I must admit, my confidence was hanging by a thread as last night’s game started. After all, the Thunder are a genuinely great team, the Spurs had suffered consistently bad disadvantages in three straight games (e.g., turnover margin), and it felt like OKC’s plan of fouling Wemby continuously was going to end up being an effective method for mitigating his impact. I didn’t even feel good when San Antonio got up big in the first quarter because, well, look at Game 3. Even so, my spirits lifted as the second
quarter progressed, soared with Victor’s halfcourt heave to go up 12 at halftime, and remained excellent throughout a dominant second half. Considering the environment and stakes, this may have been the Spurs best performance of the season to date, and fortunately it also produced a fascinating box score. Let’s review some highlights:
Note: Now that we’ve moved into the postseason, the reference period used for grading changes from the set of regular season games since 2012-2013 to the set of postseason games since 2012-2013. Unless otherwise noted below, this set DOES include play-in games. As of the end of May 24, 2026, this group include 1,197 games.
Factors that decided the game
- This is a great game for showcasing why winning is determined by relative differences in performance (i.e., how the winner performed relative to the loser). In particular, the Spurs shot terribly in this game, yet still outscored OKC by 13 from the field because the Thunder’s shooting efficiency was DREADFUL.
- I talk about this more below, but the Spurs achieved the rare feat of beating OKC in every basic box score battle that doesn’t directly relate to shooting volume or efficiency (more on that below). These margins were rarely huge (hence the grades are usually modest), but lots of little advantages often add up to a big victory.
- San Antonio also won most margins having to do with shooting volume or efficiency, with the most notable victory being their FTA margin of +14. Interestingly, FT% is the only key area where they lost to the Thunder badly; even so, the Spurs outscored OKC by eight from the charity stripe.
Rare Box Score Stats
- Last night, San Antonio became the first postseason victor since the start of 2012-2013 to win by 21+ points while logging FG%, 3P%, and FT% values at least as bad as 38.89%, 27.27%, and 75%, respectively. There are only four other instances in the same 1,197-game period in which a winning team had a shooting percentage line at least as bad in all three dimensions, and the previous high margin of victory in that set was 12.
- The Spurs became just the 12th winner since the start of the 2012-2013 postseason to win EVERY basic box score battle outside of anything related to shooting volume or accuracy. In other words, relative to OKC they had more offensive rebounds, more defensive rebounds, more assists, fewer turnovers, more steals, more blocks, and fewer personal fouls.
- San Antonio became the 42 winner in the last 1,197 NBA postseason contests to win by 21+ points with FGA and 3PA margins no better than -1 and 0, respectively (that’s a frequency of about once in every 29 postseason games during the period).
- The Spurs and Thunder combined for just 15 total made threes in this game. That is not wildly unusual over the last 14 postseasons; in fact, it has now happened 195 times in that 1,197-game span. However, the vast majority of those occasions were in the 2010s. Since 2019, it’s happened between 0 and 7 times per postseason.
- An interesting point of comparison for this fact about total threes made is that the total number of field goals made in last night’s game (65) was also quite low relative to the reference period, with 98 total games over the last 1,197 (i.e., about one game in every dozen) where two teams have combined to make 65 or fewer field goals. The frequency of this occurrence has declined over time (largely due to rising pace), but not nearly as dramatically.
- Wemby logged just the 12th true playoff performance since the 1996-1997 postseason that included 33+ points, 8+ rebounds, 5+ assists, 3+ blocks, and 2+ steals.
- Kelly Olynyk is featured in the headline photograph because last night he became the only NBA player to record 3+ steals while playing no more than five minutes in a true playoff game since 1996-1997. In fact, of the 48,406 player performances that have included 3+ steals in ANY NBA game since 1996-1997, Olynyk’s game last night was just the sixth case that lasted less than five minutes. Nice job, Kelly!
What are Team Graded Box Scores?
Very briefly, these box scores grade winner-loser differentials for basic box score statistics, with the grade being based on the winning team’s differential relative to other NBA winners during a defined reference period. Think of it like a report card for understanding how a given winner performed relative to other winners. The reference period used runs from the start of the 2012-2013 season to the latest date of play, including only games in the same season category (i.e., regular season and playoff games are not compared to each other).
Data Source: The underlying data used to create these box scores was collected from Basketball Reference. In all cases, the data are collected the morning after the game is played. Although rare, postgame statistical revisions after data collection do occur and may affect the results after the fact.
