Box Grades: San Antonio strikes first in dramatic OT win

WOW. What an incredible way to start this series, and what a statement game from Wemby. Furthermore, even though this game was close, it was actually characterized by some HUGE box score differentials for each team. In other words, this wasn’t a game in which the Spurs collected the win by registering lots of tiny margins; rather, San Antonio won because their big box scores wins slightly outshined OKC’s. Let’s dig into the details:

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 18, 2026, this group include 1,191 games.

Factors that decided the game

• The battle for offensive opportunity in this game was characterized by big rebounding and turnover differentials. On the one hand, the Spurs enjoyed excellent DRB and ORB margins of +15 and +6, respectively. However, OKC had eight fewer turnovers, which played a big role in mitigating the advantage in offensive opportunity that San Antonio might otherwise have gained.
• The Thunder actually outscored the Spurs from the field; both teams made exactly 41 shots, but OKC logged four more made threes, resulting in a point differential from the field of -4 for San Antonio.
• Ultimately, the free throw line played a massive role in this game. The Thunder committed seven more fouls than San Antonio, which gave the Spurs an excellent FTA margin of +10. Furthermore, the Spurs were a fantastic 27-of-29 in their attempts, and consequently outscored OKC by 11 from the charity stripe.

Rare Box Score Stats

• As you can imagine, Wemby’s stat line from last night doesn’t grow on trees. Let’s go over some of the most notable elements:
  • First of of all, since the 1996-1997 postseason, no other player has recorded 41+ points and 24+ rebounds in a true playoff game.
  • Over the same period, Victor’s performance last night was the just the 11th time that a player logged 24+ rebounds in a game, and only the third time that a player has done so with 15+ defensive rebounds and 9+ offensive boards.
  • Finally, only one other player has recorded 40+ points, 20+ rebounds, and 3+ blocks in a true playoff game since the 1996-1997 postseason. That player is Shaquille O’Neal, and he did it three times.
• Now let’s turn to the team box score. For all stats below, the reference period is all postseason games since the start of the 2012-2013 postseason (1,191 games in total):
  • San Antonio logged just the second team performance by a winner or loser that included 27+ made free throws on no more than 29 attempts. Interestingly, the only other time during this period was a 99-111 Dallas loss to Houston on April 21, 2015.
  • Steals and blocks were a dime a dozen in this game. In fact, only 7 other games during the period have included at least 40 stocks (steals + blocks).
  • On the theme of stocks, there have been only five other contests during the period in which a winner had 18+ stocks and a negative stock differential.
  • Only 21 other winners have logged FGM and 3PM differentials no better than +0 and -4, respectively.
  • This is just the 33rd time that a winning team has recorded a TRB margin of +21, and just the 7th time that a winner combined such a good TRB margin with a FGA differential of -5 or worse.
  • Only 12 other winners have had 23+ turnovers.
  • This contest marked the 47th time that a winner has had at least eight more turnovers than its opponent, and just the second time that a winner has had such a bad TOV margin when their opponent had at least 15 turnovers.
  • Somewhat frustratingly, the Spurs have now logged 8+ more turnovers than their opponent THREE times during this playoff run; however, they have won each of those games, so maybe this just works for them!

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.