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.
Quatre de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 2
The Road Goes On Forever - The Bone Crusher stood at the center of the ring looking out over his conquest utterly chuffed with what he had accomplished. He had done a number on the number one contender and as a result, he knew there would be another bout and now that it was officially on the card, he anticipated it was going to do record-breaking numbers. ”The Promoter is going to be so pleased with me when we meet for lunch tomorrow at Ramsay’s Kitchen” he thought as he wiped the sweat from his brow and watched the Oklahoma City crowd jovially disperse from the arena and into the buzz of a celebrating city. “I wonder if I can expect silver to be on top of my agreed upon compensation package for ensuring the desired result? The promoter best remember I told him BC been tryin to diversify my portfolio.” Shaking his head with visions of how to spend his pay off dancing in his head, he nodded to Josh Tiven and Karl Lane in his corner and then vacated the ring. He strolled intently back towards the locker room ready to get changed and get back to the hotel so he could start making calls. He had campaign donors to woo for his Norfolk, VA mayoral bid, after all.
Back at the hotel later that night, The Bone Crusher was just sitting down in a booth in the lobby bar to order a double crown and coke and start calling potential donors when he noticed his phone was buzzing. He looked at the caller ID only to discover it was The Promoter. He wondered suspiciously, “The hell he want that can’t wait until we meet tomorrow?” He let it go to voicemail because first things first, he needed to order his drink and then waited for the beverage to arrive to see if The Promoter was going to leave a message. Annoyed when, drink in hand, no text or voice message popped up, he begrudgingly dialed The Promoter back.
The Promoter: Hello, this is Adam.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, it’s Tony, I’m just calling you back.
The Promoter: Oh yeah, I just called to let you know I moved our Ramsay’s reservation to one. I have a deal to close tomorrow morning on that third-rate product we’re creating for those suckers in Europe.
The Bone Crusher: Okay, whatever. I got nothing on my schedule tomorrow afternoon other than counting my money.
The Promoter: Don’t worry, I got your message about diversifying your portfolio. You will be well compensated. See you at one.
The Bone Crusher: That all you got to say to me?
The Promoter: Yeah. What am I forgetting?
The Bone Crusher: How about “Good job, well done, thank you for the ratings bonanza you just ensured for me?”
The Promoter: You did the job that I paid you to do and last time I checked, you asked to be paid in currency not in thank you’s. Go hire a prostitute with the money I’m paying you if you want your ego stoked.
The Bone Crusher: Screw you, Adam.
The Promoter: You too, Tony. [Click]
The Bone Crushed took a sip of his cocktail and looked at his watch. “Ugh” he muttered. Frustrated that he hadn’t even called one donor yet and it was already 2am in Norfolk, he thought, “Screw it, I’ll make these calls tomorrow. Even the club owners and bookies back home are gonna be annoyed if I try to call them this late there.” He looked up at the TV above the bar where they were showing a replay from the contest earlier. The part where he bobbed and weaved while Isaiah Hartenstein pulling Stephon Castle’s hair went uncalled and as a result, the home crowd got to cheer a momentum-shifting triple that never should have been allowed. He chuckled to himself, “If I wasn’t on the take, I would’ve thrown his ass out for that one. Probably should be suspended too but The Promoter ain’t never gonna allow for that.” Noticing he was dry he signaled to get the attention of the bartender.
The Bartender: Another double?
The Bone Cruncher: Yeah. And what time does the kitchen close?
The Bartender: You got it. The kitchen closes in 20 minutes.
The Bone Cruncher: Let me get the ribeye rare, mashed potatoes. And can I substitute cheese grits instead of the side salad?
The Bartender: No problem. Say, aren’t you Tony Brothers? Great job tonight letting us maul that alien the entire game. We weren’t going to be able to stop him without your help. Your meal is on the house.
The Bone Crusher: I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why are you all up in my business, anyway? I don’t know you from Adam. Damn straight that food better be free.
The Bartender: My apologies, sir. Here’s your drink. I’ll leave you to it.
Turning back to his phone, The Bone Crusher tried to put the obnoxious bartender out of mind but before he could he thought, “That fool is right about one thing. I could’ve called 86 fouls on them tonight, 37 on Hartenstein alone. This city that stole the Sonics is lucky they got one last year. They have no chance in a straight up game of basketball against them young San Antonio kids.” Gulping down a healthy first sip on the second double, he opened his phone’s browser to the page for the blood red Mercedes-Maybach S680 he’d been eyeing. He thought, “Maybe it’s time to pull the trigger after I stop by the bank tomorrow?” As he was clicking to refresh the page to see if the price might’ve changed, his phone started buzzing again. “What now?” he grumbled. He looked at the caller ID but the numbs was listed as “Unknown.” He hesitated while deciding whether or not to answer but then his curiosity got the better of him. After all, “It could be a high-dollar donor” he thought.
The Bone Crusher: Who this is?
Unknown: Hey Tony, it’s Popo. I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Popo? How’d you get this number? Uh, uh…never mind that, how the hell are you? It’s been too long. I was really sad to hear about your ugh medical thing. We were all keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.
Unknown: I don’t remember receiving your sympathy card.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, well…uh, why are you calling?
Unknown: I already told you. I called to tell you I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Popo? How’d you get this number? Uh, uh…never mind that, how the hell are you? It’s been too long. I was really sad to hear about your uh medical thing. We were all keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.
Unknown: I don’t remember receiving your sympathy card.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, well…uh, why are you calling?
Unknown: I already told you. I called to tell you I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Hey, uh, look Popo, first, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Second, if you think you know something about something, what are you talking to me for? Don’t shoot the errand boy. If you’ve got a score to settle, take it up with The Promoter. The only thing that matters to Adam is maximizing ratings. You know that.
Unknown: From the intel I’m receiving, you’re being compensated quite handsomely for an errand boy. Also, you can rest assured that I also have also already delivered a message to The Promoter.
The Bone Crusher: Okay, so you know what I did. So what? You want to threaten me now? You going to send your CIA operatives to start harassing me back home?
Unknown: Possibly. My associates may or may not be interested in some of your recent and impending bank transactions as well as investigating some possible campaign finance ethics allegations that have surfaced recently in Norfolk. But that’s neither here nor there.
The Bone Crusher: So what, in God’s name, do you want?
Unknown: Just to give you the same friendly message I already gave to Adam.
The Bone Crusher: Which is what exactly?
Unknown: That it’s not going to work. Make sure to tune in on Friday and Sunday because it’s going to be a show. We’re used to playing eight on five and despite all of that, I’m going to personally ensure that we kick so much ass this weekend, Tuesday’s ratings will tank because no one tunes in for a foregone conclusion. You made your bed. I’m going to enjoy making you lie in it. [Click]
* * *
Well, I guess Tony Brothers just can’t help but make himself a part of the story. We all have eyes. We all can see that what the Oklahoma City Thunder are being allowed to get away with in order to provide the NBA with any chance of the ratings bonanza they are hoping to generate from an extended Western Conference Finals coming to fruition. On Wednesday night, the defending champs literally UFC’d their way to evening the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals at one game apiece at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. The Thunder (with the assistance of Tony Brothers, Josh Tiven, and Karl Lane turning a blind eye to actual hair pulling among other dirty tricks that completely make a mockery of the spirit of the competition and are the byproduct of the opponent’s recognition that they are simply not talented enough to compete with us in playing the game of skill we call basketball) defeated the San Antonio Spurs 122-113 in Game 2. I could go on and on about the Thunder’s dirty tactics, the refereeing, the league office, being forced to play eight on five but it’s all par for the course at this point. We knew that winning a championship wasn’t going to be easy and it’s going to require us to be able to continue to impose our will against all of the forces which are converging to not allow us to be the biggest outlier in NBA history by stamping our greatness with a title this young and this fast. We embrace the challenge and we will be ready to face it head on back home in San Antonio tonight.
Despite another nine turnovers, the player of the game on Wednesday night was Stephon Castle. Considering De’Aaron Fox sat his second consecutive game with a high ankle sprain and after losing Dylan Harper to a leg injury with 4:50 remaining in the third quarter, our second-year warrior gave a herculean effort carrying most of the ball handling and playmaking load while demonstrating once again that he is one of the fiercest competitors in the league. I simply cannot get enough of watching Steph Castle compete on a basketball court. On the night, Steph racked up an impressive 25 points, eight assists, five rebounds and a steal. His 25-5-5 stat line made him the youngest player to reach that milestone in the conference finals in NBA history. It is already clear only two games into this series that if we take care of the basketball and limit OKC’s ability to get easy transition buckets from live ball turnovers, they are not talented enough or a good enough team to match our level of execution and hang in this series. Tonight we are returning to the friendly confines of the Frost Bank Center in lovely San Antonio, TX for the first time in ten days. Hopefully we get a healthy De’Aaron and a healthy Dylan to help Steph with the ball handling duties but (in spite of a perfect storm of the current of forces we are swimming upstream agains) the comfort of finally playing back home in front of the most-electric fans in the NBA in and of itself will play a role in helping us limit turnovers and prevent us from contributing to the only way OKC can keep this series close, through generating enough fast break opportunities. One thing I know is the #BlackAndSilver led by our fearless 21-year-old floor general will be ready to meet the challenge head on tonight. I fully expect us to come out scorching and make this iconoclastic dunk a foreshadowing of how the defending champs, regardless of all the help they’re getting from the refs and the league, better prepare to sleep now in the fire.
