San Antonio Spurs vs Oklahoma City Thunder live updates: Thunder earn 127-114 Game 5 win behind 32 from SGA

Oklahoma City is guaranteed at least one more home game this season.

That’s because with OKC’s Game 5 win on its home court, the best the Spurs can do on Thursday night is force a Game 7.

Oklahoma City picked up a 127-112 win at home in Game 5 behind 32 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, hot shooting from 3-point range (43.8% as a team), and a good effort to limit Victor Wembanyama to 4-of-15 shooting (he still had 20 points).

Alex Caruso had 22 points to lead a 40-point effort from the Thunder bench that also was crucial for them. Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault was looking for a spark and found it in starting Jared McCain, who scored 18 points in the second half.

Game 6 is Thursday night in San Antonio, starting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. You can watch it on NBC or stream it on Peacock.

San Antonio has gotten some stops but can’t convert on the other end of the court, can’t put together a run, and now they’re in trouble.

It’s 118-103 Thunder with 3:42 remaining.

Jared McCain — the player Daryl Morey and the 76ers traded to Oklahoma City at the deadline — started Game 5 and has 14 points for the Thunder, including a huge 3-pointer that has them up 112-99 with 6:11 left in the game.

The Spurs remain within striking distance, but they will need a run in the final minutes to go home with a series lead.

After being down 20 in the third, the Spurs have gotten back to within striking distance, 101-91, entering the fourth quarter of Game 5.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has 30 points to lead all scorers, while Alex Caruso has 17 off the bench for OKC — the Thunder bench has outscored the Spurs bench by 12 and that is the game so far.

Champagnie still leads the Spurs with 22. Wembanyama has 16 points but is 3-of-9 from the floor, picking up 10 points at the free throw line.

With less than a minute left in the third quarter, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson went to everybody’s favorite new trick — putting in a substitute to delay a restart so they can see if they want to challenge a call — and decided he did.

Then the referees didn’t allow the challenge, even though he was right next to an official and had asked for it.

When Gilgeous-Alexander picked up a foul on a drive at the other end, Johnson lost it and was given a technical foul. He has a right to be pissed, but with his team down, they don’t want to give up points.

Oklahoma City pushed its lead out to 20 — everything was working for them.

When the Spurs called a timeout, Victor Wembanyama went hard at his team to fire them up.

The response, a 14-2 San Antonio run to cut the league to eight, 87-79. Wembanyama deserves credit for being more aggressive getting inside himself after he settled too much in the first half.

Oklahoma City has gone to a strategy of putting shooters around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to space out the floor — and it’s working.

A step-back 3 from SGA capped a 7-0 run to start the second half for the Thunder, who now lead 76-58. The Thunder are 8-of-16 from 3-point range in this game so far.

Oklahoma City’s offense found a groove and put up 40 points in the second quarter, putting them up 69-58 after two quarters of play.

In the battle of the stars, neither is hot the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is finding a way to impact the game more. He has a game-high 19 points despite shooting 4-of-10 from the floor because he’s gotten to the line 10 times (and dished out three assists).

Wembanyama has three shots at the rim and three shots (all misses) outside the paint. After he took 10 shots at the rim in Game 4, it’s a dramatic change (and not good for the Spurs).

Alex Caruso has 14, sparking the Thunder bench to 27 first-half points, turning around a rough Game 4 outing. Jaylin Williams made one shot in the first half, but he made it count.

Julian Champagnie and his four three-pointers led to 17 points to pace the Spurs. Stephon Castle has a dozen.

The Thunder at home have made some runs tonight, something they struggled to do in the last game.

This 13-5 run has the Thunder up 58-49 with 2:04 left (the Spurs just won a challenge to get a couple of free throws for Champagnie).

It didn’t look that serious when it happened, and he walked there under his own power, but it’s worth noting that Alex Caruso went back to the Thunder locker room after tweaking his ankle on a play defending Stephon Castle.

UPDATE: Caruso returned to the Thunder bench with what looked like ice on his ankle.

It’s 54-49 Oklahoma City with 2:49 left in the first half.

Oklahoma City has gone on a 15-3 run, starting with 31 seconds remaining in the first quarter through 10:16 in the second, and lead by nine.

After a rough shooting Game 4, the Thunder bench is 5-of-8 to start Game 5.

It wasn’t always pretty — the teams combined for 12 turnovers — but the Thunder have a slight lead at home after one quarter, 29-27. (The Spurs outscored the Thunder 11-6 off turnovers in that first quarter.)

It was a Julian Champagnie supernova as he hit three 3-pointers and finished with 13 in the first quarter; no other Spur had more than two points.

Chet Holmgren leads the Thunder with eight. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander started 0-of-4 from the floor with three turnovers, but knocked down a key 3, got to the line four times and finished with 7 points.

Julian Champagnie is red hot to start the game, 3-of-6 from 3-point range and 13 early points, pushing the Spurs to an 18-15 lead with 3:59 left in the first quarter.

In a good sign for the Thunder, Chet Holmgren is aggressive early and has 8 points going 4-of-4 from the field.

San Antonio has taken seven of its nine shots to open the game from 3-point range, hit 3, and has an early 11-6 lead in the first quarter (7:56 remaining).

Sloppy game to start, Thunder with four early turnovers and Spurs with three (both of these teams are elite defensively, and it shows when the other team drives into the lane).

It’s a small sample size, but the Oklahoma City Thunder have a very good record bouncing back after a loss.

Overall, the Thunder are 13-5 after a loss, and one of those is Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals after dramatic double-overtime Game 1. Of those OKC lost consecutively, one of those was to Phoenix in the final game of the season, after the Thunder rested everyone worth mentioning for the final couple of games.

However, one of those consecutive losses was from back-to-back losses to the Spurs in December.

With Jalen Williams (hamstring) and Ajay Mitchell (calf) unavailable, the Oklahoma City Thunder will turn to Jared McCain to fill the void in the starting lineup for Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

Acquired from the 76ers at the February trade deadline, McCain joins Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein in the starting five. Solid for most of the series, McCain shot a frigid 1-of-10 from the field in Sunday’s Game 4 loss in San Antonio.

The Spurs stick with their usual lineup of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie and Victor Wembanyama.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will go into Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals without a key starter, as Jalen Williams has been ruled out due to his left hamstring injury.

Williams initially strained his hamstring during Game 2 of Oklahoma City’s first-round series against Phoenix, missing six games before returning for the start of the Western Conference Finals. J-Dub aggravated the injury during Game 2 and has not played since.

With Ajay Mitchell sidelined by a strained calf, Cason Wallace started Game 4 but offered little production in that role. The Thunder will need more from him, Alex Caruso and Jared McCain in Game 5 if they’re to defend home court and take a 3-2 series lead.

A couple of times a game (at least), Victor Wembanyama does something that makes your jaw drop like you’re in a 1950s Tex Avery cartoon. We can’t get enough of it, so here are some highlights (and we apologize in advance to Thunder fans).

Here’s some with Stephon Castle.

And don’t forget his 41 in Game 1 of this series.

Across four games this series, Chet Holmgren is averaging 11.3 points and six rebounds a game, shooting 46.9% overall and 33.3% from 3-point range — all numbers well below what he averaged both in the regular season and the first couple of playoff rounds. In Game 4, he had 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting.

That’s not going to be good enough in Game 5, especially with Ajay Mitchell officially out (calf strain) and Jalen Williams likely out (game-time decision with a left hamstring strain, but it seems highly unlikely he plays). Granted, Holmgren is battling Victor Wembanyama through all this, but if the Thunder are going to take control of this series again, a lot falls on him in Game 5.

Back on their home court, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the favorites again. Here are the pregame betting odds for Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, courtesy of our partners at DraftKings.

Game odds: Thunder -4.5
Moneyline: Thunder -162, Spurs +136
Over/Under: 217.5

For four games, this has been an epic series — one that seemingly sets up a rivalry that will dominate the NBA for the next five years (at least).

Game 1 was an announcement by Victor Wembanyama that he has to be in the conversation for best player walking the face of the earth — 41 points and 24 rebounds, dominating the double-overtime Spurs win.

Game 2 featured Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looking like the MVP, scoring 30 and sparking a Thunder win to tie the series. Game 3 saw the venue shift to San Antonio, but the result was the same — the Spurs tried to blitz and double SGA, but he kept finding the open man, and the Thunder’s role players knocked down their shots. OKC took a 2-1 series lead.

Game 4 felt different. Part of that was us getting to watch Wembanyama get back into the paint and dominate again, scoring 33 points on the night. However, the more important factor was that the Spurs changed up how they guarded Gilgeous-Alexander, not double-teaming him but leaving a single defender (usually Stephon Castle) on him and bringing a late double if he drove into the lane or got to a dangerous spot. SGA wanted to pass out of that, but with Jalen Williams (hamstring) and Ajay Mitchell (calf) out injured, the Thunder were short a ball handler and lost 103-82.

That leaves the series tied 2-2 heading into a critical Game 5.