SAN ANTONIO (AP) 鈥� Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and 12 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder climbed out of a 15-point hole minutes into the game to beat the San Antonio Spurs 123-108 on Friday night and take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.
Jared McCain had 24 points and Jaylin Williams added 18 for Oklahoma City. The Thunder were without Jalen Williams, who sat out with left hamstring soreness.
Oklahoma City鈥檚 , including 15 points by Alex Caruso.
鈥淲e just went out there and competed,鈥� Gilgeous-Alexander said. 鈥淭hey obviously jumped on us early. First game in their building, their crowd behind them, they were excited to play. We just wanted to make sure we competed from that point on. We obviously didn鈥檛 give our best effort to start that game, but can鈥檛 do nothing about it. It鈥檚 behind us. All we can do is focus on the next possession, and we did that.鈥�
Victor Wembanyama had 24 points for San Antonio. Devin Vassell added 20 and De’Aaron Fox had 15 in his series debut.
The Thunder have won two straight after the Spurs’ double-overtime victory in Game 1. Game 4 is Sunday.
Fox (sprained right ankle) and Dylan Harper (right adductor soreness) were cleared to play 45 minutes prior to tipoff.
Fox’s return sparked a historic start.
The Spurs raced to a 15-0 lead, the longest run to open a game in the conference finals since the play-by-play era began in 1997.
Fox opened the run by wrapping in a driving layup and Wembanyama followed by crossing over Isaiah Hartenstein to drill a 3-pointer. Vassell鈥檚 3-pointer put the Spurs up 10-0, leading to an early timeout by Thunder coach Mark Daigneault.
鈥淥ther than the first 15 points, our defense was really tight,鈥� Daigneault said. 鈥淲e got back, settled down into the halfcourt. Our offense had something to do with that. We ran good offense tonight, despite the fact that they were amped up and ready to go, the Spurs were. It鈥檚 a discipline series. We did that. We couldn鈥檛 be reckless against them, they are too good with the ball, too well coached, too talented. So you鈥檝e got to be able to do it with discipline. I thought we really were disciplined tonight.鈥�
Isaiah Hartenstein broke the drought with a runner over Wembanyama, but the center was immediately greeted with thunderous boos after his physical play against the Spurs in Game 2.
The Thunder went on a 13-2 run when Wembanyama went to the bench and closed the first quarter trailing 31-26.
It was a pattern the Spurs could not overcome.
鈥淚t鈥檚 my first playoffs,鈥� Wembanyama said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the first playoffs for many of us. Of course, there was going to be hard trials. It鈥檚 to be expected, but now we鈥檙e going to see what we鈥檙e made of.鈥�
The series continued to be chippy with emotions boiling over early in the second half. Stephon Castle hit the court on back-to-back dunk attempts. The second resulted in a flagrant 1 foul against Ajay Mitchell and technical fouls on Mitchell and Vassell after the two exchanged words following the foul.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams extended Oklahoma City’s first lead to 35-31.
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