Huit de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 6
Make Them Cry - At least once a day, I find my thoughts wander into thinking about everything that has happened in the past three years. And when I do, I pinch myself and muse, “it doesn’t make any sense for us to be this lucky.” Everything that has happened since May 16th, 2023 has been a glitch in the matrix where it feels like my hunger for the San Antonio Spurs to win a sixth NBA Championship is channeling a 2K roster construction through a lucid dream and then spitting it out into reality. As discussed in Un de fait, what happened on the middle day of May in the year of our basketball gods 2023 was in and of itself more than enough to have me feeling that life is but a dream. When you win the most consequential NBA draft lottery in 20 years and possibly of all-time, that alone is the type of luck that diehard fans of any team would strongly consider committing armed bank robbery in order to obtain it if they knew it was locked away in the vault. Winning the right to draft Victor Wembanyama alone should have been enough luck for a team-fandom lifetime (especially when you take into account that this fan has already had the incredible fortune to experience the hyper-unique euphoric feeling it produces once before on May 18th, 1997 when the San Antonio Spurs won the right to draft Tim Duncan). Little did I know (nor would I have even dared imagine at the time) that winning the right to draft Wemby wasn’t an isolated stroke of incalculable good luck but rather it was the starting blocks for the most spectacular streak of good luck in NBA history.
That said, after suffering through an 18-game losing streak en route to a second consecutive 22-60 season (fifth-worst record in the league) during Wemby’s rookie season and collecting a 42.1% chance at a top-four pick for our continued struggles, there was a little bit of luck involved with winning the 2024 overall number four pick but not really that much given the odds. The real stroke of luck for us in 2024 was the way the draft board played out ahead of our selection. Before ever sitting down to watch that year’s draft lottery on May 12th, 2024, there was one player and one player alone that I wanted the Spurs to draft. I had known who I wanted since April 8th after watching the UConn Huskies defeat the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60 in the NCAA Division One men’s basketball championship game. While watching that game, I became enthralled with a freshman guard from Covington, GA named Stephon Castle. Knowing he was going to be entering the draft and was projected to be a top lottery pick, I watched the way he performed on the biggest stage and for the highest stakes at the collegiate-level and I thought to myself, “he’s the one for me.” While Steph had a solid but not spectacular stat line of 15 points, five rebounds, three assists, and a steal, it was his elite combination of toughness and composure (along with the fact that he just seemed to have a knack for making key plays throughout the game whenever his team needed it) that led me to believe he was going to be one of those players who is built ready to play for the highest stakes in the NBA. So when on June 26th, first the Atlanta Hawks (selecting Zaccharie Risacher) and then the Washington Wizards (selecting Alex Starr) overvalued the French basketball renaissance by betting it could produce a consolation prize to having been a year late for Wembanyama and then the Houston Rockets (selecting Reed Sheppard) miscalculated which American collegiate guard prospect had the higher upside, we were suddenly in the astronomically lucky position to draft the player who, two seasons in, has established himself as the best player in the draft class by a significant margin. With the fourth pick in the 2024 NBA draft, the San Antonio Spurs selected Stephon Castle (the player I wanted all along) and Area 51 was born.
Castle went on to win the 2024-25 Rookie of the Year award. Vic, of course, had just won it the season before so that trophy was becoming as locked down for the Spurs as intelligence into the activities inside of Area 51 is from the American public. While the Spurs showed promise last season of making the leap to contend for a play-in position behind the development of Wemby from his first to his second year along with adding the steal of the draft and oh, by the way. having Stephon Castle play alongside and be mentored in his rookie season by future Hall-of-Fame veteran point guard Chris Paul, at the halfway point of the campaign, the idea that our streak of incredible luck was going to continue in ways that would supercharge the rebuild to a warp speed which has no precedent in NBA history was not even an idea I was entertaining at the time. I assumed a minimum decades-worth of luck had to have been used up in acquiring those two players in back-to-back drafts. After all, Vic and Steph were our first two top-five draft picks since selecting Duncan number one overall in 1997. It would have been preposterous to expect the streak to continue when it had already yielded such a massive return. I was content that with Area 51, we had a title-contending foundation to build methodically upon while the already lethal duo (neither of which had even been born when the Spurs won the 2003 title) develops the ability to consistently dominate in this league. One thing that was becoming increasingly clear at the time was that the opportunity to play with an alien was going to have a gravitational pull luring other established stars to want to sign with SA in free agency or force their way to us via trade. Early in 2025, rumors started swirling that the latter might happen prior to the trade deadline. News started breaking that an all-star point guard smack dab in the middle of his prime with the earned reputation for having “ice water in his veins” in the clutch (I know you’ve noticed the theme and graphics for this post so yes, there will be more on this later), who is widely-considered the fastest player in the league with the ball in his hands and who just so happened to have the most powerful agent in the league representing him was fed up with his situation as a King and as a consequence, was attempting to force his way out of Sacramento with only one trade destination on his mind. De’Aaron Fox wanted to be traded to San Antonio to play next to Victor Wembanyama and be a part of the franchise with the brightest future in the league (it certainly didn’t hurt that his wife was from the Alamo City and he was also a native Texan from nearby Katy only 168 miles away). On February 2nd of last year, the rumors became a reality. De’Aaron Fox was traded from the Sacramento Kings to the San Antonio Spurs in a three-team deal that also involved the Chicago Bulls. After the trade was completed, Fox said publicly that the opportunity to play in a backcourt with Stephon Castle was also a major factor in him only having eyes for the Spurs.
While it certainly happened quicker than expected, the inevitability that an already-established star was going to land in San Antonio wasn’t on it’s own an extension of our good luck (it was the byproduct of having already lucked into the opportunity to draft Wemby), the price we ultimately had to pay for his services was the result of another stroke of good luck because Spurs general manager Brian Wright was negotiating the framework for the deal with the two most inept front offices in the league. Thankfully for us, Sacramento’s general manager Monte McNair and Chicago’s general manager Marc Eversley didn’t read the first chapter of NBA General Management for Dummies before executing this trade because if they had, they would have known that the first guideline in the book says if Sam Presti, Danny Ainge, Brad Stevens, or Brian Wright is on the other end of the phone call, hang up. Our luck was “going streaking” and remembered to bring its green hat because McNair was grossly incompetent enough to allow Wright to fleece him in obtaining De’Aaron’s services for 50 cents on the dollar and when you need to rope in the GM of another team to assist in your fleece, you can always count on the Bull’s Eversley. At the time the “Fox to SA” rumors started swirling, most prognosticators assumed the price would be one of Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell or even Castle himself along with at least three of the most-prized future first round picks from our stockpile of draft assets. We gave up none of that. Because of the “dumb” luck that the first already-established star to call his “I wanna team up with Wemby” shot happened to play for Sacramento, the most-mismanaged franchise in the league and one that had this weird proclivity for conducting trades with Chicago, the second-most mismanaged franchise in the league, all we had to give up for De’Aaron freaking Fox (along with steady reserve point guard Jordan McLaughlin, by the way) was Tre Jones, Zach Collins, Sidy Cissoko, three of our least-valued first round picks and three second round picks. You know it’s a fleece when a three-way trade is completely one-sided. Brian Wright sucked all of the value out of that transaction like a cryptid-rights activist vampire on the first nightfall after a 10-year hunger strike. To the surprise of exactly no one, both Monte McNair and Marc Eversley have both since been fired from their GM positions with the Kings and the Bulls respectively.
Our pursuit of securing a play-in position in the 2024-25 season was derailed only five games and 18 days after acquiring De’Aaron. On February 20th of last year, the San Antonio Spurs announced Victor Wembanyama was out for the season with deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Wemby’s blood clot diagnosis, of course, was an incredibly unlucky turn of events that meant our pursuit of making the playoffs via the play-in tournament was effectively over. Little did we know at the time that this would be an example but there’s a funny little thing about streaks of luck: they’re called “streaks” for a reason. Sometimes during a streak of good luck, even an unlucky incident ends up being a blessing in disguise opening you up to new opportunities to be lucky in ways that wouldn’t have been possible had the unlucky incident not occurred. (I only call Vic’s blood clot a blessing in disguise with the hindsight that he has since made a full recovery and because it was diagnosed and treated early, it was assessed to not have posed any risk to his long-term health.) We predictably ended the season outside of the play-in seeding finishing 13th in the West with a 34-48 record which was also the eighth-worst record in the league. In other words, because of our backslide down the stretch of the season without Victor, we were guaranteed to get no worse than the 12th pick in the 2025 NBA draft. We were also going to get another bite at the apple of adding a top-four pick to our young core through the lottery. By falling down the standings into the eighth-worst record with Wemby out for the last two months of the season, the unlucky season-ending injury to our star player put us in position to get lucky again to the tune of a 6% chance at winning the No. 1 pick, a 6.5% chance at the No. 2 pick, a 7.1% chance at the No. 3 pick, a 7.8% chance at the No. 4 pick and a 26.3% overall chance at a top-four pick. And as luck would have it, on May 12th of last year, the San Antonio Spurs won the No. 2 overall pick through the lottery.
