Shai Gilgeous-Alexander racked up 32 points and Alex Caruso added 22 off the bench as the Oklahoma City Thunder moved within a win of the NBA Finals after defeating the San Antonio Spurs 127-114 on Tuesday night (Wednesday, May 27, 2026, PH time).
Rookie Jared McCain, starting in place of the injured Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, scored 20 points in his first playoff start for the defending NBA champions. Oklahoma City now leads the Western Conference finals, 3-2.
Chet Holmgren finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Isaiah Hartenstein added 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Thunder.
After being limited to just 82 points in their Game 4 loss two days earlier, the Thunder matched that total barely three-and-a-half minutes into the third quarter on Tuesday.
“We obviously played a lot better, in terms of our process and then also the outcome,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “This team does a great job of just coming back in the next day in a very neutral way, taking whatever the lessons are, applying them forward and getting into the next opportunity.”
For San Antonio, Stephon Castle scored 24 points, while Julian Champagnie had 22 and Victor Wembanyama added 20 despite shooting just 4-of-15 from the field. Keldon Johnson chipped in 15 points off the bench for the Spurs, who struggled from long range, missing 29 of their 41 attempts from beyond the arc.
“It just felt like it was a little bit of everything in terms of we did not put ourselves in position enough to be successful on each possession,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “To beat a team of this caliber, in their building, with the stakes, we’ll need to be a lot better.”
Game 6 is set for Thursday (Friday in PH) in San Antonio. If necessary, Game 7 will return to Oklahoma City on Saturday (Sunday, PH time). The New York Knicks await the winner in the NBA Finals, which begin June 3.
Oklahoma City seized control with a 40-point second-quarter output and maintained the lead the rest of the way. “We just played to who we were tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
The game also featured an unusually high number of free throws in the second quarter, with both teams combining for 29 made foul shots — the most in a second quarter of an NBA game since the 2020 bubble playoffs, according to the AP report.
The Thunder built a 20-point lead in the third quarter before San Antonio rallied to within eight. The Spurs were frustrated by a pair of disputed calls late in the period, including a potential goaltending violation involving Cason Wallace and a missed out-of-bounds ruling that replays suggested should have favored San Antonio. Mitch Johnson attempted to challenge the out-of-bounds call but said officials ignored him before issuing him a technical foul for arguing.
“They just said they didn’t see me,” Johnson said.
Oklahoma City entered the fourth quarter ahead 101-91 and maintained a double-digit lead for nearly the entire final period, bouncing back strongly from a 21-point defeat in San Antonio in Game 4. “We definitely got better from the last game,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
