1 of last year’s NBA Finals to Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers at home on back-breaking last second game winners and still came back to win both series in seven games). Case in point, home teams who win Game 1 go on to win the series 85% of the time historically in seven-game NBA playoff series after winning Game 1 whereas road teams only win the series 53% of the time after winning Game 1. There is no question it was massive that we outlasted the champs on Monday night (one bounce of the ball in a slightly different direction and we could be looking at a massive uphill battle to advance) but it far from guarantees victory. All that we actually accomplished edging them out in Game 1 is that we gave ourselves even odds to advance. It’s basically either team’s series to go win from here. Statistics aside, I think the more important reason I felt so much relief that we were the last team standing in Monday’s 15-round heavyweight fight is that it would have been ten times the psychological body blow for us to have come up just short in a contest like that than it was for them. There is absolutely zero guarantees we will get another opportunity that clearcut against the champs at Paycom Center to secure the essential road victory we need to win the series so had that opportunity slipped through our fingers, it would have been extremely difficult for us (as the infamously less experienced team) to simply set the near miss to the side and give undivided focus to putting ourselves in the same position in Game 2 and this time closing it on top. For them, it’s rough to have given away a home game by such thin margins but coming back to win series from that type of adversity is something they are well versed in. Luckily, we were able to capitalize on being in position to steal home court advantage the first time we put ourselves in position to do so in Game 1 and because of that, I’m very relieved. As Victor Wembanyama put it in his postgame interview on NBC, “Winning one game means something but it doesn’t mean everything, you know, so we’ve got to stay down to Earth and hopefully if it’s a long series, we’re going to need this win.” (By the way, the irony of an alien saying “we’ve got to stay down to Earth” is not lost on me.)
Speaking of the obvious player of the game, after witnessing another player receive the 2025-26 KIA NBA MVP trophy first-hand, the extraterrestrial competitor made a resounding Hakeem Olajuwon-esque “real MVP” statement in Game 1 tallying 41 points (14-25 from the field, 12-13 from the line, and 1-2 from the line), 24 rebounds, three blocks, three assists, and a steal in an all-time “I want to earn the title of undisputed goat before I am legally old enough to rent a car in my adopted country” epic performance. It was the type of performance that the grandchildren of children who are Spurs fans today will tell their grandchildren that their great great grandparent was alive to see it. It was the type of performance that poets (including this one) will someday write epic poems about. (It’s high time I took a crack at writing my first chanson de geste.) Not only was Wemby’s performance a masterclass in one individual two-way control over the happenings of an athletic competition that also involves nine other participants, it was also record-breaking. At 22 years and 134 days old, Vic surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lou Alcindor at the time) as the youngest player in NBA history to have 40 points and 20 rebounds (or more) in a playoff game. Victor Wembanyama was so utterly dominant on Monday night it was stupid. I can’t think of a better way to sum it up than to simply share this video of the logo three Wemby pulled (from a portion of the Paycom Center hardwood previously owned by Stephen Curry) that is unquestionably the biggest shot (to-date) of his NBA career.
Victor wasn’t the only Spurs player to have a record-setting performance on Monday in the Game 1 “instant classic.” After learning that starting point guard De’Aaron Fox was going to be a late scratch due to the ankle injury he originally suffered in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves and then reaggravated while closing out the Wolves in Game 6, our 20-year-old rookie prodigy Dylan Harper also learned that he would be starting his first career playoff game and fifth career NBA game overall. The soon-to-be first team all-rookie played like a seasoned vet against the champs in Game 1 bringing all of his craftiness to bear carving through OKC’s top ranked defense en route to producing the jaw-dropping stat line of 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and an eye-popping seven steals. What might have been the most impressive stat of all from Dylan’s boxscore and the one that best demonstrates the beyond-his-years composure he is showing in these pressure-packed playoff road environments is that he only committed one of the Spurs’s way-too-many 21 turnovers against the Thunder’s ball hawking perimeter defenders. Back to setting records, Harper’s seven steals set a new Spurs franchise record for most steals in a playoff game but the one that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling when I was laying in bed on Monday night still thinking about it was (while the three players that earned more rookie of the year votes than the Spurs No. 2 overall draft pick [Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and V.J. Edgecomb] were sitting on their respective couches watching him from home), Dylan Harper set a record in Game 1 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals as the youngest player and only second rookie ever to record 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, 5+ assists, and 5+ steals in an NBA playoff game. The other rookie to ever do that and the one whose age record Dylan broke on Monday was Magic Johnson. I’m pretty sure we got a keeper in last year’s draft.
This game had so many twists and turns, strategic “chess match” adjustments, clutch shot making, etc. etc. in the final 16 minutes, it deserves a play-by-play breakdown that I simply haven’t had time to write in the short 48-hour turnaround before Game 2 (especially given the complicating factor that I’ve been traveling these past couple of days). Hopefully there will be an opportunity to revisit this game at some point later in this season of Black & Silver and provide some evocative wordsmithery justice to what we collectively just witnessed. Time may be an illusion after all but for right now, I’m out of it. While there may be an alien who walks among us who can help me access the requisite portal to the fourth dimension necessary to transcend time, I’m pretty sure he’s a bit preoccupied in Oklahoma City at the moment preparing once again for battle with the Thunder. Tonight’s Game 2 is going to be a war now that we have the champs on the back foot in a must-win scenario. If we thought Monday was an exhaustive physical and mental battle of wills, we should expect all of that and more plus the added ingredient of desperation from this proud group defending their home court and a title. Given their proven track-record of overcoming adversity, the door won’t be completely shut on their season should the 2025 NBA Champions drop another home game tonight but it would put them in a hole which they don’t have a point of reference for climbing out from. This is a splendid opportunity for the #BlackAndSilver to provide OKC with a brand new galaxy of adversity to navigate. With the intergalactic being on our roster who’s looking to both slam the door on the Thunder’s season as well as the argument of who the greatest basketball player in the world is at present, I like our chances but regardless of what unfolds tonight in Oklahoma City, I know our going to learn and grow from it and use the experience to keep getting better. No matter what challenge or adversity has been put in front of this special group throughout our first playoff journey, we continue grinding and we just keep pounding the rock. We’re both here now but also our future is so bright, the road goes on forever.
Headline Image Source: The Oklahoman