I’m not going to lie, when NBA Deputy Commissioner Marc Tatum was standing at that podium with only two picks left to reveal, I really hoped we were about to capture the Flagg. That said, the stakes for winning the right to draft Cooper Flagg (the consensus top player entering the 2025 NBA draft) and the stakes for winning the right to draft Victor Wembanyama when we were in the exact same position two years earlier were night and day because 1) Flagg was the type of prospect that comes along every couple years whereas Victor was the type of prospect that comes along every couple of decades at best and 2) there was an astronomical drop in the level of talent available at No. 2 to whatever team missed out on drafting an alien in 2023 but the consensus second-best prospect in the 2025 draft was no consolation prize at all. By all accounts, there was an ultra-talented guard prodigy coming out of Rutgers University by way of Franklin Lakes, NJ who was considered a greater prospect than anyone in the draft class before him. In other words, there was a No. 1 pick-level talent available to whichever team had to settle for the No.2 pick in the 2025 NBA draft and that talent’s name was and still is Dylan Harper. When Marc Tatum made the reveal that we were going to be selecting second and as a result, the Dallas Mavericks would be drafting first (the team that had just recklessly traded away top-five player in the league Luka Dončić and were because of that completely undeserving of the luck it took to cash in on 1.8% odds but I guess the basketball gods were, strictly on behalf of the Mavs enraged fan base, simply looking to make up for one of the worst decisions in basketball history), I was overcome with simultaneously feeling a strange combination of disappointment and excitement. Would it have been amazing to add Cooper Flagg next to Wemby, Castle, & Fox? Of course, he would have been an amazing fit on our team both in style of play and in that his natural position, power forward, is the position that was and still is the thinnest on our roster. At the same time, we actually just got luckier statistically jumping from 8 to 2 this year than either of the last two years and holy shit…Dylan Harper is going to be a San Antonio Spur!!! Eventually, the disappointment on coming so close but missing out on Flagg subsided and was replaced by a ridiculous abundance of even more excitement about Harper. Luck, you are once. twice, three times a lady ❤️❤️❤️
The combined probability of the Spurs winning the overall first pick (2023), fourth pick (2024), and second pick (2025) in three consecutive drafts is about one in 1400. That, however, doesn’t even factor in the additional incalculable luck of having the three teams in front of us in 2024 misevaluate the available pool of players and therefore put us back in the position for the second year in a row to be able to draft the prospect who is proving to be far and away the best in the class. And because when our luck “goes streaking” it brings it’s green hat, the cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae our roster upgrade had become was the luck that the GMs who Brian Wright negotiated with to land us an already-established star were fleece-able. In 734 days, we went from having zero top-five overall draft picks and zero already-established stars on our roster to having Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, and De’Aaron Fox. To put it another way, we went from going nowhere soon to having the brightest future in the league in two short years. So let me say it for today, “it doesn’t make any sense for us to be this lucky.” Or then again, maybe it does. Maybe this was ordained to happen. Maybe luck doesn’t exist and is merely a human construct created to allow those who are out of favor with the gods (basketball or otherwise) to have something to blame other than themselves. Maybe it is because of our righteousness that the basketball gods created a future so bright for the San Antonio Spurs that we have the potential to grow our current roster into the greatest team ever assembled in the history of the planet. Either way, luck or predestination, one thing is for certain: our future is so bright it is also our present. Less than three years after drafting Wembanyama, less than two years after drafting Castle, less than one and a half years after acquiring Fox, and less than one year after drafting Harper, we are back where we belong. We are back contending for the title. We are back in the Western Conference Finals. 👽🏰🦊
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On Friday night, the San Antonio Spurs eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves from the 2026 NBA playoffs by winning Game 6 of our second round series on the road at the Target Center 139-109 and stamping our first ticket to the Western Conference Finals since 2017. The contest was a wire-to-wire shellacking that’s result was so never in question, Anthony Edwards decided to go ahead and get giving the Spurs coaches and players their post-game congratulatory handshakes over with when there was still eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. (As bizarre of a spectacle as it was, it also showed what a class act Ant is to tip his cap to the “better team” like that. I really admire the toughness he displayed on playing this entire series through injury, and as awful as it was for me, as a Spurs fan, to have to sit through every dagger three, every spectacular paint finish, and every clutch midrange jumper he made in this series, man is it a privilege to get to watch that dude play basketball. His game is ridiculous.) After annihilating the Wolves in his Game 5 redemption game, Victor Wembanyama had a solid but quiet (by his standards) performance in the Game 6 elimination route. While his stat line during his 27 minutes on the floor of 19 points (on efficient shooting splits), six rebounds, three blocks, and two assists would be considered an exceptional night’s work for any earthling, it was nothing to transmit home about for an alien who is on a quest to make sure the 2023 number one pick is not just considered the greatest lottery prize in 20 years (LeBron James in 2003) but becomes universally agreed upon as the greatest lottery prize of all-time. Probably the most impressive thing about Wemby’s night was witnessing the cumulative effect his defense had on Minnesota’s starting front court over the course of six games. By the end of the series, Victor had broken the basketball brains of both the Wolves starting power forward Julius Randle and Wemby’s French national teammate, friend and mentor, Wolves starting center Rudy Gobert. In Game 6, the two combined for three points (you read that correctly) on 1-12 shooting in 46 minutes. Poor, poor Rudy posted a goose egg in the game that prevented his team from making a third-straight trip to the Western Conference Finals.
The player of the game was once again, for the second consecutive contest, the iconoclast Stephon Castle. There’s no other way to describe it. Steph was simply breathtaking in his first-ever career road close out game. When Chris Finch and the Wolves made the fatal mistake to start the game by having Rudy Golbert switch on Castle but space off of him to protect against his drive (an adjustment that was designed to clog the paint in order to prevent Wemby from getting off to another fast start), Steph LIT THEM UP to the tune of three triples and 14 points in the first quarter overall. He went on to drain a career-high five three-pointers in Game 6 of the second round of the playoffs in his second season in the league. That is just silly. For the game, this NCAA Final Four champion and budding superstar whose home state Atlanta Hawks as well as the Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets miraculously (or moronically depending on your prospective) passed on drafting in 2024 had 32 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists in leading San Antonio to our first trip to the NBA final four in nine years. Steph oozed with confidence every second of his 30 minutes on the court shooting super efficiently across the board: 11/16 from the field, 5-7 from distance, and 5-6 from the line. He was also what Mitch Johnson characterized as an “attack dog” on defense the entire night and only committed two turnovers for good measure. It’s pretty clear that the kid from Covington, GA was built ready to play for the highest stakes in the NBA. Don’t forget to lock your doors and set your alarms tonight, America. There’s a stone cold killer coming to a Western Conference Finals stage near you.
On the same day that hip-hop icon Drake finally released his much-anticipated 9th studio album Iceman, the franchise who claims George Gervin (the NBA legend with the greatest nickname of all-time and the one Drake’s album title is paying homage to) also had a current player give his best impression of the original Iceman with his silky-smooth ability to maneuver his way to the rim along with his penchant for coming up with cold-blooded, “ice water in his veins” shooting in closing out the Timberwolves on Friday. De’Aaron Fox, the already-established star who shrewdly was the first to call his “I wanna play with Wemby” shot last year in forcing his way out of Sacramento and to San Antonio was spectacular in the Game 6 route. The near-consensus fastest player in the league with the ball in his hands ran circles around Minnesota’s elite permitted defenders scoring 21 points (on cold-blooded 8-10 shooting from the field, 3-3 from deep, and 2-2 from the line) and dishing out a team-high nine assists. The Iceman 2.0 cometh and he cometh to help the San Antonio Spurs young superstars compete to raise more banners in the rafters for a franchise that would have in all likelihood been shuttered during the NBA-ABA merger had the original Iceman not cometh. Speaking of young superstars doing their best impression of a Spurs legend, a 20-year-old leftie continues to look an awful lot like Manu Ginobili with the footwork he utilizes to carve his way through the paint and to the cup. Dylan Harper, the ultra-talented guard prodigy from Franklin Hills, NJ, had another stellar performance in Friday’s close out victory scoring 15 points (on 6-8 from the field), five rebounds, and two assists. The No. 2 overall pick of the 2025 NBA draft looking like the hall-of-famer from Bahía Blanca, Argentina is no coincidence because Manu, in his special advisor role with the Spurs, has made a concerted effort to mentor our soon to be first-team all-rookie phenom with No.1 pick level talent. Dylan Harper benefiting from the tutelage of Manu (one of the greatest 6th men of all-time) while playing “a” 6th-man role as a rookie (he will humbly remind you he’s not “the” 6th man, that’s Keldon Johnson) is going to pay off in spades. It’s scary how good Dylan is going to be tonight never mind in two weeks, one month, one year, five years, etc. etc. I think it’s safe to say we got ourselves a keeper with this one. All told, San Antonio’s “core four” (none of whom was even on our roster 1,061 days ago) demonstrated exactly how incomparably bright our future is by combining for 87 points on a preposterous 69% shooting (31 for 45) as well as 26 rebounds and 19 assists during our Game 6 closeout of Minnesota one Friday. When those four supernovas play like that, there isn’t a team now (or at any time in the past) that is likely to beat us.
