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San Antonio Spurs vs. Thunder preview (Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals)

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Alex Roig

#2 San Antonio Spurs (9-3) vs. #1 Oklahoma City (8-1)
When: Wednesday, 20 May 2026 at 7:30pm CST
Where: Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, OK
TV: NBC/Peacock
Playoff Offensive Rating (of the remaining playoff teams): SAS: 116.3 (3rd) / OKC: 123.3 (1st)
Playoff Defensive Rating (of the remaining playoff teams): SAS: 102.2 (1st) / OKC: 108.9 (3rd)
Playoff Net Rating (of the remaining playoff teams): SAS: 14.0 (3rd) / OKC: 14.4 (2nd)
Series Record: SAS leads 1-0

The Tip-Off

So this is what it must’ve felt like to go against Wilt Chamberlain in late 50s/early 60s. Or what NBA centers must’ve felt when Shaquille O’Neal first entered the league in the 90s. To see someone so physically imposing move in ways that defy what you’ve seen before is what legends are made of. But when it’s happening to your team in real time, it’s gut-wrenching. In Game 1, Victor Wembanyama dominated to the tune of 41 points and 24 rebounds. He used his length (and the fear of his length) to his advantage. Ironically, while in the “walk-up” tunnel as Wemby was passing us by, myself and Suave Report’s Addam Francisco were discussing before the game the different strategies OKC may employ to defend Wembanyama. And I, stupidly tempting the basketball gods, said, “I don’t really think we need to focus on him on the offensive end. It’s not like he’s consistently beating teams by putting up 40 point/20 rebound games.” As Taylor Swift has famously said before, “It’s me, hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.” Here’s hoping some course-correcting juju goes OKC’s way in Game 2.

Betting Info, presented by FanDuel

Line: OKC -6.5
O/U: 216.5

Injury Report

OKC

Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)

SAS

De’Aaron Fox – Questionable (ankle)

Five Big Things

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – The current, reigning MVP has got to be better in Game 2. He scored 24 points on 23 shots and was a team worst -15 while he was on the floor. But it wasn’t necessarily just the misses. It was also the hesitancy to get to his shots up because of Wembanyama and the Spurs’ defense. And I get it. Just look at the article picture. That’s three Spurs players laser-focused on SGA. The correct basketball play says that SGA should pass to a more open teammate in that situation. But, the Thunder aren’t going to win if SGA is only attempting 5 field goals in a half (which is what he did in the first half of Game 1). San Antonio took the game to the Thunder in Game 1. SGA has to lead the charge for OKC to do that in Game 2.
Random Role-Player Game – Losing any game in the playoffs can be painful. But losing a game where Alex Caruso goes off for 31 points on 8-14 shooting from deep is nerve-piercing, migraine-inducing painful. The Thunder usually aren’t the beneficiaries of the “random role-player going off” game. Honestly, it’s usually done to them. Will we ever see another game like this from Caruso? Will we get a Jared McCain or Isaiah Joe game like this? If San Antonio is going to sell on keeping all of the Thunder’s players out of the paint, we are likely going to need similar nights from someone other than OKC’s core quartet (SGA, Dub, Chet, and Ajay).
The Puzzle that is Wemby – This is going to be the conundrum that the league is going to have to figure out for likely the next decade. Wembanyama completely changes the geometry of the court on the defensive end. He instills fear in drivers and turns teams into jump-shooting versions of themselves. While his basketball IQ is high, he can be hyper-focused on getting blocks. This could work in OKC’s favor if SGA or Dub can get Wembanyama to bite on some pump-fakes. Wemby was foul-less for most of the game and then racked up 4 fouls pretty quickly. It happened later in the game, so it didn’t really affect his time on the floor, but if those fouls are picked up earlier in the game, it may for San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson to sit Wemby for more stretches in the game.
Starting Lineup Change? – In the second half of Game 1, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault started Cason Wallace in place of Isaiah Hartenstein. The “Wemby + 4 guards/shooters” line-up made it difficult to keep both bigs out there for an extended period of time. At the beginning of the game, OKC saw themselves down 7-0 early with San Antonio targeting Hartenstein in pick and roll action. The downside to sitting Hartenstein is that you lose your muscle and rebounding up front (of which, iHart wasn’t very good in Game 1 with only 2 rebounds). It may be up to the guards of OKC to focus more on getting defensive rebounds and helping Chet up front if he is the lone big.
Ajay Mitchell – The belle of the ball in the first two rounds of the playoffs looked a little pumpkin-ish in Game 1. He had 4 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals, but only took 5 shots in his 34 minutes of action. A lot like SGA, Mitchell has to figure out how to navigate the waters with Wemby out there. Dribble penetration and paint touches are the name of Mitchell’s game, but that’s also where Wemby patrols most often. OKC really needs Mitchell to be a factor, especially in bench lineups where Wembanyama may be on the bench.

