By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY — The last time Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder played a Game 7 it was the ultimate game of ultimate games, one that decided last season’s NBA championship.
And that’s why, as the NBA’s two-time MVP spoke about the Game 7 that looms against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night to decide the Western Conference title, it might have seemed mildly surprising that he said these five words: “Biggest game of my career.”
“It’s the next game,” he quickly added. “And if I lose, my season’s over.”
Simple as that. Game 7. Spurs vs. Thunder. The winner goes to the NBA Finals to play the New York Knicks starting on Wednesday night, the loser goes home to lament what might have been. The Thunder went 2-0 in Game 7s last season on their way to the NBA title, while Spurs star Victor Wembanyama will be making his maiden appearance on the Game 7 stage.
“I know there’ll be a lot of added attention, a lot of eyes watching,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “It’ll be a hostile environment, but we’ve been saying this for a long time: We’ve had a lot of firsts. This one will be a little bit more important or higher-stakes than all the others. That’s the goal as you keep playing and the season gets longer.”
This will be only the second time in NBA history that two teams that won 62 or more games each during the regular season meet in a Game 7. The other was in 1981, when Boston beat Philadelphia, 91-90, to win the Eastern Conference title.
And it could be easily argued that Wembanyama is about to play the biggest game of his career. Then again, he might take exception to that.
In the mind of the 7-foot-4 French star, who had 28 points in 28 minutes to lead San Antonio’s romp in Game 6 that staved off elimination and got the Spurs into Game 7, every game is Game 7. It’s the attitude that he’s taken to the court for as long as he can remember. It’s the approach that shaped him and probably helped him get to this moment.
“For me, winning in the NBA today isn’t any more important than winning a regional championship back when I was playing in the U-13 division,” Wembanyama said in his native French after the Game 6 win on Thursday night. “The competitive drive feels exactly the same.”
Game 1 was a double-overtime thriller, with neither team ever leading by more than 10 points before the Spurs eventually prevailed. And in Game 2, Oklahoma City’s biggest lead was 13 before the Thunder won by nine.
The gaps have grown as the series goes along. Both teams led by at least 15 points at times in Game 3 (a 15-point Thunder win), the Spurs led by as many as 25 before winning Game 4 by 21, the Thunder led by 20 before winning Game 5 by 13, and the Spurs led by 28 before winning Game 6 by 27.
So, the games themselves might not have all been classics. The series, as a whole, looks like one. And after all the ups and downs for both teams, it comes down to one game – the 12th between the teams this season, with San Antonio 7-4 in the previous 11.
“The one thing that we’ve learned more than anything is every game has a new life,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Every game is earned if you want to win it. Game 7 will be no different. This is obviously a quality opponent. We have to play a lot better than we did (in Game 6) and we understand that from a number of experiences. … We’ll get some rest and recovery, learn from the tape, take the lessons from (Game 6) that are relevant for Game 7 and be ready to go out there and throw our best punch.”
History shows that’s exactly what the Thunder know how to do.
Since the start of the 2025 playoffs, Oklahoma City is 9-0 in the game immediately following a playoff loss – winning those by an average of 15.4 points.
“We’re just a motivated group and we accept the challenge ahead,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Every game is going to present a different challenge and obviously when you lose, it hurts a little more and there’s a little extra motivation and we tend to fight a little bit harder.”
And given that this is Game 7, there will be plenty of fight on both sides.
Gilgeous-Alexander will be in his fourth Game 7. Wembanyama will be in his first. Most of the Spurs’ rotation players will be on this stage for only the first or second time. But everyone knows the stakes.
“I think there’s been a lot of legendary Game 7s and I feel like we’re a group that wants to be a part of that,” said Spurs rookie Dylan Harper, whose father – five-time champion Ron Harper – played in a pair of Game 7s. “We want to be a part of that kind of history of Game 7. We’re going to go out there swinging. No matter what, we just going to leave it all on the table.”
BIG YEAR FOR GAME 7s
It is the year of Game 7.
For the fifth time in this year’s playoffs, a series is coming down to the ultimate game.
The others this season: Philadelphia beat Boston on the road in Round 1, Cleveland beat Toronto in Round 1, Detroit beat Orlando in Round 1 and Cleveland beat Detroit on the road in Round 2.
The five Game 7s this season tie the most in a single postseason. There also were that many in 1994, 2014 and 2016. And there have never been three instances of Game 7 road winners in the same season; the Spurs will aim to change that on Saturday.
Home teams have gone 117-42 in the previous 159 instances of Game 7s in the NBA playoffs.
GAME 7 RECORDS
A look at the histories in Game 7 for Oklahoma City and San Antonio, two franchises that have never before gone head-to-head in such a game:
• The Thunder, since moving to Oklahoma City: 4-2 overall, 4-0 at home.
The four home wins were all by double digits and the margin averaged 17.5 points. The two losses were both on the “road,” though one of those was simply classified as a road game because Oklahoma City was lower seeded than Houston when those teams met in the bubble playoffs of 2020 in Orlando.
• The Spurs: 4-7 overall, 1-5 on the road.
The lone road Game 7 win in franchise history was at New Orleans in 2008. The Spurs have never played a West finals Game 7 on the road – but played on the road in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals in 1979, losing to Washington.
GAME 7 BIRTHDAYS
Spurs forward Harrison Barnes turns 34 on Saturday. This could be a good sign for San Antonio.
No player has ever appeared in a Game 7 during the NBA playoffs on his birthday and lost. Paul George turned 36 on May 2 and Philadelphia beat Boston. And Barnes has been in this position once before; he turned 24 on May 30, 2016, and his Golden State team beat Oklahoma City.
The other birthday winners of Game 7s:
• Pablo Prigoni turned 35 on May 17, 2015; he and Houston beat the Clippers.
• Udonis Haslem turned 32 on June 9, 2012; he and Miami beat Boston.
• Kevin Garnett turned 28 on May 19, 2004; he and Minnesota beat Sacramento.
• Scott Hastings turned 30 on June 3, 1990; he and Detroit beat Chicago.
• Walt Hazzard turned 24 on April 15, 1966; he and the Lakers beat St. Louis.
BEST-OF-12 SEASON SERIES
Saturday night will be the 12th matchup between these teams this season, and San Antonio went 7-4 in the first 11 games between the clubs.
Golden State and Houston played 12 times last season between four regular-season games, an additional game tacked on because of the NBA Cup, and then a seven-game playoff matchup in Round 1.
Other than that, the last time – before now – that two teams met 12 times in the same season was 1994-95, when San Antonio and Houston faced off on that many occasions.
The league has used a scheduling model for the last three decades that doesn’t have any teams meeting more than four times in the regular season, which capped the total number of head-to-head meetings at 11 even if they went the distance in a seven-game playoff series. But the addition of NBA Cup now makes a 12-game season series possible.
And technically, teams could meet as many as 13 times.
It’s theoretically possible for teams to play four regular-season games, plus a fifth time in NBA Cup, then meet in the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game in the play-in tournament, then play a seven-game playoff series.
Regardless, the record for head-to-head meetings will probably never be broken. In 1959-60, the Minneapolis Lakers and St. Louis Hawks played 20 times and in 1960-61, the Lakers, who had moved to L.A., played the Hawks 20 more times. The league had only eight teams then and played a 75-game schedule.
SPURS AT THUNDER
What: Western Conference finals, Game 7
When: Saturday, 5 p.m. PT
Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City
TV/Radio: NBC (Ch. 4), 710 AM