I am so ridiculously excited for tonight’s Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Waiting for us on the other side of the bracket is the defending champs. I wouldn’t want it any other way. The Oklahoma City Thunder cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs sweeping both the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers on the way to their second-consecutive trip to this particular stage. Touting the now back-to-back NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (the results were announced yesterday) and that undefeated 2026 playoff record, there is no question that our young group is stepping up in weight class from Round 2 to Round 3. While Vic was also a finalist for the MVP and I obviously wanted him to win, it’s not the worst thing in the world for SGA to get the award on the eve of this series because he was deserving but more importantly because, knowing how insanely competitive Wemby is, wanting to prove that the voters got this one wrong is going to add extra fuel to Victor’s desire to want to dominate this series. Because the Thunder edged us out for the best record in the league by two games during the regular season, tonight’s Game 1 will be played at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. We all witnessed the unexpected 4-1 season series domination our young upstarts displayed over the defending champions during the regular season and while I think that will be helpful in giving us confidence for game-planning this matchup, I’m not delusional enough to think that our regular season success against this team will have any bearing on what will happen against them in the playoffs. Getting the upper hand on last year’s champs during the regular season is one thing. Ending their season in the Western Conference Finals is going to take something else all together. Perhaps something otherworldly but having just such a player at least gives us a puncher’s chance 😉👽 There will be plenty of time over the next four to seven posts to dissect this series and our opponent but for now, I’ll just say we have a real opportunity to steal Game 1 tonight. Just like Minnesota came into the last series and capitalized on the fact that we had been resting for five days to help them steal one from us on our home court in Game 1, we have the same opportunity to do it to the champs tonight. Oklahoma City has been resting for a full seven days since eliminating LA last Monday. We will becoming in sharp from finishing off our series on Friday night. We have a real opportunity tonight to punch first against the champs and put them on the back foot. When the ball is tipped tonight, OKC might very well still have the best player in the series on their team in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (by a tiny margin) but, whether you want to call it luck or predestination, in acquiring our four franchise cornerstones over the past three year, there is no question we have surpassed them in high-end talent overall at the top of the roster and because of that, I like our chances to go directly into the Paycom Center aka the blue and orange belly of the beast home of the defending champs and paint it black.
Featured Image Source: TIDAL
Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
Sept de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 5
Helicopter - Isn’t it lovely when you call your shot in a blog post on what’s about to happen in a basketball game and then everything you predicted comes to pass pretty much exactly how you predicted it? I’m not necessarily saying you can find me right here levitating above all of the prognosticators, pundits, and so-called experts (who get paid handsome sums of money to do this for a living) even though I’m squeezing this project into every spare minute I can find (outside of the 60 to 80 hours per week I’m currently dedicating to building the labor movement) and I’m doing it strictly for my love of the craft of writing, my love for the game of basketball, and most of all, my devotion to the San Antonio Spurs. What I am saying unequivocally, however, is my pedigree and track record speak for themselves. I know this project went on hiatus for seven years (more or less) so If you don’t believe me, peep the back catalogue. Or if you don’t want to bother, that’s fine too. I’m not writing for clicks (this blog series isn’t monetized) or to be in competition with the virtuosos (game recognize game) or to receive acclaim for my erudition (my cup is full from the occasional glance of affirmation I get from my cat). I’m completely secure in the quality of my work. I’m writing because I’m an artist and therefore I must. I’m writing to connect with a deeper consciousness. I’m writing for permanence. And I’m writing about the San Antonio Spurs, specifically, because I’ve been obsessed with this team since the age of eleven and as Twain advised, “write what you know.” I’ve thought about Spurs basketball every day for the past 36 years. You’ll be hard pressed to find a bigger or more knowledgeable fan and you’ll find it nearly impossible to find one who writes like this. I write when the San Antonio Spurs are in the playoffs for myself because it brings me joy. Whether or not it gets read and appreciated by other people now or at any point in the future is immaterial. For me, I’m right here levitating either way. It’s up to you to decide for yourself whether or not one of the most prolific Spurs writers and historians of an entire generation has been right here hiding in plain sight.
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On Tuesday night, Victor Wembanyama, his elbow and the entire city of San Antonio took the declaration that the Spurs don’t lose two in a row to frost bank, vanquishing the Minnesota Timberwolves 126-97 ✅ As predicted, coming back from the shot heard ‘round the world ejection in Game 4, Wemby was a colossal combination of amped up and locked in from the opening tip scoring 16 points and grabbing five rebounds in the first five minutes of the game ✅ The ascending greatest player in the world went on the have one of his most dominant performances of the series posting an imposing 27 points (9-16 from the field, 2-5 from deep, 7-9 from the line), 17 rebounds, five assists, and three blocks. Wemby had the play-of-the-series so far with just under five minutes left in the fourth when he pump-faked his fellow French national team mentor and friend Rudy Gobert out of his shorts before dropping a dime to Julian Champagnie for the lay with Rudy spun out in the completely wrong direction. (Don’t forget to watch the Dylan Harper reaction 😂 I love that Dylan Harper meme faces are now a thing.) With a plus/minus of +24, it’s safe to say that while seeking atonement, our superstar achieved exactly that. Vic was special in Game 5 ✅ The Timberwolves made their runs but after jumping on them 24-9 early, we pretty much led wire-to-wire. Minny squared the game once in the second half at 61-61 with 7:51 left in the third but never got a lead and then fell quickly back into a double-digit hole from which they never escaped. In the blink of an eye, that double-digit hole was 30. On Tuesday, the #BlackAndSilver played our brand of basketball, imposed our will on the opponent and stamped Game 5 with another emphatic home W. Proper trajectory for the series resumed ✅
Speaking of that run the Wolves made to start the third quarter, the one that enabled them to tie the game at 61-61, the player of the game was Stephon Castle. After outclassing Minnesota for most of the first half, we went cold down the stretch of the second quarter and as a result, what should have been a 20+ point lead at the break was only 12. So when we came out of the locker room slower than an NBA investigation into Kawhi Leonard-Steve Ballmer-Aspiration salary cap circumvention and the drought continued for several minutes while the Wolves kept making shots, it was safe the say we were once again facing some real adversity. You know, the type of adversity our lack of playoff experience is supposed to require us to buckle under. Minnesota is a hard-nosed, credentialed playoff mainstay with an eye on a third straight trip to the Western Conference Finals. The entire history of basketball says the moment they caught us at 61 in the third quarter of Game 5 on our home court in a 2-2 series, they had us. Our lack of experience was supposed to be our undoing in that moment. Instead, it was baptism by the fire and fury of a 21 year-old second-year iconoclast who doesn’t have the experience and just doesn’t care.
To give all credit where it’s due, the response to Ayo Dosunmu’s bucket that tied the score at 61 started with a momentous triple by Julian from a Wemby assist. That small crack of daylight allowed every Spurs fan to exhale but also, that was all Stephon Castle needed to bulldoze down the door. On the next Minnesota possession, Steph spring-boarded over Gobert to snag the rebound and immediately drew the fourth foul on Jayden McDaniels (the Wolves best perimeter defender). He then brought the ball up the court on the left, drove right around a double-screen set by Julian and Victor and (with Anthony Edwards guarding him) crossed over left into a lightening-quick spin back right for a running four-foot bank shot. This ridiculous display of speed and power put the Spurs back up five. Minny got an open Terrence Shannon Jr. corner three on their next possession which missed but Gobert snagged the offensive rebound. Vic was out of position to guard him at the rim but Keldon Johnson wasn’t. KJ swooped in to block the dunk attempt and knock the ball off of Rudy. After receiving the inbound from the turnover, Castle sprinted back up the right side of the court, threw the ball into Wemby in the post but continued cutting to the basket with unrelenting determination. Vic dropped it back off to Steph who spring-boarded again off of two feet like he was shot out of a cannon for a power dunk. 7-0 run San Antonio.
Dosunmu hit a floater over Julian to temporarily slow the barrage but before the Wolves could fully set their defense after the made basket, Steph was back at the top of the key taking Shannon off the dribble with a behind-the-back dribble into a runner that sat up gently on the rim before falling through. Julian stole the ball on the next Wolves possession and got it back to Castle on the break. He initiated some ball movement that kept the defense off balance and resulted in a Keldon drive into a bully ball lay-in at the basketball. Before the Wolves knew what hit them, and at the exact moment that NBA history would’ve have informed the basketball gods that it was time to command the Spurs to collapse due to our lack of experience, Stephon Castle aka the iconoclast led the Spurs on an 11-2 run that restored a nine point advantage and, for all intents and purposes, put the game away for the way too young playoff novices. Steph finished the night with 17 points, five assists, and four rebounds but it was his dominance in this critical stretch that earned him player of the game honors. I think he showed the entire NBA punditry where they can shove their ideas about how informative the San Antonio Spurs lack of experience is in assessing our chances of winning it all. (By the way, if you thought we were going to go through this entire season of Black & Silver without discussing Kawhi Leonard’s tree planting philanthropy, you were sorely mistaken.)
