Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder is scheduled Tuesday night in Oklahoma City; NBA.com lists the game at 8 ET on NBC and Peacock, while the NBC TV Network shows an 8:30 p.m. start from the Paycom Center. The series is tied 2-2 after the Spurs evened the series with a 103-82 win in Game 4.
Victor Wembanyama carried the Spurs in that win, scoring 33 points, grabbing eight rebounds and adding five assists, three blocks and two steals. The Thunder held San Antonio to 82 points in Game 4 and kept Shai Gilgeous-Alexander under 20 points, underscoring how quickly momentum has shifted in this series that could hand one team a 3-2 lead with a single result on Tuesday.
NBA.com’s schedule lists the start at 8 ET on both NBC and Peacock; the NBC TV Network’s listing for the same game shows a 8:30 p.m. local start from the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Mike Tirico is scheduled to call the game for NBC Sports with Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford in the booth. Zora Stephenson and Ashley ShahAhmadi are listed as courtside reporters, and Maria Taylor is set to host NBA Showtime on Peacock before the game.
The series is the Western Conference Finals. Regular-season defensive rankings supplied by NBA.com put the Thunder as the No. 1 defense and the Spurs as the No. 3 defense, a reminder that this is as much a defensive chess match as it has been an offensive duel. Wembanyama was the Kia Defensive Player of the Year and was unanimously named to the All-Defensive First Team; Chet Holmgren also made the All-Defensive First Team and Cason Wallace the second team, details that have framed expectations heading into these matchups.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault framed the immediate stakes plainly after Game 4. "There’s a reason we talk about getting to zero every game. We played great the other night. We went and earned those two wins and none of that carried over and nothing from (Game 4) will carry over in Game 5. That’s a blank slate. We have the same exact opportunity that they do to go get that game," he said, a line that both announces reset and signals how the Thunder plan to respond in front of their home crowd.
The discrepancy in published start times is the small, unavoidable friction point here: league and platform listings put the window at 8 ET, while the network that will carry the national broadcast lists a slightly later start. For viewers and bettors who price the immediate edge, that half-hour matters for planning and for local-market feed timing, though both listings agree on network and platform and that Tuesday is the night the series will return to Oklahoma City.
Game 5 will carry outsized importance because its winner takes a 3-2 series lead and shifts where pressure sits for the following games. The Spurs arrive off a convincing road victory powered by Wembanyama’s two-way impact; the Thunder will try to reassert the home advantage that produced the series’ first two wins. The sharper question after Game 4 is whether San Antonio can translate its defensive control into another road win or whether Oklahoma City can, as Daigneault put it, wipe the slate clean and reclaim momentum.
Whichever way it goes Tuesday night, the immediate outcome will reshape both teams’ path to the Finals: a Thunder win hands them a 3-2 edge and forces the Spurs to chase; a Spurs victory hands them the same advantage and hands the Thunder a must-win at home. That consequence — not the listings or the booth assignments — is the clearest thing left to watch when the teams tip off on Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.
