Player grades: SGA bounces back as Thunder get 122-113 Game 2 win over Spurs

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Receiving the ball at the left-wing spot, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became cerebral. With Stephon Castle playing perfect one-on-one defense, the reigning MVP barely let that scare him away. He created space with the stepback and drilled the mid-range jumper for the official dagger.

The Oklahoma City Thunder finally looked like themselves in a 122-113 Game 2 win over the San Antonio Spurs. They evened things up at 1-1 in the 2026 Western Conference Finals — albeit in potentially costly fashion.

Rolling it back with the same starting five, the Thunder tweaked things around the edges. After a self-indulgent guilt trip, OKC had Isaiah Hartenstein stick to Victor Wembanyama like Elmer’s Glue. Playing like a team with their lives on the line, they beat the Spurs to the punch in the physicality department.

The Thunder and Spurs were both tied up at 31 points apiece after the first quarter. The heavyweight bout continued along in the second part of this epic duel. Coming off the bench, Alex Caruso completely changed this game’s energy. He fell short of a 30-burger, but completely wreaked havoc as a game-changer.

Caruso went right at Wembanyama on a driving layup. He then punked the ball out of Stephon Castle’s possession for the transition jam. The Thunder put up 31 points in the second frame. They entered halftime with a 62-51 lead. The only thing holding back the happy vibes was Jalen Williams’ unfortunate exit.

It’s a scene we’ve sadly grown accustomed to this season. Almost sneakily, Williams headed into the locker room. It took around the midway point of the second quarter for OKC fans to realize he was absent from the bench. Eventually, we learned that it was hamstring tightness. Uh oh. This is the fourth time in five months he’s dealt with that — two times on each leg.

Obviously, the result of this game felt micro to Williams’ potential status. Per usual, the Thunder wouldn’t give any firm update in the aftermath. While they squared things up at one win apiece, his potential absence could completely alter how folks feel about the rest of this series. But all of those discussions are better saved for tomorrow.

At this juncture, the Thunder moved forward without Williams. The cynical reality is that they should be used to playing without the All-NBA talent. He’s only suited up for 33 regular-season games and has played less than three total playoff games. OKC has learned to play winning basketball without its second-best player. And you saw that once again in the biggest game of the year yet.

Cason Wallace started in his place in the second half. And as the Thunder dealt with the face-numbing shock that Williams was out, the Spurs started to make a run. They showed zero sympathy for OKC’s brutal injury luck. San Antonio began the second half on an unreal 20-8 run. Things were eventually all knotted up at 69 points apiece.

Obituaries started to be written. Without Williams, the Thunder saw their double-digit lead vanish. And those pesky Spurs refused to go away. It was now-or-never for OKC. Finally, Chet Holmgren arrived at the party. It took six quarters of him being on the court in name only, but he finally played like a guy on the cusp of earning his first All-NBA honor.

The Thunder answered with their own run. Holmgren drove baseline to go up for the two-handed jam. With veins popping out of his neck with screams of celebration, he added to his mojo. Chilling in the dunker spot, the seven-footer was a zone-buster as he caught an alley-oop a few possessions later.

It took a minute to get going, but the Thunder finally found a groove. They had a 96-88 lead at that point in the game. They scored 34 points in the third quarter. San Antonio’s top-three defense looked pedestrain. Which is quite the turnaround from Game 1, where OKC was stuck in the mud.

Starting the final dozen minutes, the Thunder painfully missed Williams in their second-unit lineup. They force-fed the ball to Jared McCain, but the Spurs didn’t need long to get right back into things. Harrison Barnes’ corner 3-pointer made it a 99-97 game with nine minutes to go.

That forced the Thunder to call a timeout. Gilgeous-Alexander returned from a quick rest. If they were going to close this out, then the two-time MVP winner had to carry OKC to the finish line. Or so the average sports fan thought that’s what was needed to play out.

Instead, the Thunder scored the next 11 points to create some breathing room. It was OKC’s role players who hit big-time outside jumpers to balloon their lead to 110-97 with a little over six minutes left in the frame. On the other side, the Spurs had zero offensive rhythm with a scoreless streak that flirted with nearly three minutes.

The 11-0 run was enough to put this one away. Sure, the Spurs made things a little more interesting down the stretch. Wembanyama made it a five-point game with 85 seconds left, but the Thunder kept stiff-arming San Antonio on the scoreboard. Until Gilgeous-Alexander eventually slammed the door shut with a patented mid-range jumper. The Thunder tallied 26 points in the final frame to paint the final touches of this much-needed victory.

