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e’re getting another Game 7. So let’s get ready by watching 30 minutes of the biggest “win or go home” moments in Game 7 history. Let’s not forget to tap in with Zaza Pachulia. And let’s thank the basketball gods for granting us this Game 7.
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About last night
Spurs obliterate Thunder, force Game 7
After Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, an epic double overtime victory by the San Antonio Spurs over the Oklahoma City Thunder, we pleaded for seven games of this. Really, we were begging for it after their NBA Cup semifinal matchup in December. The animosity between these two squads was heavy that night, and it grew even more over the next 12 days with the Spurs beating the Thunder two more times.
All season, the Thunder have been the favorites to win it all, and the Spurs have been audacious enough to believe they could contend for the title. For the first time in this group’s brief iteration, the Spurs went into last night’s Game 6 with their backs truly against the wall. Then a 20-0 run in the third quarter turned this into a 28-point game, and we knew our wish had been granted.
The final score was 118-91. This was a seven-point game at halftime. San Antonio’s defense was entirely dominant in the second half, especially in that third quarter. It allowed OKC to go just 6-of-28 from the field and make one free throw. The 32-13 quarter reminded everybody of how quick and athletic the Spurs are. They lived at the free-throw line in that quarter and were physically overwhelming.
The Thunder were hoping to get a boost from Jalen Williams, who came back from his left hamstring injury. He played 10 minutes off the bench — and looked like someone trying to play postseason basketball with an injured hamstring, finishing with one point. The Spurs also held Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 15 points on 6-of-18 shooting.
OKC never led. Stats guru Keerthika Uthayakumar gave us this gem: This was the Thunder’s first wire-to-wire playoff loss since 2016. And two of their five wire-to-wire losses this season have come against the Spurs. Victor Wembanyama had 28 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in 28 minutes. Dylan Harper had 18 points off the bench. And the Spurs ensured they’ll have a shot at the finals come tomorrow night.
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By the way, here’s another jaw-dropping playoff moment involving Wemby’s elbow:
The last 24
🎙 Bang! Mike Breen grew up as a Knicks fan. Now he’ll call games involving his hometown team as the lead voice of the NBA Finals.
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🩹 How? Mitchell Robinson got injured during a time without games. He broke his pinky, and NBA Finals status is unclear.
🏀 Back for more. OG Anunoby won a title while sitting out with an injury in 2019. Now he is balling and is close to a second one.
👀 Another charge. Terry Rozier has been charged again by the feds. This time, it’s alleged he took a $100k bribe to leave a game early.
🔊 “NBA Daily.” Watch and listen to a breakdown of last night’s game.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Lottery, reformed
NBA approves anti-tanking draft rules
We had a pretty good idea that the “3-2-1” lottery reform idea was going to get passed. The NBA wanted to immediately implement a new plan to curb tanking, after experiencing one of the most egregious and widespread tanking efforts we’ve ever seen this year. Essentially, nine teams were tanking by the end of the season, and the NBA had enough.
Yesterday, the NBA approved the 3-2-1 system with a 29-1 vote. The one team to vote against it? You guessed it … Frank Stallonethe Memphis Grizzlies. Before we discuss the potential issues with this and why Memphis was so against it, let’s remind you what’s happening with this new lottery reform that is designed to put an end to tanking … for now.
This was the explainer from the NBA that shows the teams with the three worst records in a season won’t receive the best odds for the top pick. They’ll receive two lottery balls. Teams 4-10 will receive three lottery balls. And the lottery has been expanded from 14 to 16 teams.
All spots in the lottery will be drawn, as opposed to the top four. Maybe the most contentious change here comes in the pick restrictions. Teams can’t land the No. 1 pick in consecutive years, something that has only happened twice (without trade) in the lottery era (1985 to present). Teams also can’t receive a top-five pick in three consecutive years. And that’s where the drama and Memphis’ “nay” vote come in.
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Remember the trade deadline, when the Grizzlies traded Jaren Jackson Jr. to the Utah Jazz? Part of that trade involved Utah’s 2027 first-round pick heading to Memphis, as long as it’s more favorable than Minnesota’s and Cleveland’s. Well, that pick can no longer land in the top five because of this lottery reform. This pick was not exempted; the lookback starts in the 2027 draft, and the Jazz selected fifth in 2025 and will select second in 2026. No wonder the Grizzlies voted against this.
