{"id":1947197,"date":"2026-05-21T14:15:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1947197"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:15:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:15:40","slug":"the-bounce-the-mvp-gets-his-revenge-on-the-spurs-plus-legends-fall-in-our-tiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1947197","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce: The MVP gets his revenge on the Spurs. Plus, legends fall in our tiers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bounce Newslette<\/b>r<\/strong> \":basketball:\"<\/span> | This is The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have numbers yet for last night\u2019s Game 2, but the NBA announced that Monday\u2019s Spurs-Thunder game was the most-watched conference finals Game 1 ever. It had a Total Audience Delivery (some kind of industry measurement, I\u2019m sure) of 9.2 million people. And it peaked at 12 million viewers in the second overtime. I\u2019d say the NBA made a good decision by partnering with NBC and having more over-the-air games televised.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re tied<\/h3>\n

Thunder clap back to even the series<\/strong><\/p>\n

The playoffs are all about adjustments from game to game. The losing team will try to correct what just happened. The winning team will try to anticipate and counteract what the losing team might do.<\/p>\n

In Game 2 of the Spurs-Thunder series, Oklahoma City\u00a0put Isaiah Hartenstein on Victor Wembanyama for some more physicality<\/a> and to turn up the pressure on the perimeter players. It resulted in a 122-113 victory that evened the series. (And thank goodness from an OKC perspective; coming back from down 0-2 when headed to San Antonio was going to be less an uphill battle and more like that scene in \u201cThe Dark Knight Rises\u201d with everybody trying to escape up that pit<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the guy we\u2019re used to seeing. He was cold-blooded, calculated and efficient in how he attacked the Spurs\u2019 defense.<\/strong> After an inefficient Game 1, he had 30 points on 12-of-24 from the field and 6-of-6 from the line to go with nine assists, four rebounds and just one turnover. Victor Wembanyama was obsessed with the MVP ceremony in Game 1 and used it as motivation. In Game 2, SGA leaned into the calm and steadiness<\/a> that brought him his second straight MVP.<\/p>\n

Hartenstein\u2019s physicality was enough to make Wemby seem much more pedestrian. At least by extraterrestrial standards. <\/strong>Wembanyama was held to 21 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and four blocks. He also had four turnovers.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s unreal that this feels like you held a player in check. But that\u2019s how good Wemby was in Game 1 and in the previous series against the Timberwolves. And, yes, his 21-17-6-4 was just the 14th time that\u2019s happened in a playoff game. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ralph Sampson, Dan Roundfield, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Patrick Ewing, Tim Duncan (five times!), Pau Gasol and Jayson Tatum are the other players to do it.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go over the other big takeaways from this game:<\/p>\n