Spurs vs. Thunder live updates: 2026 NBA playoffs Game 5 start time, picks and predictions

Victor Wembanyama said the Spurs would find out what they were made of after Game 3. He didn’t leave any room for interpretation in Game 4.

Wembanyama was ferocious throughout the night. He put his stamp on the game from the first tip and played with a sense of purpose and aggression he hadn’t shown in the past two games.

The Spurs reoriented their defense to take away a lot of his long closeouts, saving him more energy to attack the rack on offense.

The Spurs’ game plan adjustment of no longer high-trapping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and instead letting the nearby helpers collapse on him at the nail, shut down the Thunder offense. San Antonio was no longer gambling on giving up wide-open 3s repeatedly, and that made the game more predictable for the team.

The Thunder crossed the 50-point threshold with 3:28 left, which was shocking. At that point, the Thunder were just 2 of 17 from deep after a great shooting night in Game 3.

In the end, the Spurs showed they can shift their approach enough to keep up with the adjustment battle — and they didn’t even need a good shooting game to do it (38.9 percent). This is a defensive series and the Spurs further punctuated that Sunday evening.

Now they have a good formula for covering the MVP, they may have some real solutions to eventually take this series.

And of course, Wembanyama showed everyone what he and his team are made of.