Jaylin Williams sat on the floor and pumped his fists in celebration.
His Oklahoma City Thunder teammate, Jared McCain, flexed over Williams while the San Antonio Spurs’ Luke Kornet walked away stunned.
Kornet wasn’t the only one shocked.
Williams, McCain and the Thunder bench were dominant once again as Oklahoma City beat the Spurs 123-108 on the road Friday to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
“Those are huge momentum-shifters,” McCain said of Williams’ four-point play midway through the fourth quarter that put the Thunder up by 15. “Especially getting to quiet down the crowd. … Being able to get him the ball and him knocking it down and getting fouled, it’s an awesome momentum shift.”
San Antonio scored the game’s first 15 points and seemed poised to run away.
However, Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault quickly dipped into his reserves and they responded, with Alex Caruso, McCain, Cason Wallace and Williams helping fuel a push that quickly settled things for the Thunder.
“Being able to weather a storm, we talk about it a lot,” McCain said. “… Just being able to be calm, be poised in that situation and give each other confidence, give each other energy and know that we’re throwing another punch and it’s gonna come back.”
The Oklahoma City bench set a franchise playoff record with 76 points, outscoring their San Antonio counterparts by 53.
McCain, a trade-deadline acquisition from Philadelphia, scored 24 points, making 8 of 11 from inside the arc.
Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said McCain “oozes confidence.”
“He doesn’t flinch,” Daigneault said of McCain. “He’s jumped right on the train. … He’s got playoff confidence, obviously. 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, and he’s certainly shown the capacity to do that.”
Williams scored 18, hitting five 3-pointers.
So far in the series, the Thunder’s bench has outscored San Antonio’s 183-64.
The bench was key in a 20-8 Oklahoma City run that helped the Thunder pull within three by late in the first quarter.
“That wasn’t sustainable how we started,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “I thought we played very fast and I think that’s something that tapered off as the game went along.”
Oklahoma City grabbed the lead for good with a 9-0 spree late in the second quarter.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with a team-high 26 points on 6-of-17 shooting, adding 12 assists and just two turnovers.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t score until early in the second quarter, but he put up 12 in Oklahoma City’s 37-point third quarter.
“He was letting the game tell him what to do,” Daigneault said. “I don’t think he predetermines that stuff. It was kind of a muddy game at different points for us, and I thought we found some things to get him loose and the rest of the team loose offensively, but it wasn’t easy.
“These games are long, and he’s just got a great ability to stay poised and stay present when the game gets muddy.”
In the first two games of the series, Spurs star Victor Wembanyama averaged 20.5 rebounds. He had just four in Game 3 while finishing with 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting.
Oklahoma City outrebounded San Antonio 41-37 and outscored the Spurs 22-17 on second-chance points and 42-40 in the paint.
“Thought we could’ve done a much better job of crashing the glass tonight, make a more concerted effort,” Johnson said. “There were a lot of misses to go get, and we didn’t get enough of them.”
Spurs point guard De’Aaron Fox returned to the starting lineup after missing the first two games of the series with an ankle sprain.
Fox showed the effects of the injury, especially late, but fought through it and finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
San Antonio’s Stephon Castle committed 20 turnovers over the first two games, but with Fox back, Castle had just one turnover in nearly 35 minutes. However, Castle made just 1 of 8 shots from the floor en route to 14 points.
Wembanyama took blame for the loss.
“I feel like I have trouble making my teammates better right now,” Wembanyama said. “… I need to be more of a team player.”
It wasn’t all positive for the Thunder.
They were playing without Jalen Williams, who aggravated a hamstring injury in Game 2, forcing Ajay Mitchell back into the starting lineup.
Early in the third quarter, Mitchell fouled Castle under the basket on a breakaway. San Antonio’s Devin Vassell took exception, leading to a brief scuffle.
After a review, Mitchell’s foul was upgraded to a flagrant foul, while Mitchell and Vassell were assessed technical fouls.
Mitchell headed to the locker room after the collision and the altercation and didn’t return.
–Field Level Media
