Thunder bench overwhelms Spurs in Game 3 win

Down 15-0 to the San Antonio Spurs, not even three minutes into Game 3 of the Western Conference finals Friday night, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault quickly went to his bench.

And everything changed in an instant, a harbinger of what was to come.

The Oklahoma City bench keeps getting better in these Western Conference finals — and, with all respect to MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the backups are the reason the Thunder are two wins from a return to the NBA Finals.

The Thunder got 50 points from their reserves in Game 1, then 57 in Game 2 — and on Friday, the bench mob struck again, scoring 76 points and keying Oklahoma City’s 123-108 win over San Antonio for a 2-1 series lead.

“We assume the opponent’s always at their best and we need to be at ours and depth is a part of that. … It just needs to be one of our strengths that we rely on, regardless of circumstance,” Daigneault said.

The 76 bench points were the most by a team in a conference finals game since the NBA went to the 16-team playoff format in 1984. The previous mark was 69 by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1985. Only two Thunder starters scored in double figures — Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and Chet Holmgren had 14.

The bench more than made up for that.

Jared McCain scored a playoff-career-high 24 points for the Thunder. Forward Jaylin Williams, with Thunder guard Jalen Williams out because of left hamstring issues again, hit five 3-pointers and finished with a playoff-career-high 18 points. And Alex Caruso had 15 points, giving him 63 in this series; that’s the best three-game scoring span of his career.

“I like proving my support system right,” said McCain, a midseason pickup in a trade with Philadelphia. “The people who really believe in me, I like proving them right.”

Oklahoma City’s bench contributed 62% of the scoring for the Thunder in Game 3 — something no team had done in a winning effort during a conference finals game in the past four decades.

“We talk about it a lot, in practice and throughout the whole playoffs: Be ready and stay ready,” McCain said. “Coaches have done a great job of that. … We all are hoopers and we all know what to do out there, especially this team. It’s a very mature team. Coming in, I just want to be as ready as I can, no matter what it is.”

Victor Wembanyama had 24 points for San Antonio. Devin Vassell added 20 and De’Aaron Fox had 15 in his series debut. 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’s 3-pointer put the Spurs up 10-0, leading to an early timeout by Daigneault.

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.

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 of which resulted in a flagrant foul 1 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.

“We just went out there and competed,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They 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’t give our best effort to start that game but can’t do nothing about it. It’s behind us. All we can do is focus on the next possession, and we did that.”

The Thunder have won two straight after the Spurs’ double-overtime victory in Game 1. Game 4 is Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.