Game 7 awaits Spurs and Thunder, with NBA Finals berth against Knicks going to the winner

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The last time Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder played a Game 7 it was the ultimate game of ultimate games, one that decided last season’s NBA championship.

And that’s why, as the NBA’s two-time Most Valuable Player spoke about the Game 7 that looms against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night to decide the Western Conference title, it might have seemed mildly surprising that he said these five words: “Biggest game of my career.”

“It’s the next game,” he quickly added. “And if I lose, my season’s over.”

Simple as that. Game 7. Spurs vs. Thunder. The winner goes to the NBA Finals to play the New York Knicks starting on Wednesday night, the loser goes home to lament what might have been. The Thunder went 2-0 in Game 7s last season on their way to the NBA title, while Spurs star Victor Wembanyama will be making his maiden appearance on the Game 7 stage.

“I know there’ll be a lot of added attention, a lot of eyes watching,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “It’ll be a hostile environment, but we’ve been saying this for a long time: We’ve had a lot of firsts. This one will be a little bit more important or higher-stakes than all the others. That’s the goal as you keep playing and the season gets longer.”

This will be only the second time in NBA history that two teams that won 62 or more games each during the regular season meet in a Game 7. The other was in 1981, when Boston beat Philadelphia 91-90 to win the Eastern Conference title.

And it could be easily argued that Wembanyama is about to play the biggest game of his career. Then again, he might take exception to that.

In the mind of the 7-foot-4 French star, who had 28 points in 28 minutes to lead San Antonio’s romp in Game 6 that staved off elimination and got the Spurs into Game 7, every game is Game 7. It’s the attitude that he’s taken to the court for as long as he can remember. It’s the approach that shaped him and probably helped him get to this moment.

“For me, winning in the NBA today isn’t any more important than winning a regional championship back when I was playing in the U-13 division,” Wembanyama said in his native French after the Game 6 win on Thursday night. “The competitive drive feels exactly the same.”

Game 1 was a double-overtime thriller, with neither team ever leading by more than 10 points before the Spurs eventually prevailed. And in Game 2, Oklahoma City’s biggest lead was 13 before the Thunder won by nine.

The gaps have grown as the series goes along. Both teams led by at least 15 points at times in Game 3 (a 15-point Thunder win), the Spurs led by as many as 25 before winning Game 4 by 21, the Thunder led by 20 before winning Game 5 by 13, and the Spurs led by 28 before winning Game 6 by 27.

So, the games themselves might not have all been classics. The series, as a whole, looks like one. And after all the ups and downs for both teams, it comes down to one game — the 12th between the teams this season, with San Antonio 7-4 in the previous 11.

“The one thing that we’ve learned more than anything is every game has a new life,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Every game is earned if you want to win it. Game 7 will be no different. This is obviously a quality opponent. We have to play a lot better than we did (in Game 6) and we understand that from a number of experiences. … We’ll get some rest and recovery, learn from the tape, take the lessons from (Game 6) that are relevant for Game 7 and be ready to go out there and throw our best punch.”

History shows that’s exactly what the Thunder know how to do.

Since the start of the 2025 playoffs, Oklahoma City is 9-0 in the game immediately following a playoff loss — winning those by an average of 15.4 points.

“We’re just a motivated group and we accept the challenge ahead,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Every game is going to present a different challenge and obviously when you lose, it hurts a little more and there’s a little extra motivation and we tend to fight a little bit harder.”

And given that this is Game 7, there will be plenty of fight on both sides.

Gilgeous-Alexander will be in his fourth Game 7. Wembanyama will be in his first. Most of the Spurs’ rotation players will be on this stage for only the first or second time. But everyone knows the stakes.

“I think there’s been a lot of legendary Game 7s and I feel like we’re a group that wants to be a part of that,” said Spurs rookie Dylan Harper, whose father — five-time champion Ron Harper — played in a pair of Game 7s. “We want to be a part of that kind of history of Game 7. We’re going to go out there swinging. No matter what, we just going to leave it all on the table.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press