05/26/26 10:24:00
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05/26 22:22 CDT Thunder top Spurs 127-114 in Game 5, move a win away from a
return to NBA Finals
Thunder top Spurs 127-114 in Game 5, move a win away from a return to NBA Finals
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 32 points, Alex Caruso led another strong bench
effort with 22 and the Oklahoma City Thunder moved one win away from a return
trip to the NBA Finals by beating the San Antonio Spurs 127-114 on Tuesday
night.
Jared McCain --- getting the call with Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell both
sidelined --- scored 20 in his first playoff start for the defending NBA
champion Thunder, who lead the Western Conference finals 3-2.
Chet Holmgren scored 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Thunder, while Isaiah
Hartenstein had a 12-point, 15-rebound night in Oklahoma City.
Stephon Castle scored 24 points for San Antonio, which got 22 points from
Julian Champagnie and 20 points from Victor Wembanyama --- who was held to
4-of-15 shooting.
Keldon Johnson scored 15 off the bench for San Antonio, which missed 29 of its
41 3-point tries.
Game 6 is Thursday in San Antonio. If there's a Game 7, it'll be back in
Oklahoma City on Saturday --- and while this series winds down, the New York
Knicks are waiting to see who emerges.
The Knicks will play the Thunder-Spurs winner in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on
June 3, with that series starting in the Western Conference city.
Oklahoma City scored 40 points in the second quarter to take control and kept
the lead the rest of the way.
"We just played to who we were tonight," Gilgeous-Alexander said.
It took nearly 10 minutes for the first free throws to be awarded. But when the
parade to the foul line started, it didn't stop.
The teams combined to make 29 free throws in the second quarter alone, the most
in the second quarter of any NBA game since the bubble playoffs nearly six
years ago. It wasn't a one-sided thing --- the Spurs were 15 for 17 in the
quarter, the Thunder 14 for 14.
Oklahoma City went up by 20 in the third, before San Antonio closed within
eight. The Spurs might have had some chances to cut even further into the
deficit, but were fuming --- and rightly so, it seemed --- over some missed
calls in the final minute of the quarter.
A tip-in try by San Antonio's Luke Kornet with about 56 seconds left was
knocked off the rim by Oklahoma City's Cason Wallace and should have been
goaltending. And on the next Spurs' possession, an out-of-bounds call that
should have gone their way --- replays showed the ball went out off of Holmgren
--- did not. Spurs coach Mitch Johnson tried to challenge the call, got
ignored, then got a technical foul for arguing.
After all that, Oklahoma City's lead was 101-91 going into the fourth.
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