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The Oklahoma City Thunder took down the San Antonio Spurs in game two of the Western Conference Finals. Winning game 122-113 with Shai leading the way for the Thunder, winning, tying up the series 1-1. Shai dropped 30 points on 50% from the field, 4 rebounds, 9 assists, one steal, and 2 blocks.

Game 2 takeaways

Spurs: Castle continued his streak of turning the ball over. In this game, he had 9 turnovers. In the two games, Castle has turned the ball over 20 times; those turnovers have resulted in 23 points for the Thunder in two games. He did have a good scoring night with 25 points on 10-17 shooting. But the costly turnover cost him and his team a chance at winning this game.

After coming off a historic Game 1, Wemby had a quiet night compared to Game 1, with 21 points on 8-16 shooting, 17 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 blocks. Wemby, by all means, didn’t have a quiet night, but his presence was there to ward off attackers from the rim, with a defensive rating of 117, as in game 1, he had a rating of 98. Wemby let up a total of 17 offensive rebounds to the Thunder, of which 8 came from Isaiah Hartenstein, giving the Thunder opportunities for second-chance points.

The Spurs’ bench got outscored in Game 2, with the Thunder’s bench scoring 57 points to the Spurs’ bench 25 points.

Mitch Johnson, you can’t take a guy like Devin Vassell out who had a great second half. Vassell shot 5-7 from three and was

Watching the Spurs in this game felt like they were the Thunder in Game 1. Because when the Thunder would go on a run to get close to tying or having a chance to lead, the Spurs would respond by going on a run of their own. In this game, it was the opposite, with the Thunder going on a run in response.

Thunder: Shai came into this game looking to prove why he was the MVP and CPOTY (clutch player of the year), scoring 15 points at the end of the first half and finishing with 30 points overall. He came up with clutch moments to keep the Thunder’s lead and was making difficult, contested buckets look like it was nothing.

Isaiah Hartenstein was crucial for this Thunder win. Hartenstein had 10 points on 4-8 from the field with 13 rebounds and 3 assists. With 8 of those rebounds being offensive boards. He came up big when boxing out Wemby for those boards and opening up the lane for the Thunder to attack the paint.

Everyone from the Thunder’s bench came up big, with Caruso leading the bench in points with 17. Wallace, McCain, and Mitchell all scored 10+ points in the victory.

On the defensive end of the ball, the Thunder continued to force turnovers in this game, with a total of 21. Thunder scored 27 points off the 21 turnovers. Everyone on this Thunder team did great on both ends of the floor; everyone was hustling for boards and turnovers, and they weren’t afraid of attacking the rim, with Hartenstein forcing Wemby out of the paint.

Adjustments for each team for game 3

Spurs: Going into game 3 back in San Antonio, the Spurs need to make adjustments for them to potentially go up 2-1 in this series.

Mitch Johnson needs to tell players, especially Castle, not to be careless with the ball when playing this Thunder team, which is the best team at causing turnovers. I said the same thing in my last article about protecting the ball. In these two games they’ve played, the Spurs have turned the ball over 44 times. The Thunder have scored a total of 55 points from those turnovers. If they can’t figure out how to protect the ball, they will lose this series.

The Spurs are outmatched when it comes to the benches. Spurs’ bench is getting outscored in this series, 107 to 41. Keldon Johnson is someone who needs to have a stellar night in this game for them to win. Especially since Fox and Harper are game-time decisions for game 3 with an ankle and leg injury. They need to get him more involved, and it’s felt like he’s been quiet these playoffs after winning 6 months ago.

It’s going to be an uphill battle for the Spurs in this. We don’t know if Fox and Harper will play in this game until warmups. If they do have both these players on the floor, will Fox be 100% or will he be 85%? But if the Spurs have these two players, they have a chance to win game three and go up 2-1.

Thunder: For the Thunder to continue this momentum, they need to find ways to adjust to Mitch Johnson’s adjustments. Because the Spurs will have answers to what the Thunder did in Game 2.

The Thunder need to find a way to make Chet more effective in Game 3. He was better in Game 2, but still silent offensively from where he’s been this season. As the news that Jalen Williams will be evaluated game-to-game with a hamstring injury. Chet needs to be the second scorer to Shai, as he’s been in the regular season.

Continue to frustrate the Spurs. They did a great job doing that in Game 2, causing 21 fouls compared to Game 1. Continue to Gortat screen Wemby or Luke with Hartenstein or another big body. It worked so well in-game 2, but Wemby will find a way around it, so add another big body like Lu Dort. Continue to put pressure on Castle; he’s the weak link when handling the ball. They had to bring Jordan McLaughlin to help with ball handling.

With Jalen Williams dealing with a hamstring injury all season long, the Thunder have shown this season they’re fine without him. They will miss his defensive presence. But they need someone to step in his absence. You had Ajay Mitchell in that Lakers series. You have Alexa Caruso in this one already. But the Spurs are looking to extinguish the flames of those two players, so it has to be either them or Wallace or McCain to step up.

Game 3 Predictions:

Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals is on Friday, May 22nd, in San Antonio at 7:30 pm CT. You can watch the game on NBC/Peacock. The San Antonio Spurs are looking to get a win on home court to go up 2-1 on the Thunder.

The final score of game 3 will be 125-121 in regulation. The Thunder were victorious in game 3 to take revenge for splitting their home court.