Even with injuries to key players, the San Antonio Spurs have to feel good about themselves coming into tonight’s Game 3. They were able to steal Game 1 from the defending champs, a double OT classic that saw the Spurs eventually out-execute the Thunder down the stretch, and were tantalizingly close to coming back home to the Frost Bank Center with a 2-0 series lead. Even with the loss of Dylan Harper in the 3rd quarter and 21 more turnovers to go with the 21 giveaways from Game 1, it was still just a 2 point game in the early moments of the 4th. With both Harper and DeAaron Fox’s availability up in the air, the potentially undermanned Spurs will have to rely on the otherworldly brilliance of Victor Wembanyama, with the hope that the rocking San Antonio home crowd can give them that little extra bit of, “oomph,” that they might need to protect home court against the defending champs.
San Antonio Spurs (1-1) vs Oklahoma City Thunder (1-1)
May 22 2026 | 8:30 PM CT
Watch: NBC, Peacock | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)
Line: San Antonio -1.5
Spurs Injuries: DeAaron Fox, ankle (day to day), Dylan Harper, leg (day to day)
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Thunder Injuries: Jalen Williams, hamstring (day to day)
What to watch for
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With Fox yet to play in this series and Harper potentially sidelined, going forward the bulk of the ball handling duties may fall entirely on the shoulders of Stephon Castle. Castle was San Antonio’s leading scorer in Game 2, memorably throwing down arguably the best poster jam of the year for 2 of his 25 points, and has been his usual busy self on the defensive side of things, but his 20 combined turnovers in the two games is a real concern for the Spurs. It plays right into the hands of Oklahoma City, who’s hounding, handsy defense is arguably the best in the league at forcing turnovers and turning them into points on the other end. With the real possibility he will only have limited versions of Harper and Fox going forward, Mitch Johnson is going to need figure out how to help his do-it-all guard take better care of the basketball and cutdown on what have been dreadful turnover numbers for San Antonio in the early stages of this series (42 combined as a team between Games 1 and 2).
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Oklahoma City’s biggest adjustment from Game 1 to 2 defensively was sticking a big on Victor Wembanyama for as much of the game as possible. Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren handled the bulk of the Wemby assignment, with doses of Alex Caruso sprinkled in. Hartenstein, who played just 12 minutes in the Game 1 loss, played 27 minutes in Game 2 and spent all of them doing everything he could to contend with the extraterrestrial Frenchman. Wembanyama went from having 26 paint points in his dominant Game 1 performance to just 10 in the Game 2 loss, and while he still finished with a freak statline, Vic is still at his best and most demoralizing to opponents when he’s dominating around the rim. Getting him more paint touches tonight should be imperative.
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Only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played more than 30 minutes for OKC in Game 2 (38 minutes), while 4 of San Antonio’s starters logged at least 35 minutes and a 5th (Harper) was probably well on his way. While it’s the norm for playoff rotations to be shortened the deeper a team advances, the oddity of the double OT game in Game 1 racked up some heavy mileage on San Antonio’s starters right from the outset of a physical series. Keldon Johnson has been the only Spur to play at least 20 minutes off the bench in both games so far in this series, compared to 3 for OKC in Game 1 and 4 in Game 2. With a game being played every other day in this series, player minutes and potentially heavy legs will be a big thing to monitor going forward.
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