While the young team seeking to restore the moniker “Titletown, TX” (as soon as exactly four weeks from today) has overcome every encounter with adversity we’ve come up against in the 2026 NBA playoffs and past every test so far, we haven’t seen a greater test to-date (and one fraught with a higher likelihood for new adversity) than the test we face tonight at the Target Center back in Minneapolis. Closing out the seventh-seeded Portland Trail Blazers at home was one thing. Closing out the team that has had more recent playoff success than any of the remaining other than the champs and doing it on the road on their home floor is going to be an entirely different challenge. The Minnesota Timberwolves are not a candidate for, “One, two, three…Cancún!” They are going to come out ready to play tonight relishing the opportunity to still flip this series on it’s head one more time (and prove the so-called expert narrative accurate that we do have to take our playoff lumps first before we can compete for a championship). As much desperation and resiliency as we can count on Ant Edwards and his band of stone-cold competitors to play with tonight, I am extremely confident we can get this thing done in six if we can match their energy and physicality because there is no arguing that from a talent standpoint, Minnesota is overmatched. Knowing the mindset of Victor Wembanyama and the co-star Stephon Castle that Vic says he wants to play with for the next fifteen years (in other words, knowing the mindset of Area 51), matching the home team’s energy and physicality will not be an issue tonight.
I think I’ve sufficiently conveyed my Spurs fandom bonafides enough already in this post so to balance it out, I will admit there is one gaping hole in my portfolio for the 2026 playoffs. Because I live in Colorado, one of the areas I’m currently lacking is that I don’t get to be in SA experiencing this incredible run with my favorite city in the world. All told, I lived in San Antonio for 16 years and was living in the city for most of the Tim Duncan-era (up to and including the 2014 championship). I moved to Denver in July of 2014 and have been following the team mostly from afar ever since. Back at the beginning of April, I attended the Saturday afternoon epic regular season duel between Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama at Ball Arena. The Nuggets squeaked it out 136-134 in overtime but, despite the loss, it was one of the greatest regular season games I have ever attended. For weeks after that, I assumed we would get a chance at revenge in the second-round of the playoffs against the team that was maintaining and eventually secured the third-seed down the stretch of the regular season. My hopes of seeing The Alien battle The Joker for as many as seven games (and having an opportunity to see another Spurs playoff game in person, something I haven’t gotten to do since Game 5 of the 2019 first round matchup between Denver and San Antonio) was squashed by this very same “too dangerous to every be counted out” Minnesota squad. As mentioned in Deux de moins, I personally know plenty of Timberwolves fans and (because, living in CO, I root for the Nuggs any time they are not playing the Spurs), I distinctly remember them laughing their way all the way into this second round matchup with us after eliminating Denver in Game 6 of the last round. Tonight, I fully expect the better team to do exactly what we don’t have the experience to know that we aren’t supposed to do and in the process, remind Wolves fans that the same thing that made them laugh will make them cry.
Featured Image Source: peermusic
Headline Image Source: Sports Illustrated
Cinq de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Semifinals, Game 2
Talk That Talk - There were one hundred different ways we could have won Game 1 by simply doing one thing better. Number One could have pumped-faked one time on one of his eight three point attempts and instead drove for one dunk and the and one and we would have won. Number Two could have applied one more ounce of English to his one-of-a-kind finishing ability on the one layup he missed and the wunderkind puts our opponent one bucket closer to 0-1. Number Three could have demonstrated he wanted one rebound one tiny bit more than his defender one time and one pump fake before one finish coupled with making the one free throw he missed and we wouldn’t have finished the evening left wanting. Number Four could have foregone one ill-advised careless pass one time forestalling one unforced turnover and the one extra formulated shot it would’ve produced for sure would have been a game-flipping one. Number Five could have been whistled for one fewer ticky-tack foul by what proved to be one one-sided performance by the officiating crew and one loss later the opposing coach would have had one legitimate reason to be complaining that one (not four or five) of Number One’s twelve blocks was legitimately an illegal one. No wonder the next day’s film session included one special guest whose position on the list of all-time winningest coaches is not five, not four, not three, not two but one.
* * *
I sat down on my couch to watch the Spurs sixth game of the 2024-25 regular season on the evening of November 2nd, 2024 just like I would have on any other night for any other regular season game. We were playing at home in the Frost Bank Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a tough opponent coming off of a Western Conference Finals appearance. Even though the season had started out a little bit up and down (we were 2-3 heading into that game), I was looking forward to a good early test for Victor Wembanyama (coming off his 2023-24 Rookie of the Year season), Stephon Castle (this year’s exciting blue chip lottery pick rookie combo guard), Chris Paul (newly acquired legendary future hall-of-fame point guard) and company against Anthony Edwards, Julius Randall and the entire Wolf Pack.
The first thing I noticed was the announcers reporting that Gregg Popovich aka Coach Pop or simply Pop would not be coaching that evening; he was out with an undisclosed ailment. They went on to say assistant coach Mitch Johnson would be the one roaming the sidelines for this contest. At first, I didn’t think much of anything about it (other than I was surprised Mitch Johnson got the call to fill in for Pop over Brett Brown, the vastly more experienced assistant with former head coaching experience in the NBA). After all, Pop had missed a game or two here or there over the past five seasons due to minor medical absences which seemed pretty understandable for a coach in his 70s and now at 75 in his record-breaking 29th consecutive season as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. I brushed it off as another one of those and thought, it will be cool to watch and see how this young assistant handles the responsibility for one game. (He won the game 113-103 over the currently relevant perennial Western Conference contenders from the Twin Cities.)
Little did I know this at the time but on Halloween, two nights early, I had witnessed the winningest coach in NBA regular season history (1390), winningest coach in NBA regular season + playoffs history combined (1582), three-time NBA Coach of the Year (2003, 2012, 2014), 10-time Western Conference Finalist (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017), sixth-time NBA Finalist (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2014), five-time NBA Champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) and Hall of Fame (2023) greatest coach in basketball history Gregg Popovich coach his 2,547th and final game as head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz. (He also won the game 106-88 because, knowing Pop, he would probably say that, while unexpected, bowing out inconspicuously after a road win in Utah is a fitting way to sign off.)
* * *
On Tuesday, May 5th, the San Antonio Spurs President of Basketball Operations walked into a film room at Victory Capital Performance Center on the campus of The Rock at La Cantera and rolled up his sleeves. One year and three days after officially retiring from the role of head coach of the San Antonio Spurs and 55ish years after allegedly turning down a covert role with the CIA, Gregg Popovich aka Popo aka The Notorious G.C.P. aka El Jefe, never one to miss an opportunity to immerse himself in celebrating the culture of the beloved city he has made his home for the past 32 years, stood in that film room in front of the 2025-2026 San Antonio Spurs players and coaches and, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, held up a piñata. He proceed to run the tape of Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Western Conference semifinals and went play by play, point by point on every improvement the team needed to make in Game 2 in order to pummel the Minnesota Timberwolves into utter submission.
The next night, the #BlackAndSilver did exactly that eviscerating our visitors from the Twin Cities by 38 points, 133-95. This was the third-biggest margin of victory in a playoff game in San Antonio Spurs franchise history as well as Minnesota’s worst playoff defeat in franchise history. I think it’s safe to say that even though Coach Pop’s November 2nd, 2024 stroke left him with limitations that prevented him from returning to the physical demands of coaching NBA basketball, he still has the sharpest basketball tactician mind currently being deployed in the league. What a (not so) secret weapon and valuable resource Mitch Johnson and his players have at their disposal to tap when necessary. And, man, was it ever so necessary this week after fumbling away home court advantage and falling into a 0-1 hole in this Western Conference Semifinals series after a not-quite-ready-for-the-intensity-of-playing-a-more-experienced-playoff-opponent lackadaisical performance on Monday. When it became official on May 2nd, 2025 that the dream of Coach Pop coming full circle to coach the next-generation Wemby-Fox-Castle Spurs to the franchise’s sixth championship was dead due to his medically-necessary retirement from the bench, it was hard and it was sad even though we, as Spurs fans, all knew that he wasn’t going anywhere and was still going to be actively involved in the program through his role in the front office. As amazing of a job as 2025-26 Coach of the Year finalist Mitch Johnson has done in his stead, a subtle melancholy persisted beneath the surface all season knowing Pop had been robbed of the opportunity to lead this young, talented, special group while they are making their leap back into contention. That melancholy was lifted with Wednesday’s dominant, world-class response to adversity in the form of the 38-point drubbing we laid down on Minnesota and knowing how intimately involved El Jefe was in making it happen.