Boston Celtics vs. Thunder preview (Game 67 of 82)

Posted on March 12, 2026 by Alex Roig

Boston Celtics (43-22, 2nd in the East) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (51-15, 1st in the West)
When: Thursday, 12 March 2026 at 8:30pm CST
Where: Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, OK
TV: Prime Video / FDSN-OK
Offensive Rating: BOS: 119.8 (2nd) / OKC: 117.0 (7th)
Defensive Rating: BOS: 111.8 (5th) / OKC: 106.2 (1st)
Net Rating: BOS: 7.9 (2nd) / OKC: 10.8 (1st)
Current Streaks: BOS: Lost their last game, 9-3 in their last 12 / OKC: Winners of 6 in a row, 9-1 in their last 10

The Tip-Off

There was a point around early February, where the Thunder were struggling with injuries and struggling with winning consistently. Many basketball prognosticators pointed to this particular point in the season when the Thunder would start to lose their grip on their #1 status in both the conference and the league. San Antonio and Detroit both nipping at their tail and a murderer’s row of opponents (New York (in NYC), Denver, Boston, and Minnesota) lied ahead. The post All-Star break schedule was the one that was going to break the Thunder. What has happened since the All-Star break? A 9-1 record with the only loss being to the Detroit Pistons on a night where the Thunder were missing their top 6 players (SGA, Chet, Dub, Hartenstein, Ajay, and Caruso). This team is getting healthier and gaining some momentum at the right time in the season.

This is the first of two meetings this season between these two conference powerhouses. OKC swept the season series last season. These two teams were the favorites to meet in the Finals last season, but the injury to Jayson Tatum was too much for Boston as they lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs to the New York Knicks.

Betting Info, presented by FanDuel

Line: OKC -6.5
O/U: 215.5

Injury Report

OKC

Branden Carlson – OUT (back)
Isaiah Hartenstein – OUT (calf contusion)
Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)
Jalen Williams – OUT (hamstring)

BOS

Payton Pritchard – Probable (neck spasms)
Jayson Tatum – Questionable (Achilles recovery management)
Nikola Vucevic – OUT (finger)
Derrick White – Questionable (knee contusion)

Three Big Things

Pace – Boston is the “slowest” team in the league, ranking dead last in Pace and Fast Break Points per game. But, with that, comes the ability to protect the ball, which they do to the utmost, ranking first in turnovers, committing just 12.1 turnovers per game. This will be where OKC has to win the game. Forcing turnovers and getting out in transition would get Boston out of their element and turn the game in OKC’s favor.
Perimeter Defense – Boston is the most “jump-shootiest” of jump-shooting teams there is in the league. They rank 1st in 3-point attempts per game, last in free-throw attempts per game (usually an indicator of a jump-shooting team), and 28th in Points in the Paint per game. They rank 6th in percentage of points from the mid-range and 3rd in percentage of points from the 3-point line. This may change a bit with the return of Jayson Tatum, but even with Tatum in the lineup, the Celtics were normally known as a team at the top or near the top of 3-point attempts. To a team like OKC, which likes to play it’s defense inside-out, if Boston is hitting their shots consistently, it could make for a long night.
127 – Anytime you tie a record set by Wilt Chamberlain, you’re in rarefied air. Anytime you have the chance to break a record set by Chamberlain, you’re on a whole ‘nother level. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finds himself on the precipice of breaking the consecutive “20-points scored” games record. It’ll be interesting to see how Boston handles this. Are they going to throw the kitchen sink at SGA in order to try and avoid this milestone happening on their watch. Or will Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla just stick to his normal game plan and let the chips fall as they may.

Denver Nuggets vs. Thunder preview (Game 66 of 82)

Posted on March 9, 2026 by Alex Roig

Denver Nuggets (39-25, 6th in the West) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (50-15, 1st in the West)
When: Monday, 09 March 2026 at 6:30pm CST
Where: Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, OK
TV: Peacock/NBCSN/FDSN-OK
Offensive Rating: DEN: 120.0 (1st) / OKC: 116.8 (8th)
Defensive Rating: DEN: 116.3 (22nd) / OKC: 105.9 (1st)
Net Rating: DEN: 3.8 (9th) / OKC: 10.9 (1st)
Current Streaks: DEN: Inconsistent at best; 6-9 in their last 15 / OKC: Winners of 5 straight, 8-1 in their last 9

The Tip-Off

This is the third of four meetings this season between these Northwest Division rivals. After a grueling 7-game series in the second round of last season’s playoffs, these two teams haven’t let off the gas when they meet each other. OKC dominated the first game, winning by 10 points in Denver. The second game was a lot more competitive, with Denver controlling most of the game, but OKC continuously keeping it close until they were able to make it a back and forth affair late in the game and winning in overtime. That game featured some physicality, a Lu Dort flagrant 2, and a kerfuffle that saw Nikola Jokic and Jaylin Williams do the tango at halfcourt.