The Thunder shot 48% from the field and went 13-of-36 (36.1%) from 3. They shot 19-of-24 on free throws. They had 34 assists on 45 baskets. Seven Thunder players scored double-digit points.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 30 points and nine assists. Holmgren had 13 points and four rebounds. Hartenstein tallied 10 points and 13 rebounds. Caruso had 17 points and five rebounds. McCain finished with 12 points and six rebounds. Wallace stepped up with 12 points and four assists. Ajay Mitchell had 10 points.

Meanwhile, the Spurs shot 49% from the field and went 16-of-40 (40%) from 3. They shot 15-of-17 on free throws. They had 22 assists on 41 baskets. Five Spurs players scored double-digit points.

Wembanyama crashed back down to Earth with 21 points and 17 rebounds. Castle had 25 points and eight assists but nine turnovers. Devin Vassell scored 22 points on mostly outside jumpers. Dylan Harper had 12 points before leaving with an injury. Keldon Johnson had 10 points and five rebounds.

With their backs against the wall, the Thunder have shown they can live up to the all-time pressure. Gilgeous-Alexander had a bounce-back game with a plethora of role players finding their stride to have a much better offensive outing against the Spurs. But the Pyrrhic victory might’ve dropped their overall percentage of moving on to the NBA Finals, depending on Williams’ status.

But you can worry about that later. Reality is, the Thunder found a way to get another playoff win with Williams only playing the opening quarter. The reigning NBA champions did their job at salvaging these first two games of the series. Now that it shifts over to San Antonio, OKC must figure out a way to return the favor and steal one on the road to get back in the driver’s seat.

Let’s look at Thunder player grades:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: A-plus

Burying a jumper in front of Castle’s face, Gilgeous-Alexander’s immediate reaction to penning the final words of this chapter was to chill out. At this point, the reigning MVP has been there and done that — at about every stage you can imagine. Once again, the 27-year-old showed he’s as reliable as seatbelts in OKC’s biggest pressure moment of the year.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 30 points on 12-of-24 shooting, nine assists and four rebounds. He shot 0-of-3 from 3 and went 6-of-6 on free throws. He also had two blocks and one steal.

Welcome to the 2026 Western Conference Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander. We can throw that Game 1 tape out to the bin. He turned in a familiar game script that has morphed him into an all-time great. No trolling around as the mid-range maestro got to his spots scattered throughout the inner arc. He had a symmetrical 15 points per half.

Even with San Antonio’s fence-height defense. Gilgeous-Alexander was a one-man scoring machine. Seldom getting an open or even a semi-open look, he just buried difficult jumper after difficult jumper over Wembanyama and company. That’s really the only approach they leave you with or risk being completely invisible.

Once Williams went down, Gilgeous-Alexander became OKC’s sole source for buckets. That will probably need to change if he misses time. No one-for-one replacement exists, but a group effort could make up the difference. As you saw with several Thunder players reaching double-digit points. But when it comes to high-pressure moments, expect the ball to be in his hands.

You saw that down the stretch as the Spurs hung around. Gilgeous-Alexander hit on a pair of timely buckets to keep their distance. He finally cracked their code — at least for one game. Surely, San Antonio will go back to the drawing board to slow down his roll. But it was his turn to remind folks why he’s viewed as arguably the best in the league right now.

Chet Holmgren: B-minus

Cutting backdoor, Holmgren finally strung together a handful of positive possessions. He leveraged San Antonio’s zone defense to get a wide-open alley oop as Wembanyama was focused on Caruso. Pushing the Thunder’s lead to double-digit points, he finally had his first solid half of this series.

Holmgren finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, four rebounds and two assists. He shot 0-of-2 from 3 and went 3-of-4 on free throws.

As I said with Gilgeous-Alexander above — welcome to the 2026 Western Conference Finals, Holmgren. It’s about time OKC’s best two players joined the epic series. It cost them homecourt advantage, but they shook off a slow start to even things up. In his case, his seven points in the third quarter were the most active he’s been this whole series. On either end of the floor.

Great to see Holmgren figure things out. He returned to being an efficient play-finisher — with room to grow as Wembanyama disrupted a couple of lob plays his way. It’s good to highlight some of the positives before we get into the ugliness that must be fixed from here on out.

The defense has to be better. The Spurs got into the paint way too easily. And shooting 64% inside the paint is just unacceptable. If that continues, this could still be a quick series. That starts with Holmgren. Just like Game 1, San Antonio’s guards slashed to the rim with little resistance. I don’t know what happened with the seven-footer, but he’s obviously more talented than this.