Those pick restrictions travel with the pick in any trade. This wasn’t a rule when the Grizzlies made the trade, and now they suffer from the implementation of said rule. That kind of sucks! The NBA explained its decision not to protect those picks with league executive VP Evan Wasch saying:
“If you were to grandfather traded picks, you essentially differentiate those picks as being more valuable than all other picks. … That didn’t feel like a systematically fair way to go about this.”
Uh … what? Some picks are more valuable than others. They’re the picks of the bad teams. Hence why trading for those picks mattered before this rule was put into place, because the league incentivized losing for so long that it became a well-known and largely accepted practice around the association. This pick should have been exempted, because it happened under the old system.
There was probably a better way, but this will be the system for the next three years. Plenty can change, but the draft classes in 2027 and 2028 are not expected to be ripe with franchise-changing prospects. That will help curb tanking in general. Then, after 2029, we’ll see if the league wants to venture away from this system and find something better or more extreme or both. In the future, you should want your rebuilding team to be bad, but not too bad.
Make sure you read: John Hollinger asks all of the pertinent questions regarding the new rules and the thought process behind them.
History lesson
Everything you need to know about Game 7s
SGA versus Wemby. That’s what we’re getting in OKC tomorrow when the Thunder and Spurs battle it out one final time to see who plays the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.
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This will be the fifth Game 7 of this postseason; we had three of them in Round 1 (Detroit-Orlando, Philadelphia-Boston and Toronto-Cleveland) and one in Round 2 (Detroit-Cleveland). That ties the most in a postseason since 2016 (another Keerthika Uthayakumar stat).
Let’s throw some Game 7 stats at you to prepare you for tomorrow night:
League history
- This will be the 160th Game 7 in playoff history.
- Home teams are 117-42 all-time. That’s a 73.5 percent winning percentage.
- Since the merger (1976-77), home teams are 89-35. That’s 71.7 percent.
Conference finals history
- We’ve had 27 Game 7s in conference finals history.
- Home teams are 17-10 in those games. That’s a 62.9 win percentage.
OKC history
- The Thunder are 4-0 in Game 7s at home. They have wins against Memphis (2011 and 2014), Denver (2025) and Indiana (2025).
- They have two Game 7 losses in their franchise history (2016 at Golden State and 2020 in the bubble against Houston).
San Antonio history
- The Spurs are 4-7 in Game 7s, dating back to 1979.
- San Antonio is 1-5 on the road in Game 7s.
- The Spurs haven’t won a Game 7 since 2014 against Dallas.
Recent history
- There have been 38 Game 7s since 2016. That’s nearly a quarter of all Game 7s.
- Home teams are 20-18 in those Game 7s since 2016. That’s a 52.6 win percentage.
Even more recent history!
- In the post-bubble era, the home team is 9-11 in Game 7s.
- Two of those losses happened this year with Detroit (second round) and Boston (first round).
Individual performances
- The top five scoring Game 7s by a player are Jayson Tatum (51 in 2023), Steph Curry (50 in 2023), Kevin Durant (48 in 2021), Sam Jones (47 in 1963) and Dominique Wilkins (47 in 1988).
- The Thunder record is Durant’s 39 in 2011. SGA had 35 last year against Denver.
- The Spurs record is George Gervin with 42 in 1979. Tim Duncan had 41 in 2006. Both were losses.
- The record for rebounds in a Game 7 is 40 by Bill Russell. Dave Cowens has the post-merger record with 27 boards.
- John Stockton has the Game 7 assist record with 20.
- Elvin Hayes (1979), Caldwell Jones (1977) and Dikembe Mutombo (2001) hold the Game 7 block record with seven.
- Manu Ginobili (2014) and Jerome Kersey (1990) hold the Game 7 steals record with six.
- Donte DiVincenzo and Buddy Hield have the 3-point record with nine each.
- Tim Duncan holds the free-throw attempt record with 23.