OKLAHOMA CITY — Hours after Victor Wembanyama stunned the building, the sounds of the once-deafening Paycom Center were finally comprehensible. Janitors murmured across the lower bowl as they rigorously swept the crumbs left from the pandemonium. The streaks of the sneakers that played an iconic Western Conference finals Game 1 were prominent on the hardwood. So, too, was the spot: Where Wembanyama unabashedly launched from to earn the San Antonio Spurs a second overtime and a 122-115 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Five paces from the scorer’s table, 28 feet from the rim. It feels impossibly distant.
If it weren’t apparent whenever Wembanyama steers All-NBA ballhandlers from making routine decisions, it clicks when you stand there on the court: There is no way to prepare for such an enigmatic, unpredictable force on either end of the floor, no accurate simulation for a star still developing. There is only reacting in real time. Doing.
Alex Caruso understood that. For much of Monday night, OKC’s hopes hinged on him knowing the wrinkles a defense must be willing to concede, the advantages an offense must steal and the proper decision-making necessary to freeze a 7-foot-4 pillar.
The 6-foot-5 Caruso, in one of the most emphatic role player performances in recent memory, was everything the Thunder needed. He was David to Wembanyama’s Goliath until his work was undone.
“Sad it went to waste,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of Caruso’s 31-point game. “He played his butt off tonight.”
Nine seasons in, stretches of the 32-year-old’s regular season are spent in bubble wrap. Every spasm or tweak is met with caution. Abysmal shooting slumps, even in a year in which Caruso shot 29.3 percent from 3, are written off. Because Caruso is merely incubating. He’s a cog in a machine built with many parts, an irreplaceable veteran and a steady disruptor until the playoffs roll around. That’s when his true form is summoned. The postseason beckons a different agent of chaos. Springtime, and its stakes, enhance his value.
“I think that’s probably why I play better this time of year, because winning is of the utmost importance and it carries a lot more weight in the playoffs than it does during the season,” Caruso said. “It’s one of those things where you’re just trying to make whatever the play is and trying to win the game.”
This is why coach Mark Daigneault can turn to Caruso two minutes into a matchup that screamed for his presence. It’s why Caruso played a season-high 32 minutes when 20 minutes was once a spry night, and why he played the bulk of two overtimes with the floor tilted to expose him as he was trusted guarding Wembanyama. If such a thing exists, Caruso is a giant slayer.
Two minutes after he entered the game, well before he drilled eight of his 14 3-point attempts, Caruso swindled Wembanyama with a ball fake, beating a whirling closeout and finishing over his skyscraping reach. He’d penetrated the forcefield.
Caruso obliged San Antonio regarding its game plan. Amid all the 3-pointers the Spurs conceded while being stingy with the Thunder and MVP Gilgeous-Alexander’s paint touches and driving angles, Caruso gladly chucked shot after shot. Wembanyama, tasked with roaming away from the least threatening shooter, closed out late as Caruso drilled his fifth 3-point attempt, clapping and smirking on the trip back down the floor.
But that amusement evaporated. Caruso kept shooting and hitting, often enough that it warranted Wembanyama gradually inching closer to him on the perimeter. He tried to weaponize the 22-year-old’s own overzealous tendencies.
“He’s a good player defensively, so he’s trying to make all the plays, and rightfully so. He can make them,” Caruso said of Wembanyama. “So part of that is just being smart about how you attack him. You watch the first couple series that they played, and there’s times where they’re just trying to shoot layups over him, and that’s not how you should play against him, right?
“I’m not gonna give you our game plan, but there’s times to be aggressive, and there’s times to manipulate the defense and get better shots.”
It took this level of detail to survive. Caruso has played with shot blockers of different sizes and stardom. Wembanyama, though, provides the Spurs with a more powerful level. Spurs guard Stephon Castle is a hound, but there’s extra safety in the 7-foot-4 shadow that follows SGA. Wembanyama mirrors opponents’ movements and is lanky enough to mind the back side or the pick-and-roll in one stride. He provides a cushion for late rotations and relief for blunders.
Alex Caruso’s play usually goes up a notch in the playoffs, but guarding Victor Wembanyama requires superhuman effort. (Brett Rojo / Imagn Images)
Wembanyama entered the fourth quarter without a foul. Gilgeous-Alexander attempted 10 shots before the fourth, none of them near the rim. Most of his attempts did not come until late, when actions were drawn up to free him. Ajay Mitchell, who averaged 16 field-goal attempts during his promising showing in the Thunder’s West semifinals series sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers, finished with five shots and four points. The Thunder scored 38 paint points on 43.2 percent shooting.
All-Star Chet Holmgren missed all three of his paint attempts and went just 2 of 7 from the floor in 41 minutes.
The shot that preceded Wembanyama’s long, game-tying 3 in overtime was an off-balance, midrange leaner from Jalen Williams as the big man lurked on the left block and the help was tightening.
“I think you get caught worrying about it too much and you lose aggression,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, who tallied 24 points and 12 assists on 7-of-23 shooting. “That’s when they really get a stranglehold on a game.”
Using data to measure Wembanyama’s impact does not completely account for his evolution. He is daunting to ballhandlers, forcing second guesses that draw out possessions late into the clock. Wembanyama, on film, is an easier foe than the one towering above the cylinder.
“When you play against those players, it’s kind of an acquired thing. You learn it as you go,” Daigneault said. “We’ve gone through that with other great players where you develop a feel. You can talk about it as much as you want, but you gotta develop a feel for it.”
Daigneault felt the season series granted some familiarity, but these teams hadn’t met in nearly four months, an eternity in Wembanyama’s timeline. He is hoarding experiences. Animosity — the force with which he dunks, the emotions he wears against this particular opponent — is his anchor.
Anything that made Wembanyama look mortal was brought forth by Caruso. When he swiped up and dug, defending Wembanyama’s lower body, it could look a bit clumsy. But he mitigated Wembanyama’s mighty reach, forcing him away from comfortable catches and allowing other defenders to get involved with entry passes.
The Thunder, branded by physicality, met their match in a Spurs team that dishes it out equally. San Antonio’s ballhandlers are sturdy. Wembanyama is undeterred inside 10 feet. Yet the kind of cracks Caruso was able to open can decide games like this one.
The big man loomed larger. Impact overruled experience, with Wembanyama throwing a 41-point, 24-rebound blanket over Caruso’s career game. Still, he bolstered his legacy.
The Thunder’s historical defense and their offensive juggernaut of an MVP went from undefeated and unscathed in these playoffs to pricked and ruffled. The Spurs have an antidote patrolling the floor and deterring what the Thunder do. It’s a grave enough threat that nights like Caruso had in Game 1 feel devastating when they come in vain.