While Wemby had a strong, balanced performance in Game 2 with 19 points, 15 rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and a steal and De’Aaron Fox bounced back from his abhorrent Game 1 performance with a solid and steady 16 points, two assists and two steals, the player of the game was 2nd year phenom Stephon Castle. Steph imposed his will with his physicality on both sides of the ball. On defense, he held the T-Wolves franchise player Anthony Edwards in check as the primary defender, holding Ant to 12 points (5-13 shooting), zero assists, and four turnovers. Castle was once again in foul trouble (and once again called for a couple of soft ones) but he felt much more in control and intentional about what he was trying to do on that end of the floor in Game 2. On offense, he led the team in scoring with 21 points on an efficient 6-10 from the field and a stellar 9-9 from the line. He added four rebounds, four assists, and two steals for good measure. One of the questions posed by the talking heads in the national media heading into the postseason was asking if the lack of playoff experience would prove costly for the Spurs’ young, talented core in our pursuit of an “ahead of schedule” title run. I think it’s safe to say that the 2024 NCAA Champion UConn Husky was built for this.
While it is quite plausible that wire-to-wire 38-point historic beat down that we laid on the wounded Timberwolves on Wednesday night at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio might have broken them, we would be beyond foolish to count on it. This team has been here before, knows what it takes to respond and even though we are now +36 in total points for the series, the fact remains the series is tied 1-1 and Minnesota is currently still in control of home court advantage. They have an opportunity to reset and regroup tonight at home in the comfortable confines of the Target Center in Minneapolis and protect the home court they earned by snatching the toss up on Monday that was Game 1. A wounded animal is a dangerous one and if you underestimate the battle-tested Minnesota Timberwolves, you do so at your own peril. In order to regain home court advantage tonight, we need to come out sharp, focused and ready to control the tempo and the physicality of tonight’s proceedings. Game 3 is not going to be a cakewalk. It is going to be a war. Luckily for us, our (not so) secret weapon is likely holed up in a bunker somewhere deep in the bowels of Victory Capital Performance Center on the campus of The Rock at La Cantera back home in San Antonio confident that the message has been delivered about the preparedness that is necessary to play with the appropriate fear tonight and get this wounded animal back in its cage. With Gregg Charles Popovich back doing what he does best (preparing his team for playoff success), I like our chances to do exactly that tonight. We are beyond lucky for the last 30 years and everything that’s still to come. Thank you for choosin’ Texas, Coach Pop. Can’t wait to see what your incomparable basketball tactician mind has in store for us next. In Pop we trust.
Featured Image Source : The Honey POP
Headline Image Source: TODAY
Trois de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 4
Aperture - We didn’t know what the future would hold when De’Aaron Fox, through his agent, Rich Paul, requested a trade from the Sacramento Kings to the San Antonio Spurs midway through the 2024-25 season. At the time, we were starting a 39-year-old point guard (albeit a legendary one) and evaluating how capable our rookie combo guard had the potential to be on the ball initiating offense (turned out…extremely capable). I mean, let’s face it. Just a season and a half before Fox’s trade request, the-man-the-myth-the-legend himself, Coach Pop, had an extremely rare tactical miscue when he attempted to start Jeremy Sohan at point guard at the beginning of Victor Wembanyama’s rookie season (2023-24). The experiment proved to be a failure that stunted both Jeremy and Wemby’s development (just a tiny bit on the latter). So yeah, when you are only that far removed from being the laughing stock of the league at the point guard position and the opportunity presents itself to trade for an all-star and clutch player of the year caliber point guard right smack dab in the middle of his prime without giving up any of your most-prized assets, it’s a no-brainer. You do it 100 times out of 100. The Spurs didn’t become the second-winningest NBA franchise of all-time (to date) and win the fifth-most championships (to date) by whiffing on the easy decisions. On February 3rd, 2025, the San Antonio Spurs traded Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Sidy Cissoko, three of the least valuable in our stockpile of first round picks and three second round picks for De’Aaron Fox and Jordan McLaughlin in a three-way trade with the Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls.
If San Antonio Spurs general manager Brian Wright had had the magical power to see into the future and know that a mere four months later, the franchise would have the basketball gods smile down fondly upon us yet again to bless us with a third-straight year of lottery luck and the number two overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft (with a point guard as the consensus number two prospect in the draft class), of course he might have paused to consider if we might be better served to keep our powder dry and hold on to the assets we were going to need to give up to secure Fox’s services in case they might be better allocated later to pursue needs at other positions. If Wright had known then that in a mere five months he was about to draft Dillon Harper, he might have paused to consider Swipa-ing left on Fox, but I think he has proven he’s a savvy enough team builder to have known 100 times out of 100 includes the one in a hundred time where you can have your cake and eat it too. In the sorcerous world where the Spurs’ general manager had the magical power to see our Dylan Harper future during the moment he had the De’Aaron Fox trade deal sitting on the table, he pulls the trigger regardless.
On Sunday afternoon at the Moda Center in Portland, De’Aaron “Swipa” Martez Fox officially silenced all of the critics, doubters, naysayers, and unapologetic haters who view him as an expendable overpaid underwhelming pseudo star whose acquisition is now serving as a roadblock for Dylan Harper getting the keys to the car. The player of the game dropped a cool, calm, and collected 28 points (a lion’s share of them during a furious second half comeback) along with seven assists, six rebounds, one steal and two incredible blocks to lead the Spurs to the largest halftime-to-final turnaround in NBA playoff history. Fox was at the controls for roughly 20 of the 24 second half minutes on Sunday orchestrating the high-octane explosion of dominant offensive execution that propelled us back from a 17 point halftime deficit to a 73-35 (+38) second half and a 21 point victory that puts us up 3-1 in the series heading back home for Game 5. Head Coach Mitch Johnson said in his postgame press conference that Game 4 against the Blazers “might have been his (DeAaron’s) best game as a Spur.” Do I wish our 2025-26 roster construction allowed for Dylan Harper to have a bigger role playing more minutes? Of course, I think every Spurs fan does. Nonetheless, it’s performances like the one De’Aaron had on Sunday that remind all fans across the “Fox is Great/Fox is Trash” spectrum (full transparency, I find myself pulled to both extremes from time to time but mostly hovering firmly left of middle) how integral he was to the team’s 28 game regular season improvement this season over last and how unquestionably vital he is to San Antonio having realistic postseason title ambitions way ahead of schedule. Part of what we brought him into our program for was to be a veteran leader who we could rely on to have ice in his veins during clutch playoff situations. It took him a little bit longer to get revved up than expected but as of our 114-93 Game 4 come-from-way-behind second consecutive first round road playoff victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, Swipa the Fox has arrived.
As dominant as De’Aaron and the offense were in the second half on Sunday, it takes more than one side of the ball to have a half where you outscore a playoff opponent by 38 points in 24 minutes. As mentioned above, Fox had two seemingly out of nowhere impressive blocks and a steal to add a little two-way spice to his epic performance. Of course, we can always rely on Stephon Castle to bring the pit bull point of attack perimeter defense. He did that effectively once again in Game 4 and while it didn’t necessarily translate to the box score (only one rebound and one steal), he played a role in limiting Scoot Henderson to an eye-popping ZERO points on 0-7 shooting in 27 minutes but more critically, his harassment of Deni Avdija got under the Blazer all-star’s skin culminating in a late sequence where Avdija was checking Steph on the perimeter (with obnoxious aggression haphazardly slapping his arms repeatedly trying to force a steal with Portland down 112 points and a little over two minutes left to make them up) and Steph drove right through him and got all the way to the basket for an “and one” layup. Being the good sportsman that he is, Castle politely handed the ball back to Deni so the Blazers could inbound under their own basket but or some reason, the Israeli small forward they call “Turbo” took exception to Steph’s kind gesture and shoved the 2024-25 Rookie of the Year for his troubles. Not being know as someone who is ever going to back down (and someone the likes of Avdija probably doesn’t want to mess with), Steph shoved him back resulting in double technicals. This about the point in a seven game series where we can expect the “who can get under the opponent’s skin enough to get them rattled” mind games to begin. Advantage Castle.
It goes without saying but, as well as the Spurs played defensively as a group in the second half of Game 4, there was one singular reason why the Blazers squandered their entire 17-point halftime lead within a matter of minutes and could only muster 35 second half points altogether. Welcome back, Victor Wembanyama. We didn’t get an alien sighting in the PNW on Friday night but we surely did on Sunday afternoon. Finally cleared on Sunday from concussion protocols, the greatest defensive force on the planet (perhaps the greatest defensive force in the history of the planet) was utterly breathtaking on that end of the court in the second half of Game 4. Wemby had 11 defensive rebounds, seven soul-crushing blocks and four back-breaking steals but that doesn’t tell the whole story because he completely discombobulated everything Portland wanted to do on offense. It was a masterclass by the 22-year-old. As if that weren’t enough insult to injury for the Moda Center crowd who (up 17) had just spent halftime making their Game 6 plans, Vic hit them on the other end with 27 points (9-17 from the field, 8-8 from the line), three assists, and one offensive rebound in the first 34 road playoff minutes of his career. It’s often said that, with a few rare exceptions, it’s proven to be a requirement for a team to have a first-team all-NBA super duper mega star to realistically have a shot at winning a championship. Well loyal readers, I’m happy to report…the #BlackAndSilver have one and then some.
