NBA Basketball

2026-05-24 - Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs

A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown

Oklahoma City Thunder @ San Antonio Spurs
United States : NBA Basketball Playoffs Western Conference Finals Game 4
Sunday 24th May 2026 - Scheduled 8pm EST
1am (British Time)

Preview

Earning the Game 1 win in Double Overtime may have given the San Antonio Spurs the lead in this Western Conference Finals, but days later you do have to wonder if that victory came at a cost.

The defending Champions were never going to go away quietly, but the Oklahoma City Thunder have taken back to back games to regain home court advantage in the Western Conference Finals.

The Thunder will have taken plenty of confidence from recovering from 0-15 behind in the First Quarter of Game 3 and showing the greater depth on the roster. Four players came off the bench to score at least 11 points and the ability to use the rotation has helped the big names get plenty of rest since that Double Overtime defeat to open this Series.

It has been a different approach for the San Antonio Spurs who have struggled when Victor Wembanyama has had to go to the bench, while they will have noted that all of the starters reached double digits in terms of points, but there was simply not the same impact from the bench.

The star player has tried to take the blame for not putting his teammates into better positions to succeed, but Wemby does need support and the San Antonio Spurs will be hoping De'Aaron Fox has not re-aggravated an injury that saw miss the first two games. He did come back into Game 3 after hurting his ankle again, but Fox did not look quite right and the Spurs are going to be hoping one day of recovery is enough to get him ready to compete.

Both De'Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper will try and do what they can for the team, but the Spurs need to find a way to stay competitive when Victor Wembanyama is on the bench.

Adjustments will also have to be made Defensively having been punished by the role players, but the momentum is with the Oklahoma City Thunder who have found a good formula for success.

In all likelihood, the Spurs are going to shorten the rotation for this Game 4, which feels like 'must win'.

That may help, but you have to still favour the Oklahoma City Thunder to find a way with a host of options to use and potentially having Jalen Williams available after he sat out Game 3, but travelled with the team.

Both teams have very strong Defensive schemes, but the desire to attack the rim and some of the holding and grabbing has led to plenty of fouls and that means getting to the Foul Line very quickly. There were 66 Free Throws combined in Game 3 after just 41 in Game 2, but the officials may have noticed the grabbing issues that the media had focused on after the second game of the Series and they are looking to clamp down on those.

The total has moved upwards from Game 3 after the last two high-scoring contests, but this may be another with the Spurs likely emptying some of the tank to try and level the Series and both teams capable of racking up the Free Throw attempts.