Betting Info, presented by FanDuel

Line: OKC -6.5
O/U: 232.5

Injury Report

OKC

Branden Carlson – OUT (back)
Alex Caruso – OUT (hip)
Isaiah Hartenstein – OUT (calf)
Chet Holmgren – Questionable (illness)
Thomas Sorber – OFS (knee/ACL)
Jalen Williams – OUT (hamstring)

DEN

Jamal Murray – Questionable (ankle)
Peyton Watson – OUT (hamstring)

Three Big Things

Playoff Atmosphere – This is the NBA’s only current rivalry that has recent playoff history behind it. The Pacers and Knicks had some sauce behind it after last season, but with the Pacers’ “waiting in the wings” season this year, it hasn’t had the same carry-over effect. And Thunder vs. Spurs has been a thing this year, but we’ll need at least one playoff series before crowning it a true, budding rivalry. But you can see with every game these two teams have played this season, the carry-over effect has been evident and that is a great thing.
Spillage From Last Game – There was a national discourse over a certain play in the last Denver game that seemed to last about a week after the game was actually played. Yes, the Dort hip check/trip on Jokic was dirty. Have dirty plays like that happened in the NBA before? Yes. Were there national discussions over it days after it happened? Usually not. It was a play that went a little over the line. Dort even admitted it himself. But in a annals of dirty plays, it wouldn’t even rate in the top-100. It was much ado about nothing.
History – They say great scorers can jump out of bed and drop 20 like it’s nothing. But apparently, it’s very difficult to do it consistently, game after game. There’s the possibility of injury, where regardless of when the player gets knocked out of a game, if they played and didn’t score 20 or more the streak is over. Then there’s the consistency component. Do anything 125 times straight, and there will be a time or two where you don’t have it that day. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is staring down the barrel of a record that hasn’t been talked about too much in the history of the NBA, but also, hasn’t been talked about a lot because no player has gotten this close to the record. If SGA scores 20 or more tonight, he’ll tie a record that has stood for 63 years. If SGA scores 20 or more tonight, he’ll tie a Wilt Chamberlain record. Wilt Chamberlain, the man who owns nearly every scoring record in the game. Here’s to seeing history tonight.

3 Thoughts about Serge Ibaka’s Return

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Alex Roig

On Friday, the Thunder released a statement stating power forward Serge Ibaka had progressed enough in his recovery from a strained calf to be upgraded from OUT to DTD (day to day). With the Thunder being down 0-2 in the Western Conference, is this the boost they severely need to get back in the series? Here are three thoughts on what could happen with Ibaka’s return:

1. The Willis Reed Effect

I know. This isn’t Game 7 of the NBA Finals in Madison Square Garden. During those days, most fans didn’t know who the starting line-up of a team would be until they started warming up. With the 24/7 sports news cycle that we have nowadays, there was no way that Ibaka was going to surprise the masses by walking into the arena right after the national anthem while ripping off his warm-ups to reveal his uniform and a heavily tape calf muscle. (Side bar: That would have been EPIC, though.)

It isn’t the same….but it almost feels like it. We’ve already been on the brink of elimination this season. Games 6 and 7 of the Memphis series and Game 5 of the Clippers series. All games that we needed to win, and did. This feels like that type of game. Throwing all the “nobody has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit in the history of the NBA” talk out the window, this is the make it or break game. Either we win tonight and make a series out of it or we go down like a sinking ship.

The emotional boost Ibaka’s return could provide may prove to be the spark the team has needed since the series began. Without their defensive anchor in the middle, the Thunder have looked lost on both ends of the floor. Their spacing on the offensive end has been Charles Barkley turrible, and their paint defense (and subsequent perimeter defense) has seen better days. Even if Ibaka doesn’t provide you with much, the fact that he is there may be enough to see the Thunder through this game.

Remember, for all the hoopla surrounding Reed’s return in Game 7, he only went on to score 4 points in the game. But the defense he played on Wilt Chamberlain in his 27 minutes in the game, proved to be the deciding factor in the Knicks winning their first championship.

