By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 32 points, Alex Caruso led another strong bench effort with 22 and the Oklahoma City Thunder moved one win away from a return trip to the NBA Finals by beating the San Antonio Spurs, 127-114, on Tuesday night.
Jared McCain – getting the call with Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell both sidelined – scored 20 in his first playoff start for the defending NBA champion Thunder, who lead the Western Conference finals 3-2.
Chet Holmgren scored 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Thunder, while Isaiah Hartenstein had a 12-point, 15-rebound night in Oklahoma City.
Stephon Castle scored 24 points for San Antonio, which got 22 points from Julian Champagnie and 20 points from Victor Wembanyama – who was held to 4-of-15 shooting.
Keldon Johnson scored 15 off the bench for the Spurs, who missed 29 of their 41 3-point shots.
Game 6 is Thursday in San Antonio. If there’s a Game 7, it will be back in Oklahoma City on Saturday – and while this series winds down, the New York Knicks are waiting to see who emerges.
The Knicks will play the Thunder-Spurs winner in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 3, with that series starting in the Western Conference city.
Oklahoma City scored 40 points in the second quarter to take control and kept the lead the rest of the way.
“We just played to who we were tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
It took nearly 10 minutes for the first free throws to be awarded. But when the parade to the foul line started, it didn’t stop.
The teams combined to make 29 free throws in the second quarter alone, the most in the second quarter of any NBA game since the bubble playoffs nearly six years ago. It wasn’t a one-sided thing – the Spurs were 15 for 17 in the quarter, the Thunder 14 for 14.
Oklahoma City went ahead by 20 in the third, before San Antonio closed within eight. The Spurs might have had some chances to cut even further into the deficit, but were fuming – and rightly so, it seemed – over some missed calls in the final minute of the quarter.
A tip-in try by San Antonio’s Luke Kornet with about 56 seconds left was knocked off the rim by Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace and should have been goaltending. And on the next Spurs’ possession, an out-of-bounds call that should have gone their way – replays showed the ball went out off of Holmgren – did not. Spurs coach Mitch Johnson tried to challenge the call, was ignored, then got a technical foul for arguing.
After all that, Oklahoma City’s lead was 101-91 going into the fourth.
McCAIN DELIVERS
Williams was downgraded to out by the Thunder for Game 5 about an hour before game time Tuesday, after being listed as questionable throughout the day because of his ongoing issues with a strained left hamstring.
Mitchell, who typically starts in Williams’ place, was ruled out earlier by the Thunder with a strained right soleus.
And that created a moment for McCain – who delivered. The former Corona Centennial High star wasn’t shy, either, with his 19 shot attempts in Game 5 tying Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the most on the Thunder.
McCain, who scored 18 of his 20 after halftime, was making the first playoff start of his career. He averaged 8.8 points in 12 playoff games off the bench for the Thunder entering Tuesday.
It’s unknown how long he’ll remain in the starting five. Game 6 is Thursday in San Antonio, but his effort Tuesday certainly was one heck of an audition.
Williams returned for Game 1 of the series, scoring 26 points in 37 minutes in Oklahoma City’s 122-115 double-overtime loss. He had four points in seven first-quarter minutes in Game 2, including an alley-oop dunk with 2:12 left in the period, and hasn’t played since.
Williams has now missed 58 of the Thunder’s 95 games this season, including playoffs. Of those absences, 19 were for a right wrist issue and the other 39 were related to his hamstrings – the right one costing him 30 games during the regular season, the left one now costing him nine during the playoffs.
More to come on this story.
