The Oklahoma City Thunder entered Saturday night with everything they wanted still in front of them.
A packed Paycom Center. A Game 7 on their home floor. The opportunity to defend their Western Conference crown and return to the NBA Finals for a second consecutive season.
Instead, they walked off the court watching the San Antonio Spurs celebrate.
The Spurs dethroned the defending champions with a 111-103 victory in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, advancing to their first NBA Finals appearance since 2014 and ending Oklahoma City’s season one win short of another trip to the league’s biggest stage.
The final score will show an eight-point margin. The reality was more complicated.
This wasn’t simply Victor Wembanyama beating the Thunder. It wasn’t a superstar delivering a legendary Game 7 masterpiece.
It was something far more revealing.
The Thunder lost partly because the injuries that had slowly chipped away at their depth throughout the series finally became impossible to overcome.
For all the attention that will rightfully be given to Wembanyama’s Western Conference Finals MVP performance, Game 7 was ultimately decided by Oklahoma City’s inability to generate enough offense beyond Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and by San Antonio’s ability to keep finding answers from every corner of its roster.
That’s what championship basketball looks like in 2026.
And that’s what ended Oklahoma City’s title defense.
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