With a commanding 3-1 lead in the series, the Spurs are back in San Antonio tonight to attempt to end the Portland Trail Blazers season at the Frost Bank Center. For a young group on their first playoff journey together, this will be another first. We have not yet experienced the desperation of a playoff team with their backs against the wall facing elimination as a group. I fully expect Deni Avjida, Scoot Henderson, and company to come out swinging and fight like their lives depend on it. I fully expect them to do everything in the power to get this series back to Oregon by stealing one tonight. Even though we’ve already had to play 1.75 games without our MVP candidate in this series, this will be the hardest game in the series thus far for us to win. Closeout games are always harder. That being said, if we come out focused and draw energy from another raucous crowd letting off more “seven years since we last made the playoffs” steam, we have an excellent opportunity to end the series and should have full confidence that this special group will get the job done and get some rest before the next round. The Denver Nuggets kept their season alive last night winning at home to cut Minnesota’s series lead to 3-2 and forcing at least a Game 6 for either of our potential second round opponents. That’s all I’ll say on the matter for now because you never want to look ahead when there’s still work to be done in the here and now. Tonight, we have an opportunity to punch our ticket to the Western Conference Semifinals for the first time since 2017. Tonight, we have the opportunity to show the world that our title contention window has arrived. Tonight, we have the opportunity to let ‘em know.
Featured Image Source: Pitchfork
Headline Image Source: Yahoo Sports
Deux de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference First Round, Game 3
The Guillotine - It’s an embarrassment of riches but one that I’m not the least bit embarrassed about. Was lottery luck an ingredient in our elite roster construction? Sure; but so was hitting on selecting quality players later in the draft, fleecing mismanaged franchises in one-sided trades, and making savvy free agent signings. Not to mention we’ve had all of these other ingredients other than luck in the pot before even factoring in that we’ve cooked and seasoned the stew with our second-to-none player development program. So, no; I’m not the least bit embarrassed that, even though we had the nearly unprecedented good fortune to have selected two, four, and one in the last three NBA drafts respectively, our squad is so deep and talented that we have the riches to witnesses two of our youngest players, a 20-year-old rookie and a 21 year-old sophomore, impose their will on a playoff game at a first team all-NBA level on a night where our actual first team all-NBA 22-year-old superstar watches the game from the bench in vibrant street clothes while still in the protocol for returning to action from a concussion. We’ve earned the right to not be embarrassed. You make your own luck. To quote a former (and probably future) pharmaceutical sales representative, “Fortune favors the bold.”
On Friday night in Rose City, the San Antonio Spurs (sans our franchise player) competed in the most hostile environment that most of our young core has ever experienced and past the test with flying colors boldly defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 120-108 to take a 2-1 lead in our Western Conference first round series and immediately snatch back the home court advantage that we’ve spent the past seven months earning. After learning less than 90 minutes prior to tip that Victor Wembanyama had been ruled out of Game 3, we knew we were going to need to buckle in for 48 minutes of grinding against a no-longer-overmatched gritty opponent. Tell the UFO hunters to stand down. There will be no sightings of an extraterrestrial doing otherworldly things against inferior earthlings in the PNW on this particular 60 degree pleasant Spring evening. But for any blood sport enthusiasts, you can tell them there will certainly be a dog fight.
The Blazers set the tone early in the first quarter but luckily, as his teammates struggled to get acclimated to the hostile road environment, Stephon Castle was more than willing to match Portland’s physicality and intensity. Steph bulldozed and bullied his way into the paint over and over again throughout the first half getting buckets or getting free throws or getting his teammates open looks, neutralizing the rowdy Portlandian hipster weirdos in the sellout crowd, and keeping the visitors in striking distance to the tune of 19 first half points and a tremendous amount of poise for a 21-year-old second-year player. (I tease our friends in Portland out of love. Portland is one of my favorite cities in the United States. I spend a lot of time there and know many amazing people who live there. I’m really happy they also have a competitive basketball team that is in the playoffs for the first time in a long time but since they ended up being our first round match up, a little lighthearted razzing over the next couple of weeks is fair game.)
While the 2024 NCAA Champion was the primary reason the Blazers (along with their raucous Moda Center crowd) were unable to create much double-digit separation in the first half, he had a running mate. (A running mate who he coincidentally just so happens to co-own a fast food chain with.) White Castle was in the building last night serving deliciously fresh responses to every Portland first half run (withstanding the expected desperation of an opponent who understands they need to seize this opportunity to grab another game with Wemby out) and getting us to the halftime locker room only down six, 65-59. Luke Kornet (as he has been so far this entire series) was as poised and effective on Friday night as you would expect someone who was a rotation player on a championship team two years ago to be during the April portion of the postseason. 20-5 as a starter this season heading into the game, Luke’s activity on both sides of the floor complimented Steph’s bully ball in keeping us close enough to prevent the first half Blazers avalanche that felt on a knife’s edge of beginning the entire first 24 minutes. Kornet even drained his first three pointer of the entire season with 10.2 seconds left in the first quarter. Clutch shot in a critical situation.
Coming out of the locker room to begin the second half, Portland continued to execute at a high level and their intensity did not relent. It was clear they understood their path to the second round went from “you might need to squint to see it” to relatively open the instant Victor’s face hit the hardwood on Tuesday evening but losing a non-Wemby home game could almost certainly not be a pit stop if they wanted to keep the path open. They played ferociously after the break building their six point lead to 15 when they led 82-67 with 5:09 left in the third. At this point in the game, I must admit, I was begrudgingly beginning to try to start to process the possibility that this may just not be our night and our group may not be capable of restoring order to this series until Wemby is able to rejoin it. But even though these thoughts were admittedly in my head, I still believed we had more than enough time to walk this game down. My faith may have wavered but it didn’t abdicate. I knew we just needed one player to inject some nuclear fusion into our offense and ignite the type of brilliant, electric explosion that could flip the game. And to my absolute unadulterated pleasure, on the very next possession… a star is born.
With 4:48 remaining in the third period of his third-career playoff game, Dylan Harper drained a corner three point dagger that detonated a fulmination so magnificent, those of us who witnessed it will never be able to fully remove the imprint of it from our retinas. Blazers lead 82-70. On the next Spurs possession, Harper pump faked and then drove right past Donovan Clingan and beat Deni Avdjia to the rim with force laying the ball up with his left hand on the right side of the bucket. Blazers 84-70. Later in the period he boarded a Drew Holiday missed corner three and went coast to coast to draw a foul on Jerami Grant. Although he split the free throws and missed a runner in the paint on the very next possession, It was clear his confidence was through the roof and he had the mindset required for one individual player to take over a playoff game. Blazers 84-78. With a minute and a half left in the frame, he cleverly swooped in to secure a lose ball that Scoot Henderson was in better position to grab (after Carter Bryant fumbled away his own offensive rebound) and fired it out to a wide open Keldon Johnson at the three point line. Bottoms. Blazers 85-81. (More on Keldon later.)
On the next possession, he was in position to grab the offensive rebound and go up strong off the glass for the put back when De’Aaron Fox smoked a layup off a baseline drive. Grown man bucket in the paint for the still-too-young-to-legally-be-served-alcohol-could-be-college-sophomore. Blazers 85-83. After Jerami Grant missed an elbow three on Portland’s next trip up the court, Dylan once again swooped in for a rebound that this time, Robert Williams was in a better position to grab and while attempting to ignite the break, drew a foul on Toumani Camara. And this time at the charity stripe, he drilled both free throws while also jawing with Camara throughout the sequence (presumably over the last foul call). Man, oh man, this is exhilarating. The number two overall pick in the NBA draft has the swagger to stand up to one of the toughest defenders in the entire league because, at the end of the day, in Dylan’s mind, “I already know you can’t guard me.” Tie ball game.
Now in the final minute of the frame, Scoot Henderson made a strong move on Harper for a layup (seemingly wanting to intentionally upstage the hottest player on the court) but, unable to resist involving himself in the extracurriculars started by Camara, immediately drew a technical for barking obnoxiously in Dylan’s face. After Julian Champagnie made the T and Fox nailed a cold-blooded jumper from the midrange, the Blazers had the last possession of the third. As the final seconds ticked down, an over-exuberant Henderson attempted to isolate Harper at the top of the key and drive him right. Off-balance, he could only muster a rushed floater which Dylan blocked into the front row with unapologetic utter disgusting disdain. 18-3 San Antonio run to end the third quarter fueled by a second-generation basketball prodigy. Spurs 88-87.
