Victor Wembanyama delivered a 40-20 performance as the San Antonio Spurs opened the NBA’s Conference finals with a double-overtime win at the defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The match-up between the first and second seed in the Western Conference features Wembanyama, this season’s defensive player of the year, go up against Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has been named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for a second straight year.
And the best-of-seven series got off to a thrilling start on Monday as San Antonio had the chance to win it at the end of regulation time, and then Oklahoma City in overtime, before the Spurs prevailed 122-115.
Wembanyama’s alley-oop dunk with 22 seconds left in the second period of overtime put the Spurs up by six and meant the France forward finished with 41 points and 24 rebounds.
At 22 years and 134 days old, he is the youngest player in NBA history to reach 40 points and 20 rebounds in a play-off game, and joins Wilt Chamberlain (1960) as the only players to do so on their Conference finals debut.
“He has a rare desire to step into every moment that’s in front of him,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said of the 2023 first overall draft pick.
“I think he has showed in his three years in a lot of different situations with a lot of different circumstances that he’s going to attack those moments. He has some rare God-given ability.”
San Antonio’s rookie guard Dylan Harper claimed 24 points and 11 rebounds as Thunder suffered their first loss of the play-offs having swept the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers in the previous two rounds.
Alex Caruso led the top seeds with 31 points off the bench, while Jalen Williams added 26 and Gilgeous-Alexander claimed 24 points and 12 assists.
“We knew it was going to be a dog fight,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who received his MVP award before the game. “We’ve just got to be better, me in particular.”
Game two is also in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, while the New York Knicks open the Eastern finals at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday.