The Oklahoma City Thunder are 4.5-point favorites to win Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs and advance to their second straight NBA Finals. But that’s not the only piece of good news for the Thunder ahead of the do-or-die contest against Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs.
Historically, the Spurs are 0-5 on the road in Game 7s, meaning the Thunder have an excellent chance of holding fort at home on Saturday.
Thunder Are Battle-Tested in Game 7s
Also worth highlighting is that the Thunder are historically 8-5 in Game 7s (including their stint as the Seattle SuperSonics). Notably, they won two Game 7s en route to the championship last year — versus the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals and against the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals.
OKC’s sole Game 7 loss in the Mark Daigneault era came in the Orlando Bubble in 2020 when they lost the higher-seeded Houston Rockets in the first round. However, that loss came long before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became the best player in the NBA.
Unlike the Oklahoma City Thunder, the current iteration of the Spurs has never played a Game 7. The franchise last played a Game 7 in the first round against the Nuggets in 2019, when most of the current Spurs players were not even in the league.
Spurs Have to Make History
The Spurs would have to achieve something that past teams led by George Gervin, David Robinson and Tim Duncan could not — win a Game 7 on the road.
Here’s a recap of the five times the San Antonio Spurs lost a Game 7 on the road:
- 1979 Eastern Conference Finals vs. the Washington Bullets: The Spurs suffered a heartbreaking 107-105 loss in Washington after Bobby Dandridge hit a game-winning jumper with 8 seconds left to deny them their first Finals appearance.
- 1990 Western Conference Semifinals vs. Portland Trail Blazers: The Spurs lost 108-105 in OT after Rod Strickland’s turnaround pass was intercepted, leading to Clyde Drexler’s field goal to tie the scores. Blazers won in the extra period.
- 2013 NBA Finals vs. Miami Heat: The Spurs never recovered from Ray Allen’s Game 6 dagger that forced a Game 7. In the decider, they suffered a 95-88 loss as LeBron James overwhelmed them physically.
- 2015 First Round vs. LA Clippers: The epic Game 7 saw 31 lead changes until a hobbled Chris Paul made a contested running bank shot over Tim Duncan with 1.1 seconds left. It was arguably the best win in Clippers playoff history.
- 2019 First Round vs. Denver Nuggets: The only high-stakes Spurs game in the post-Big Three and Kawhi Leonard era ended in confusion as the seventh-seeded Spurs let the clock run out without fouling in the final 30 seconds. Incidentally, they missed the playoffs for six straight years after this 90-86 loss.
Although the odds are stacked heavily against them, the Spurs are not lacking in confidence. After their Game 6 win on Thursday, Stephon Castle declared that the Spurs are “a better team” than the Thunder and believes they can win Game 7.
“As a group, we all want this,” Castle said after the Game 6 win, via The Oklahoman.
“It’s right there in front of us. We feel like collectively that we’re better than this team and we didn’t want to let our fans down on our home court either.
“So coming out here with a chance to go back to OKC and play a Game 7 I feel like is all the motivation we need.”
Thunder vs Spurs Game 7 tips off at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday. The winner will advance to the NBA Finals to face the New York Knicks starting Wednesday.
Thunder Get More Good News Before Game 7 vs Spurs