For the eighth consecutive year, the NBA will have a new champion.
The longest streak of seasons with a different champion in NBA history extended Saturday when the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder were ousted in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals by No. 111 San Antonio.–103.
Victor Wembanyama had 22 points and a team-high seven rebounds in a victory for San Antonio, who will now face the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. It’s a rematch from 27 years ago, when these teams met in the 1999 Finals won by San Antonio and its two-peat duo of David Robinson and Tim Duncan, both former No. 1 overall draft picks.
This time around, the Spurs are led by another extremely talented big man, 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama, the sensational former No. 1 pick who led his team to the Finals in his third NBA season, and only his first playoff appearance.
Saturday’s Game 7 was just Wembanyama’s 18th career playoff game. In the blink of an eye, the Wembanyana-led Spurs have already dethroned a Thunder team that looked poised to dominate the Western Conference for years thanks to its champion grit and an exceptionally deep pool of talent and draft picks.
The Spurs’ lack of playoff experience has been discussed a lot, but “people don’t talk as much about the habits, the character, the unity, the competitive response,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “This team has been pretty consistent for a long time, over 100 games for the most part, and so I’m going to take those things with the experience we’ve had.”
Wembanyama was named the most valuable player in his first conference finals by averaging 27.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 48% shooting from the field.
“We want four more [victories]we’re not done,” Wembanyama told NBC Sports after the win. “Go Spurs, go!”
In Game 7, Oklahoma City lost two of its best offensive creators, Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, to injuries. At the start of the first quarter, the Thunder were down 14 points and still trailed by 11 points with eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
San Antonio found its edge by playing fast, scoring repeatedly in transition, and through guard De’Aaron Fox, who had almost as many points in Game 7 (15) as in the previous two games combined.
“We continued to improve throughout the season,” Fox said. “By the time we got there, I would say at the All-Star break, I was like, ‘This could be real. We definitely have a chance this year.'”
But with seven minutes left, Oklahoma City saw another opportunity open when Wembanyama picked up his fifth foul, forcing him to play more conservatively on defense. Less than two minutes after San Antonio increased its lead to 11 in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma City cut it to just six.
Yet the Thunder’s chances of repeating seemed to dwindle with four minutes left, as they ran out of timeouts and once again trailed by 11 points. San Antonio never let the Thunder come back strong and thus won the series after being down 3-2 at one point.
Julian Champagnie scored 20 points in a surprise offensive explosion for San Antonio. Two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s thirty-five points weren’t enough to give Oklahoma City another chance to hoist the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy for a second straight year.
“They’re young, they’re talented, well coached, play the right way, play together, they seem to like each other. They definitely have the makeup” of a title team, Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Spurs. “You don’t beat us without the makeup and they beat us, so they have the makeup to go for” a championship.
This is San Antonio’s first appearance in the Finals since 2015 and New York’s first since 1999. Game 1 will be June 3 in San Antonio, followed by Game 2 on June 5. The series then returns to New York for games three and four on June 8 and 10.
Both teams are playing under coaches who are only in their first full season.
Johnson, 39, started as an assistant in San Antonio before being elevated to interim coach last season following a health scare for Gregg Popovich, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach. The provisional label was removed before this season.
A year ago, New York hired Mike Brown, who previously coached Cleveland to the Finals and went on to win NBA championships with Golden State as an assistant.
The Spurs will face a Knicks team that is on a historically dominant streak, having won 11 straight games – the fifth-longest streak in the playoffs – by an average of 23.8 points. Still, San Antonio should be well prepared for the challenge, having beaten the defending champion Thunder, who started this season 24-1 and swept their first two playoff opponents.
San Antonio’s path to the playoffs began with a first-round win over Portland before outlasting Minnesota in six games in the second round. San Antonio won the opening game of the conference finals, tying the series at 2-2 in Game 4, but was on the brink of elimination after losing in Game 5 before reeling off back-to-back victories to topple the team many expected to win the NBA title.
After their 2024-25 championship season, the Thunder immediately picked up where they left off starting this season 24-1. Gilgeous-Alexander was named the league’s most valuable player for the second straight season and helped Oklahoma City win its first two playoff series in four games against the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers. Attrition in the Thunder squad and the depth of San Antonio’s squad ended their new campaign.
“Winning the Larry O’Brien is a childhood dream and to have a real chance and a chance, a tangible chance to win it, to make your dream come true, it’s the chance of a lifetime,” Wembanyama said.
