The defending champions are done. The San Antonio Spurs are going to the Finals.
Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs ended the Oklahoma City Thunder’s reign as NBA champions on Sunday, winning Game 7 on the road, 111-103, to capture the Western Conference Finals four games to three—and book a championship showdown against the New York Knicks beginning Thursday in San Antonio.
It is the Spurs’ first NBA Finals appearance since 2014. And they earned it the hard way—bucking heavy odds, winning on the road in a winner-take-all game against the team they had come to dethrone.
Wembanyama was everything the moment required. The 7-foot-4 French center—NBA Defensive Player of the Year and already one of the most captivating players the sport has seen—finished with 22 points and 7 rebounds in his first career Game 7, and was laughing and hugging teammates at the final buzzer, joy written all over him.
“This feeling, I can’t explain it,” Wembanyama said. “It’s so powerful.”
Spurs Find Spark in Julian Champagnie
Julian Champagnie was magnificent alongside him. The forward poured in 20 points—18 of them from beyond the arc on six three-pointers—providing the kind of complementary shooting that makes a superstar’s job infinitely easier. Stephon Castle added 16, De’Aaron Fox chipped in 15, and Dylan Harper, Keldon Johnson, and Devin Vassell each contributed 11. This was not a one-man show. This was a team that played like one.
“We were passing the ball. We were playing as a team. We come out here and play together,” Champagnie said. “We never knew if we were going to get this far but when you’ve got the greatest player in the world, things happen.”
NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gave San Antonio everything he had—35 points in a losing cause. It was the kind of performance that deserves better than a Game 7 exit, but the Thunder ran out of answers for a Spurs team that simply would not go away.
From Pretty Good to Finals-Bound
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson kept it understated, the way coaches do when the magnitude of the moment still hasn’t fully landed.
“Back in October, we knew we had a chance to be pretty good,” Johnson said.
Pretty good turned out to be Finals-bound.
San Antonio started this series with a win in Oklahoma City. They finished it the same way—on the road, in the building of the reigning champions, with the stakes as high as they get. The Knicks, who went 2-1 against the Spurs in the regular season and beat them in the NBA Cup final 124-113 last December in Las Vegas, await.
Game 1 is Wednesday. San Antonio is ready.
