The San Antonio Spurs did something on Friday that no NBA team — in the regular season or playoffs — had done in the entire 21st century. They jumped out to a 15-0 lead and ended up losing by 15 points to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.
The Washington Wizards are the only other team to lose after claiming a 15-0 lead (16-0, actually) in the playoffs in the 21st century, losing Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Boston Celtics in 2017. However, those Wizards lost by 12 points, not by 15, like Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs on Friday night.
They join the 2017 Wizards, who blew a 16-0 lead in the East semis at Boston.
Spurs Can’t Stop OKC’s Bench
The youthful Spurs proved a lot of naysayers right on Friday, as their collective inexperience reared its ugly head against the battle-tested Thunder.
The more concerning aspect of the loss was that the Spurs held Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 6-of-17 shooting, and every other Thunder starter had a negative net rating, and they still lost due to the firepower of OKC’s bench. Thunder’s bench outscored the Sprurs’ by a staggering 76-23 margin in Game 3. For the series, OKC’s reserves have outscored the Spurs’ second unit 183-64.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault praised his team for clicking as a unit.
“We just try to look at things through the lens of our own strengths,” Daigneault said of his team’s strong bench, via Jeff Zillgitt of NBA.com.
“We’re not looking at anything relative to the opponent. The last thing you want to do is assume that an opponent has a weakness that they don’t have. We assume the opponent’s always at their best, and we need to be ours and depth is a part of that. But it’s not relative to San Antonio. It just needs to be one of our strengths that we rely on regardless of circumstance.”
Spurs Fall to 2-1 Hole
The San Antonio Spurs got De’Aaron Fox (ankle sprain) back for Game 3 and Dylan Harper (adductor) played 17 minutes through the injury. It didn’t matter.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon shared his biggest takeaway from Game 3.
“The Spurs’ 15-0 run to open the game was the second-longest scoring run to start a playoff game in the play-by-play era (since 1997-98), but the Thunder weren’t fazed. Oklahoma City quickly cut the lead to five points just before the end of the quarter.
“The Thunder took their first lead early in the second quarter and seized control the rest of the game, outscoring the Spurs in each quarter after the first. Oklahoma City overwhelmed San Antonio with its depth. For the second straight game, four OKC reserves scored in double figures. The 76 bench points — led by Jared McCain’s 24 — set an OKC-era franchise record, surpassing the 57 from Game 2 of this series.”
Spurs vs Thunder Game 4 tips off at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Spurs Hit With Brutal Reality Check After Game 3 Loss to Thunder