By Robert O'Connell

Time was running out for the San Antonio Spurs.

In the closing seconds of overtime on Monday night, the young upstarts were down by three, on the road against the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Though they had fought hard in the opening game of the Western Conference finals, it looked as though they were about to come up just short.

But San Antonio had one crucial advantage that neither the Thunder nor any team in basketball history could match: a 7-foot-4 prodigy who can do just about anything he wants on the court, whenever he needs to. And that's when Victor Wembanyama rose up 28 feet from the rim and drained a 3-pointer to force double overtime.

A few minutes later, the dust settled on a 122-115 victory for the Spurs that immediately went down as an instant classic.

"We as a team are ready to go in any environment, any place," Wembanyama said. "Against anybody."

Officially, the win gave the Spurs a 1-0 lead in the series, with up to six games remaining. But posterity will almost certainly remember Monday as the "Wemby game," in which the 22-year-old Frenchman single-handedly dismantled one of the greatest teams, statistically, that the NBA has ever seen.

Wembanyama swished jump shots and soared for alley-oop dunks. He paralyzed the Oklahoma City offense and gobbled up every loose ball. His final stat line read like a series of increasingly ridiculous typos: 49 minutes, 41 points, 24 rebounds and three blocks.

"He has rare God-given ability," San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said.

Even before Monday's opening tip, the basketball world was preparing for an epic series between the two favorites to take home the championship. Oklahoma City strutted in with the pedigree. They'd won last year's title, and Gilgeous-Alexander had just been handed his second straight MVP award.

But although the Thunder rolled through the regular season with the NBA's best record, the precocious Spurs seemed to have its number. San Antonio won four of five matchups with Oklahoma City this year, including the knockout semifinal of the midseason NBA Cup -- an edge that Wembanyama thought should have earned him, not Gilgeous-Alexander, the distinction of league MVP.

"If you're a competitor and you see another competitor get rewarded with what you want," Johnson said, "that's motivation."

There was no doubt on Monday that Wembanyama came out more motivated than ever. His 49 minutes on the court were the most he'd ever played -- and nearly 20 minutes beyond his season-long average.

He put that extra time to good use. At one point, Wembanyama threw down a one-handed alley-oop while a defender was hanging on his other arm. At another, he stretched out his full 8-foot wingspan to swat away a put-back dunk attempt. With Wembanyama on the court, the Thunder made just 36.9% of their shots -- a nearly 22-point drop-off from when he sat on the bench.

"I'm probably going to sleep pretty well tonight," he said.

At the pivotal moment, Wembanyama even seemed to be channeling highlight reels, just for fun. His deep 3-pointer in overtime was a carbon copy of a shot Stephen Curry had once nailed in Oklahoma City to beat the Thunder -- except that Wembanyama is over a foot taller than Curry.

Since he arrived in the NBA from France, in 2023, Wembanyama has been tabbed as a future superstar. And those who came before him all had playoff breakouts early in their careers. In 1986, a sophomore named Michael Jordan scored 63 points against the Boston Celtics. In 2007, LeBron James scored 25 straight points for the Cleveland Cavaliers in a double-overtime win over Detroit.

But the most remarkable thing about Wembanyama's performance is that he didn't just match those icons -- he gave himself a chance to surpass them. Jordan's Bulls lost that game -- and the series -- to the eventual champion Celtics. James made it to the Finals with Cleveland that season, but was summarily swept by San Antonio. Jordan didn't end up winning his first championship until his seventh season, and James took nine years to get there.

Wembanyama's game on Monday wrestled the series lead -- and home-court advantage -- away from the championship favorites. And if "The Alien" can win a title in just his third professional season, the question soon might not be where Game 1 ranks among basketball's all-time individual games.

It will be where Wembanyama ranks among basketball's all-time greats.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 19, 2026 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)