The Thunder defeated the Spurs 123-108 in Game 3 on Friday in San Antonio, taking a 2-1 series lead.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and 12 assists and finished 12-for-12 on free throws, though he did not score in the first quarter.
Oklahoma City’s depth decided this one: the Thunder’s reserves outscored the Spurs’ reserves 76-23 in Game 3, and for the series the benches have combined for a staggering 183-64 advantage in favor of the Thunder. The starters on both sides produced just 47 points for Oklahoma City, while role players supplied the bulk of the scoring.
Jared McCain set a playoff career high with 24 points, 16 of them in the second half. Jaylin Williams also had a playoff career high with 18 points, 14 coming in the first half. Cason Wallace added 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Alex Caruso finished with 15 points, three rebounds, two steals and a block. Lu Dort scored zero points, and Ajay Mitchell finished with two.
The Spurs jumped to a 15-0 lead early, and Mark Daigneault said plainly of San Antonio’s start, "Credit them, they were ready to play, and they got us early," before turning to what his team did afterward: "I just thought we showed great poise and understanding the 48-minute nature of the game."
San Antonio pulled within nine in the fourth quarter after erasing a 15-point deficit, and Daigneault called a timeout to steady the Thunder. On the next possession Jared McCain hit an 11-foot jumper, and with 5:57 left Jaylin Williams completed a four-point play that put the margin back out of reach.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s line — 26 points on 6-for-17 shooting with 12 assists and a perfect night at the line — underlined the uneven arc of the game: no points in the first quarter, then production when it mattered. He summarized the team’s approach succinctly: "We go out there and just play our brand of basketball no matter who’s out there," a line that spoke to the way the Thunder leaned on role players.
Daigneault emphasized that the bench performance is not a reaction to San Antonio but a planned strength. "We just try to look at things through the lens of our own strengths," he said. "We assume the opponent’s always at their best, and we need to be ours and depth is a part of that." He added, "The last thing you want to do is assume that an opponent has a weakness that they don’t have."
The contrast in reserve scoring is the clearest context for this series: the Thunder’s bench advantage has been a running theme, and Game 3 made it impossible to ignore. The Spurs showed they could start fast and stage runs, but they could not match Oklahoma City’s secondary scoring. The result left San Antonio facing a fast turnaround: Game 4 is Sunday in San Antonio at 8 ET on NBC and Peacock.
With the Thunder’s depth carrying them to a 2-1 edge, the single pressing question for Sunday is whether the Spurs can find bench scoring to close the gap; if they cannot, Oklahoma City’s reserves are likely to continue deciding the outcome of this series.
