NBA Matchups: May 18

San Antonio Spurs at Oklahoma City Thunder

Team Totals:

Injury Report: De’Aaron Fox (Q, ankle), Luke Kornet (Q, foot)

Spurs projected starters: De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie, Victor Wembanyama

Thunder projected starters: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein

Offensive Ranks: Spurs 3rd (4th halfcourt), Thunder 6th (3rd halfcourt)

Defensive Ranks: Spurs 3rd (4th halfcourt), Thunder 1st (1st halfcourt)

Season Series: 4-1 Spurs (+26)

Noteworthy Missed Games: Devin Vassell (1), Dylan Harper (1), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (1), Ajay Mitchell (3), Jalen Williams (1), Chet Holmgren (1), Lu Dort (2), Isaiah Hartenstein (2)

Mitch quotes: Said Castle had the right temperament to have a great game, said Fox tweaked his ankle and he was able to settle the team down, said Fox doesn’t get enough credit for keeping the team settled, said they knew they had a lot of potential for this season, said there are too many variables to know what to expect in a certain game.

Daigneault quotes: Said they had a great day of practice on Friday, said the opponent doesn’t matter and they just focus on making sure they’re ready to play hard and the right way, said SGA is able to stay so engaged even when he’s double-teamed, said Ajay is “always in attack mode” and he can make teams pay for doubling SGA, said every game is different and playing a closer Game 4 against the Lakers helped them make some adjustments, said Chet is healthy and he’s stronger to help him play so well right now, said Chet is also better at reading the game and he’s so versatile defensively, said Wiggins has been a pro for being out of the rotation but it is not permanent.

Team stats and notes:

*The season series was wild, with OKC taking four of their 18 losses to the Spurs. Even excluding the OKC rest game on Feb. 4, the Spurs still went 3-1 with a +16 edge. In two of those three losses, the Thunder had two of their five worst halfcourt offensive ratings of the season, and they also had their worst halfcourt defensive rating in a game this season against them, too (Dec. 23, Spurs 130-110). The Spurs were able to cut off the rim stuff in some of those games, and they limited OKC’s points off turnovers. OKC did run poorly on 3-pointers in two of those losses, but it’s fair to say that the Spurs outplayed them throughout the year in big spots. Season series aside, both of these teams are excellent with both sides of transition, and San Antonio leads the postseason in transition points per game (by a lot). OKC’s transition offense hasn’t been all that great, but their matchups weren’t as favorable (the Blazers and Wolves have bad transition defense, and the Suns have good). Conversely, The Thunder’s transition defense has been outrageous at just 12.8 per game in the postseason (18.7 per game to lead the league during the season). The Spurs have been playing some of their best defense of the year, ranking first in the postseason at just 103.1 points per 100, including an absurd 82.3 in the halfcourt. Of course, OKC’s defense is still going to be incredible with their excellent on-ball and paint defense. On the other side, OKC has been crushing on offense with a top-ranked 110.1 halfcourt O rating (127.6 overall; Knicks 128.9). This is going to be fun.

Player stats and notes (season series stats used here will exclude the OKC rest game):

*Victor Wembanyama had some solid output against the Thunder with an 18/8/2 average line in just 24.3 minutes. The Thunder used a lot of their forwards on him during the year with Kenrich Williams and Jalen Williams as his primary options, and J-Dub being healthy should mean it’s going to be a lot of Dub on Wemby with some Alex Caruso. In the last round, Wemby didn’t have big usage because of the Spurs pushing the ball so much to spread the usage around. With OKC being a superb transition defense, I’d expect more usage to funnel through Wemby. It’s not the best matchup possible because this defense is so good, but I’d expect the Spurs to lean on Wemby a ton.