Portland in possession to begin the fourth quarter, Harper disrupted the first attempt, a Scoot(er McGavin) driving floater that missed so badly, Time Lord was gifted the rebound (a recurring theme in this series so far) that he fired right back to Henderson for an easy uncontested lay up. Not to be outdone in the budding duel, with Scoot guarding him, Harper lost contact with him floating to the corner as Fox was probing and drained another cold-blooded corner three in the eye of a rotating Holiday right in front of the Blazers bench before turning to remind them who was in control of this game. This kid’s dripping with moxie. Spurs 91-89. Gliding up the court in transition two possessions later, Dylan crossed over a six-time All-Defensive team honoree like he was hanging in Rio de Janeiro on holiday and then immediately spun back the other direction with the grace of a figure skater into a straight line drive for another crafty left-handed finish at the cup. We want to thank you for flying with us. Spurs 93-91.
After a mini-cold stretch during which the Blazers scored four straight to regain a two point lead on buckets by Shaedon Sharpe and Holiday, the February Kia Western Conference Conference Rookie of the Month was once again the fastest to a loose ball, tipping a shot that Julian had heaved from nearly half court in desperation with the shot clock running down over to Carter who hot potatoed it to Keldon who swung it right back to Dylan to raise up and drain yet another soul-snatching three over Holiday. We know you coulda stayed home, just cried and cussed. Spurs 96-95. Back down at the other end of the court, a quickly losing steam and clearly overmatched Scoot Henderson forced another erratic fadeaway in the paint (and realized in mid air he brought a water gun to a duel). Bryant easily blocked the shot without even leaving his feet. In true Jordanesque fashion, New Jersey’s finest was not done proving his point. With Henderson checking him in the right corner and the shot clock running down on our ensuing possession, Dylan Freaking Harper blew past “Scoot” driving baseline then rose like a phoenix on the right side of the rim sailing past Time Lord like he was frozen in place only to rock the cradle now on the left side of the rim and yam with the fury of a thousand suns and the contempt of man you should now and forever know you should never scorn right on William’s grille. Ladies and gentleman, your player of the game. We got the guillotine, you better run. Spurs 98-95.
Dylan Harper’s brilliant, electric explosion as a star had not just walked the game down, it chased the game down like a mall security guard with too big an ego over too pathetically small of an amount of power pursuing a teenage shoplifter like they had just committed felony aggravated robbery and officially flipped the game for good by the 8:13 mark of the fourth quarter, turning a 15 point deficit into a three point advantage. All told for Game 3, Harper had 27 points (9-12 from the field, 4-5 from three, and 5-6 from the line), 10 rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block with only one turnover and an eye popping team-high +25 in 30 minutes. With this performance Friday night, he became the second youngest player to score 20+ points off of the bench in an NBA playoff game (bested only by the late Kobe Bryant in 1997 at age 18) forever cementing his career-high scoring evening in basketball lore as “The Dylan Harper Game.”
Other players joined the 2025 second overall pick’s coming out party down the stretch to help seal the seemingly improbable #BlackAndSilver comeback victory. Stephon Castle, the leader in the clubhouse for player of the game at halftime, book-ended Dylan’s detonation by going on a personal 7-0 run immediately following Harper’s dunk over Time Lord to increase the Spurs advantage to double figures, 105-95, with six minutes left to play. Castle finished his stellar evening with 33 points (10-18 from the field, 3-4 from deep, and a critical 10-11 from the line), five assets, two rebounds, and a steal in 34 minutes. Combined, The Slash Brothers racked up a staggering 60 points (63% from the field, 78% from deep, 88% from the stripe), 12 rebounds, eight assists, two steals, and one block becoming the first duo 21 or younger to both score 25+ in an NBA playoff game since Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook in 2010. Throw in the 18 points, six assists, and four rebounds De’Aaron Fox gave us in an uneven performance and you’re talking about 78 points, 16 rebounds, and 14 assists of production by San Antonio’s three-headed monster guard rotation. While our all-star guard didn’t deliver the '“carry the team on his back” performance I had called out in Un de moines we were going to need from him, he did hit some key “closer” buckets down the stretch to help seal the game and, to his credit, the threat he poses as a first option offensive weapon forced the Blazers to park Camara (their best defender) on him for almost the entire game which opened up the opportunities for Castle and Harper to cook lesser defenders all night.
Speaking of Stephon, White Castle combined for one more sick lob dunk down the stretch when Luke hammered down a Steph pass over the top of none other than “lord, did he have a hard time” Robert Williams to increase the Spurs lead to 13 with 4:43 left to play. Kornet finished his night with 14 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 30 minutes of action helping increase his record to 21-5 as a starter on the season. Carter Bryant, trusted by Coach Mitch Johnson to play key minutes down the stretch, came up with some big defensive plays in crunch time but had his highlight of the night earlier with a ridiculous step back three right smack dab in the middle of the Dylan Harper third quarter explosion. While our other 20-year-old rookie’s stat line of three points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks looks somewhat pedestrian in the box score, Bryant’s impact went well beyond what was quantifiable playing harassing, disruptive defense every second of every minute he was on the floor and serving as a small ball offensive hub at times en route to a second-only-to-fellow-rookie-Harper +17 during his highly impactful 23 minutes. Speaking of impactful contributions that didn’t necessarily pop out in the box score, I want to also give some shine to the heart and soul of the Spurs, Keldon Johnson. KJ only had five points, five rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block in Game 3 but his relentless intensity and infectious energy were crucial to the comeback and indicative of why he deserved the magical moment he experienced just 48 hours earlier back in San Antonio.
On Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026, Keldon Johnson was named the 2025-26 NBA Sixth Man of the Year. (With the dark cloud of uncertainty surrounding Wemby’s injury, I didn’t want this incredible news to get overshadowed so even though I hadn’t yet finished the last Black & Silver post when I first heard about KJ’s career-redefining achievement, I decided to punt on highlighting it then so it could really be spotlighted under better circumstance i.e. hopefully following a Game 3 win. Glad that gamble worked out.) The longest-tenured Spur received the news watching the broadcast of the announcement at home surrounded by family and friends. He was summoned to The Rock at La Cantera later that afternoon to hold court with the media but upon arrival, he was surprisingly greeted by his teammates and coaches in the most heartwarmingly festive way imaginable. Yee haw! One of my favorite Spurs players since the minute he arrived in San Antonio as a 19-year-old late first round draft pick in 2019, I could not be more thrilled for the eclectic mixtape curating, boombox blasting ball of energy extroverted cowboy from South Hill, VA.
The fact that a former team leader in scoring for an entire season (2022-23) was willing to sacrifice for the good of the team by accepting a bench roll (as more and more bluechip talent was trickling into the roster) and now that sacrifice has been immortalized in the annals of NBA history is so freaking cool. Johnson joins hall-of-famer Manu Ginobili (2007-08) as the only San Antonio Spurs players to win the award. One of my favorite moments in Keldon’s career (to date) was when he scrapped and clawed his way onto the 2021 United States Olympic team roster at the last minute after some higher profile stars withdrew due to injury. Having been brought to Las Vegas during Team USA’s training camp to scrimmage against the Tokyo-bound squad as part of the USA Select team, Johnson all of a sudden got the unexpected call from USA + San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich to get his ass on the plane with them at the very last possible minute. While only playing sparingly, KJ did have a role in winning Team USA’s fourth consecutive Olympic Gold and he got to do it right alongside the coach that was so instrumental to his development. Watching the two of them celebrate that accomplishment together was quite special. Seeing the love Johnson received from his teammates on Wednesday in honor of his highest individual career achievement was equally special. Now, Keldon can place his newly-earned John Havlicek Trophy on a mantle right next to his 2021 Olympic Gold Medal. (He might very well still add another prize to that mantle this summer.) Well done, KJ. I can’t imagine a player more deserving of this type of honor than you.
This afternoon, we’re back at it less than 40 hours after the conclusion of the Spurs’ biggest come-from-behind playoff victory since Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals. Victor Wembanyama’s status for Game 4 is still unknown as I’m completing this post (just as it was on Friday) but the difference now is, rather than finding ourselves in the urgent position of needing to wrestle back control of the home court advantage for the series, we have the opportunity (with or without Victor) to march right back into the Moda Center and all but extinguish any hope of a Blazers series upset by stopping down all of the remaining light that this fun, scrappy, resurgent Portland season has provided to the Pacific Northwest through the aperture that is our state-of-the-art, magnificent, overwhelming, embarrassment of riches, jaw-dropping talent. If we play Game 4 this afternoon in an even more hostile environment but with same intensity, focus, and swagger that we played with on Friday night, our talent should ultimately overpower the opposition and win the day like it already has on 64 other prior occasions this campaign. Based on our winning percentage this season, there is a three out of four chance that my head will hit the pillow happy tonight. There’s been a great many similar nights these past seven months where I’ve drifted to sleep fully content while triumphant Wembanyama or Castle or Harper highlights are replaying in my mind showcasing the breath of our young core’s talent. It’s about the most effective sleeping medication a chronic insomniac could ask to be prescribed and one that I’ve been given a glutinous supply of this year. In case you’re wondering, I’m not the least bit embarrassed about it.
Video Source: ESPN Australia on YouTube
Featured Image Source: Mubi
Headline Image Source: NBASpurs on Reddit