The Great Unknown for the Spurs

For a team as organized as the Spurs, uncertainty can throw them for a loop. You can be sure that Gregg Popovich has devised at least 3 different game plans: one for the Thunder without Ibaka, one for the Thunder with a hobbled Ibaka, and one for the Thunder with a healthy Ibaka. The first few minutes of Game 3 will be telling for the Spurs. Do they put Ibaka through a spin cycle of pick and rolls? Do they drive right on him to test that calf?

This can work in the Thunder’s favor though. If the curiosity over Ibaka’s health gets the Spurs to deviate from their game plan even one bit, then the Thunder could have a marked advantage. This is the Thunder’s one trump card. Once the Spurs have film on how the Thunder plan to use Ibaka, the surprise factor of Ibaka’s return goes out the window. That’s a big reason why Game 3 is so important to the Thunder.

What will Ibaka give the Thunder?

The great variable. What will Ibaka actually give the Thunder? He could give the Thunder 20 extremely valuable minutes or he could give them 6 “why the hell is he out there” minutes. The possibilities could literally run the gamut.

One thing for certain is that Ibaka would not be out there if he had not received the go ahead from the team doctors. The Thunder organization is very meticulous about not putting their players at risk of further injury, regardless of what is at stake. If there was any concern about compounded injury to Ibaka, he would have been held out. Is there a risk of reinjury? Of course. Kendrick Perkins played with an oft-injured groin in the 2012 playoffs, and had to sit out the 2nd half of at least 2 games in that playoff run that went all the way into the Finals. Calf muscles, much like the groin, are heavily used in basketball and the risk of reinjury is there.

But I think Ibaka’s return will have more of a psychological impact on the team. No team in the NBA is more dependent on their core players than the Thunder. So even if Ibaka is not at 75%, just having him out there may ease some of the stress that the Thunder seem to be playing with. And if that is the case, then his return will have been a rousing success.

Oklahoma City Thunder at Houston Rockets preview (Game 75 of 82)

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Alex Roig

When: Friday, 04 April 2014 at 8:30 PM CST
Where: Toyota Center, Houston, TX

If you are a guaranteed playoff team and are satisfied with your seeding, the last month of the season is more like a playoff preseason. The team wants to work out any kinks in order to be a well-oiled machine heading into the playoffs. But a team also wants to either rest it’s top players or get them healthy by the time the second season starts. The Thunder are firmly entrenched in the No. 2 slot of the Western Conference. Barring a collapse by the Spurs or an uprising (with a Thunder collapse) of the Clippers, this is where the Thunder will be when the playoffs begin.

The Thunder will be going for their 2nd 4-game regular season sweep of a Texas team when they travel to Houston to take on the Rockets. The Thunder have won the first three games of the season series by an average of 17 points.

The Opponent

The Rockets are currently 49-25 and in the 4th spot in the Western Conference. They are trying to hold off the Portland Trailblazers who are 1 game behind them and charging fast. Injuries are starting to rear their ugly heads in Houston and have had a profound effect on the Rockets in the last 3 games. Defensive stalwarts Dwight Howard (ankle) and Patrick Beverly (knee) have missed the last 3 games, and the Rockets have given up an average of 110 points in that trio of games.

Probable Starting Line-ups

Houston Rockets

PG – Jeremy Lin
SG – James Harden
SF – Chandler Parsons
PF – Terrence Jones
C – Omer Asik

Oklahoma City Thunder

PG – Reggie Jackson
SG – Andre Roberson
SF – Kevin Durant
PF – Serge Ibaka
C – Steven Adams

3 Keys to the Game

1. Defense – Who ever plays defense in this game will win it. With defensive stalwarts like Howard, Beverly, Sefolosha, and Perkins out with various injuries, offense will be the law of the land. All things being equal offensively, the Thunder have a better defensive foundation and should be able to lock the Rockets down enough to pull out a victory.

2. Desperation – While the Rockets may not be “fighting for a playoff spot” desperate, they are fighting to, at least, maintain home court in the first round. The Rockets have lost 3 in a row, while their pursuers, the Trailblazers, have won 4 in a row. Luckily for the Rockets, they own the tiebreaker between the two teams.

3. The Streak – Kevin Durant’s scoring streak could possibly reach mythical proportions tonight as he goes for 40 straight games of 25+ points. You can bet that Francisco Garcia will try his hardest to prevent Durant from continuing his streak. If achieved, he will be in the company of greats. Names like Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, and Wilt Chamberlain will be associated with Durant. In fact, its almost a good place to start a Mt. Rushmore conversation….or not.