I have been saying that the OKC Thunder are the best team in the NBA and that only team that could possibly stop them on their way to Championship gold would be the San Antonio Spurs or most notably, Victor Wembanyama, who a lot of people call "Wemmy" just because that name is too hard to remember.
I have said that the OKC strategy has to be focused on shutting down Wemmy and they had been doing exactly that. When they can hold Wemmy to less than 25 points they win, do it not, and they lose. I think in game 4 the strategy was to really stick to the tall center from San Antone, but they also failed to really turn on any offense as the Thunder had their lowest score in any game since 2001. They came back with a vengeance in game 5 to cruise to a rather easy looking victory 127-114.
As much as I harp on about how crucial Wemmy is to San Antonio, the same could also be said of probably league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander , who many just refer to as "SGA" or "Shai." He is the team leader and while the Thunder aren't as completely dependent upon him the way the Spurs seem to be on Wemmy, if he isn't hot, there are a ton of missed shots and poor performance on offense the likes of which was on full display in game 4. SGA's high of 33 points (more than anyone else in the game) along with 9 assists and 2 steals really pushed OKC to a cruising victory. To make matters worse for San Antonio, SGA went to the free-throw line and shot 16-17.
Now this brings me to a point that I am not going to dwell on for too long because it is league-wide and is not just an OKC problem although the haters on the internets right now are saying that it is. OKC had a lot of flop and flop attempts in game 4 and then also spent a lot of time arguing with the referees instead of playing quality basketball.
It's a trash portion of the NBA and yes, it is more common now than it was 10, 20 , or 30 years ago and yes, a lot of people hate it. Even if my team wins I don't want it to be because of flops and many people are getting really sick of this. The tactic of doing a run to the basket and aiming for your opponents arms instead of actually trying to make the bucket has become a very common way of getting points and fans and other players alike are getting quite frustrated with this.
In game 4 of the playoffs this year vs. the Spurs, it appeared as though this was the Thunder's main strategy and well, I'm actually very happy that it didn't pay off. This isn't soccer/football and we don't want it to become that. For me, I would like to see review of footage after the games are over and having severe penalties for players that do flop, especially serial floppers.
In game 5, the Spurs knew this game was over before the final buzzer and this was evidenced by San Antonio sending Wembanyama to the bench, where he remained, with over 2 minutes remaining in the game. There wasn't really any point in keeping their main weapon out there, they were down by 14 and in the history of the NBA there have been only a handful of times that teams come back from being double digits down with only 2 minutes remaining.
The question now is what are the Spurs going to do in the locker room to attempt to counter this? The bit of magic that they had in their 2 victories out of 5 games was pretty special to watch, but mostly what I have said has remained true. If they can hold Wemmy to low points the other players on the Spurs seem to really struggle with filling in the gaps. It's not a great situation when the opposing team has a really good idea who you are going to dish the ball to on almost every play.
The Spurs seem to dish to Castle or Julian Campagnie for 3's on a lot of plays when Wemmy is locked up and sometimes that works. What can I say? They made more than half of these shots but that simply isn't enough. It probably doesn't help when overall your team shoots 12-41 from 3 and 37-92 on all field goals.
The likely final game takes place on Thursday evening before OKC heads to their 2nd final and likely 2nd championship in a row.
This game will be in San Antonio, so who knows? maybe something magical could happen in the locker room to force a game 7. The bookies actually think a game 7 is likely and are giving San Antonio a slight betting favorite as the spread is +3.5 in favor of the Spurs. Me? I think that the Thunder are going to end it in the next game.
What do you think?