Wembanyama Leads Spurs Past Thunder In Game 7 As San Antonio Returns To NBA Finals
The Spurs are headed back to the NBA Finals. Those are words no one saw coming; except for Mitch Johnson and the boys in the locker room, at the beginning of the 2025-2026 season.
Once again the Silver and Black are Western Conference Champions after defeating the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder 111-103 in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. It is the first time the team has advanced to an NBA Finals since 2014. That was also the last year the Spurs won it all.
In just his third year Victor Wembanyama was named MVP of the Finals. It was a fitting end to a series that pitted the top two vote getters in the season MVP race in SGA and V-Dub against one another. Wembanyama also became the second-youngest player (22 years and 146 days) to be named to the All-NBA First Team and play in the NBA Finals in the same season.
The Spurs’ young superstar averaged 27.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.7 blocks on 48 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent shooting from 3 in seven games. Beyond his 41-point, 24-rebound performance in double overtime in Game 1, his 22 points in Game 7 helped secure him the Earvin “Magic” Johnson Trophy and close the series.
V-Dub finished the game with 22 points on 7-for-15 shooting and 3-for-5 from three with seven rebounds.
It was an overall team effort by the Spurs who had seven players score in double digits including all five starters.
Julian Champagnie was huge again for the Spurs and finished with 20 points; all from distance, and six boards. He was 6-for-11 from the field and 6-for-10 from distance.
Stephon Castle scored 16 points and De’Aaron Fox had 15. Dylan Harper added 12 and Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell each finished with 11 for the Spurs.
It was a rough night for the defending champs who were without both Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell. They got another phenomenal game from two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored a game-high 35 points and nine assists. He was an efficient 12-for-21 from the field and 2-for-5 from distance. He just couldn’t get enough help from the rest of his team in the decisive Game 7.
Cason Wallace was the only other starter for OKC to finish in double-digits. He finished the game with 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field and 5-for-9 from three, with seven rebounds and four assists. DPOY Runner-up Chet Holmgren finished with just four points and four rebounds with two blocks. More importantly he only attempted two shots in 33 minutes.
The Spurs, looking for their sixth title in franchise history will now face the Eastern Conference Champion New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. It was a New York Knicks team the Spurs faced in 1999 in which they won the team’s first championship.
The Silver and Black will have home court advantage in the best-of 7 series.
