Dribbling past Julian Champagnie, Jared McCain stepped foot in the paint before he daringly pulled up for the mid-range jumper. Even with Wembanyama within arm’s reach, the 22-year-old converted the bucket. Only fitting he’s the one to push the Thunder’s lead beyond double-digit points for good.
The Oklahoma City Thunder somehow, someway picked up a 123-108 Game 3 win over the San Antonio Spurs. They’re back in the driver’s seat with a 2-1 series lead in the 2026 Western Conference Finals.
McCain finished with 24 points on 10-of-21 shooting, four rebounds and one assist. He shot 2-of-10 from 3 and went 2-of-2 on free throws.
Wow. Just wow. Everything that’s happened to McCain since he was shockingly traded to the Thunder has led to this point. Not only has he helped them in spurts during their NBA playoff run, but you can now count this as a game he earned a large slice of credit for. In the freaking Western Conference Finals.
Something, something Daryl Morey. Something, something sold high. With Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell out, the Thunder calmly called on another one of their bucket-getters to fill the scoring vacuum. Not afraid of the high-stakes moments, McCain showed how trivial postseason basketball can look. He had 16 points in the second half.
Unlike most of his nights, McCain conducted his scoring within the perimeter. The outside jumper wasn’t there, so he lowered his shoulders and went downhill to get to the rim. Despite Victor Wembanyama’s presence, he wouldn’t let San Antonio scare him away over hypotheticals. Not every role player or young player can say they carry themselves with the same type of moxie.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault has often talked about McCain’s poise since he joined their squad midway through the year. He loves to use the hopping-on-moving-train analogy to describe bringing in a new guy. Let’s just say he’s seamlessly done that after the initial shock of being dealt wore off.
“From the second he’s gotten here, this is obviously a high-level team. It was the one seed and he’s now playing deep into the playoffs and he hasn’t flinched. He’s jumped right on the train. He’s been inside the team. He’s a big-time teammate, big-time competitor and he’s got playoff confidence, obviously,” Daigneault said about McCain. “Playoff confidence isn’t always being able to perform well or anything like that. It’s being able to take your punches and keep throwing them. He’s certainly shown the capacity to do that.”
Anytime it felt like the Spurs could make a comeback, McCain answered on the other end. At one point, the Thunder kept feeding him the ball. And he kept taking shots. There’s value in that. Even if it included his fair share of misses. What an insane five-month journey it’s been for him.
At the start of the calendar year, McCain logged G League games. Fast-forward to five months later and he’s taking 20-plus shot attempts in a Western Conference Finals game. That’s some MyCareer-type stuff. And even the 2K developers would think this script would be too cheesy to approve.
“I knew we would definitely be a great team. I didn’t know how much I’d be contributing. When I first got traded, I think most of it was trying to learn from the best, since they won it already,” McCain said. “Being able to contribute early and learn from them already has been a blessing for me. Being able to contribute, I didn’t know if I expected it, but I definitely am ready for it.”
Scrolling through NBA Twitter, it didn’t take longer than a few tweets before finding some sorta iteration of the same joke about Morey. How could he trade McCain to the Thunder? What was he thinking? Once viewed as a luxurious move has turned into a season-saver for OKC. Despite having all the ammo to run victory laps at his former boss, the 22-year-old has remained modest about his situation.
“It’s never to prove anybody wrong. A lot of my stuff is that I try to keep a positive outlook. I like proving my support system right. The people who really believe in me, I like proving them right. No matter what it is,” McCain said. “I got traded. I’m always trying to keep a positive outlook. No matter what, Daryl’s still the guy that drafted me. I always have love for him for that. He trusted me. Believed in me enough to take me at the 16th spot, so I’m forever grateful for that.”
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Jared McCain shows love to Daryl Morey after OKC’s Game 3 win over Spurs