Thunder Notes: Jared McCain, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, reserves

The crowd at Frost Bank Center was ready for a night. Spurs fans showed up in coordinated fuchsia, teal, and orange shirts, roaring through a 15-0 start that felt more like a college football game than the Western Conference finals.

The run was historic too — the longest to open a conference finals game since play-by-play tracking began in 1997-98.

Then the Thunder remembered who they are.

By the end, Oklahoma City had stormed back for a 123-108 road win over the Spurs on Friday and a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.

“Down 15 at any point in time, alarms are going off,” Alex Caruso said. “You need to make a play now. You don’t have time to wait.”

That pretty much ended the fiesta.

McCain delivers

At some point, everyone’s going to have to stop acting surprised by Jared McCain.

The former 76ers guard dropped a playoff career-high 24 points in 27 minutes and played like someone who’s been here for years, not a second-year guy who arrived at the trade deadline.

What stood out most? He did it without leaning on the three-ball. McCain went just 2-of-10 from deep but repeatedly attacked the paint, finishing with 16 points inside and even creating space against Victor Wembanyama on one fearless drive that ended with a flex.

“He just oozes confidence,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He knows exactly who he is.”

Honestly, that’s the scary part for opponents.

Benchmania

No Jalen Williams? No panic.

The Thunder bench outscored San Antonio’s reserves, 76-23 — the most bench points in a conference finals or NBA Finals game since starters began being tracked in 1971.

Jaylin Williams scored 18 and drilled five threes. Caruso added 15. Cason Wallace chipped in 11. Every time the Spurs looked ready to swing momentum back, another Oklahoma City role player showed up throwing punches.

That’s what champions do. And suddenly, this series feels a lot less cute for San Antonio.