Holmgren was already viewed as the X-factor by most, but his importance has upticked tenfold — especially if Williams has to miss time. The Thunder found a formula to remain an NBA win machine without their second-best player from last year’s championship squad. And that was the 24-year-old breaking out as an All-NBA-caliber guy. He must return to that level if OKC wants to advance.

Alex Caruso: A

Getting the ball at the elbow, Caruso took one dribble before he went up for the driving layup. With Wembanyama outside of the paint, the 32-year-old scored the final bucket to put an exclamation mark on this one. I think the Spurs have learned their lesson that he plays at a different level in May than on Christmas.

Caruso finished with 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting, five assists and three rebounds. He shot 3-of-4 from 3 and went 4-of-4 on free throws. He also had one steal.

Hearing the pain in their voice after wasting Caruso’s Game 1 masterpiece, the Thunder refused to make the same mistake twice. The 32-year-old has upped his scoring numbers as the Spurs still mostly dared him to beat them from the outside. Once again, he won that game of chicken.

With Williams out, Caruso had 10 points in the second half. He helped make up for his scoring contributions. Along with several other Thunder bench players. He provided his usual jolt of energy off the bench. Becoming a local folk hero, he heard MVP chants at the free-throw line.

It’s been an unreal first two games of the series for Caruso. Any regular-season headaches you dealt with caused by his subpar shooting have been forgiven. The 32-year-old is just your textbook NBA playoff riser. When the lights are the brightest and the stakes are the highest, he’s balled out.

Isaiah Hartenstein: A

Grabbing the offensive rebound, Hartenstein was rewarded for keeping the important possession alive. Catching the ball at the baseline, the 28-year-old flicked up the floater over Wembanyama’s reach as it rattled in. The Thunder bet on him to make an impact on this series and he backed up their vote of confidence.

Hartenstein finished with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting, 13 rebounds and three assists. He shot 2-of-4 on free throws.

After Game 1’s gutpunch, how the Thunder handled Hartenstein was the million-dollar question everybody waited for. Would they stick with the starter after playing just 12 minutes or pivot to single-big lineups? Considering Wembanyama’s legendary 41-24 double-double game, most fans wanted to see the latter. But nope. The Thunder stuck to their guns.

And it paid off. Apologizing for his limited playing time, the Thunder decided it’s not going to pretzel itself into changing their identity. Hartenstein has been a key piece since he arrived last season. Since then, OKC has turned into a juggernaut. You don’t go away with that from a knee-jerk reaction. They decided to put the seven-footer on San Antonio’s seven-footer.

The plan worked out — as best as you could hope for, at least. Hartenstein was physical with Wembanyama from the jump. He utilized his size to get at the lanky seven-footer. With just 21 points and 16 shot attempts, he didn’t have the same impact that had the entire NBA world wonder if it was time to crown him as the best player in the world despite just being 22 years old.

What an adjustment the Thunder made. To keep Hartenstein in the starting lineup was a gutsy decision most wouldn’t have made. To make him Wembanyama’s primary defender? It was a stroke of genius. We’ll see how repeatable this formula is, but for one game, you could tell that the physical defensive style bothered the Spurs’ best player.

Jared McCain: B-plus

Catching Hartenstein’s pass, McCain curled to the top of the key. The 22-year-old pulled up for the outside jumper. As the ball kissed the glass, it loudly rattled through thanks to some shooter’s luck. The big-time fourth-quarter bucket demonstrated why he’s jettisoned to the top of OKC’s rotation.

McCain finished with 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting, six rebounds and three assists. He shot 3-of-9 from 3 and went 1-of-2 on free throws. He also had two steals.

What an NBA playoff journey it’s been for McCain. The expectations were very low. Maybe he’d have a few flurry buckets in the opening rounds of the postseason. But to put up nine points in the second half as the Thunder badly needed answers for offense sans Gilgeous-Alexander? That’s just storybook stuff. Not even his biggest homers could’ve predicted this.

As other Thunder role players have shrunk in the big moments, McCain has shown how a trigger-happy mentality has helped him climb the rotation. Even with an inefficient night, they loved his ability to play within the flow of the offense and not be afraid to put up semi-contested shots.

And when the Thunder badly needed some momentum, McCain provided it in the fourth quarter. Holding up on defense, he’s had quite the developmental journey in just the three months since he arrived in OKC. Amazing to think he suited up for G League games just five months ago.

What a find McCain has been since his arrival. Not much was expected from him. It was viewed as a buy-low move toward the future. But for him to contribute to a win in the freaking Western Conference Finals shows you can’t write the book on anybody in the early part of their career.

Highlights:

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Player grades: SGA bounces back as Thunder get 122-113 Game 2 win over Spurs

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