Spurs beat Thunder double overtime Game 1

San Antonio opened the Western Conference finals by taking home-court advantage from the defending champions in a game that ran deep into a second overtime. The Spurs beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-115 on May 18 at Paycom Center, with Victor Wembanyama closing the game in the final minute. The result gave San Antonio a 1-0 series lead before Oklahoma City answered in Game 2 to tie the series 1-1. The opener also stood out historically: it was the sixth Game 1 in NBA playoff history to reach double overtime. ### How did San Antonio get out of Oklahoma City with Game 1? Victor Wembanyama finished with 41 points and 24 rebounds, according to the NBA game summary, and the Spurs leaned on him late after regulation failed to separate the teams. The 22-year-old sealed the win with two dunks in the final minute of the second overtime, one of them completing a three-point play. Dylan Harper added 24 points and a team playoff-record seven steals for San Antonio, while Stephon Castle scored 17. Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson each had 13 points, and Julian Champagnie scored 11, the NBA summary said. ### What went wrong for Oklahoma City in the opener? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 24 points and handed out 12 assists on the night he received his second straight Most Valuable Player trophy, but he shot 7-for-23 from the field, the NBA said. (nba.com) Alex Caruso kept Oklahoma City in the game with 31 points off the bench, the second-highest scoring game of his career. Jalen Williams, back from a six-game absence caused by a hamstring strain, scored 26 points. Oklahoma City also saw a nine-game playoff winning streak snapped, dating to Game 7 of last season’s NBA Finals, according to the NBA recap carried on the game page. ### Why was this game unusual even by conference-finals standards? The NBA game summary said this was the sixth Game 1 in playoff history to go to double overtime and the first since a Spurs-Warriors game in 2013. (nba.com) That put the opener in a small historical category before the series had even reached its second game. NBA.com separately said the game drew the highest average viewership for a Western Conference finals Game 1 on record. (nba.com) The league did not provide that figure in the short item surfaced in search results, but it described the audience as historic. ### What did Wembanyama say after the game? “A great effort - from everybody,” Wembanyama said after the win, according to the NBA recap. (nba.com) The game summary also said he became the youngest player with at least 41 points and 24 rebounds in a playoff game, at 22 years and 134 days. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had been 22 years and 352 days when he posted a 46-point, 25-rebound playoff game in 1970, the NBA said. (nba.com) San Antonio played without De’Aaron Fox because of ankle stiffness, the NBA summary said, which made Wembanyama’s workload and Harper’s all-around line more central to the result. ### Where does the series stand now? The NBA game page shows the series tied 1-1 after Oklahoma City won Game 2, 122-113. Game 3 is scheduled for Friday, May 22, at 8:30 p.m. (nba.com) ET on NBC and Peacock, with Game 4 set for May 24 and Game 5, if needed, listed for May 26. ESPN’s 2026 playoff schedule page says the NBA Finals are set to begin June 3 on ABC. (nba.com) The Western Conference champion will face the East winner in that series. (espn.com)