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We are set for game seven in Oklahoma City and the Thunder are a perfect 4-0 in game sevens on their home court. Each win not close coming by double digits and that includes two wins during their title run last season. As for the Spurs, they've won just one game seven on the road in franchise history. Got to go back to 2008, the conference semis against New Orleans. Look at that. San Antonio 5 and three on the road this postseason, but they lost the last two in OKC. Saturday's game. Tonight's game just the fourth. Game seven between 60 win teams in NBA history and the person's 06 between the Mavs and the Spurs. Previous three all decided by one point or they went to overtime. Time now
for a little bit of time. Quality time. QT with Q Rich on Sports Center. That's pretty good. Are you doing it? Are we going to Yeah, we can do that. It's been a while. Okay. Let's get it. Let's talk QR code Q. What is the code for the Thunder to win game seven and go back to the finals? Man, fellas, send me the QR code for the Thunder. Obviously, they need that MVP SGA to be big time. He's back on his home court. He's had a good game last game on the home court to help them get that W. I feel like they need a huge
huge night from SGA. They're going to need Czech. They're going to need Homegrren to come and ball out. They also going to need Caruso off that bench with the defense and just the energy that he's been bringing whether it's been offensive points, defensive energy, defensive forcing turnovers. Then Jared McCain has been a X factor for me and I expect him to be the same at home. OKC Thunderers other guys that support cast will play well and they need SGA at MVP level. You ain't lying. He was held to a quiet 15 points in that game six loss. Game seven, do or die. The Spurs are a three and a half point road underdog. So Q, what's the QR code for San Antonio to pull off the upset and go to the finals?
Same thing, fellas. They need their big guy. They need Wimi to be the best player on the floor. If they're going to try and come into OKC and win what we just went over, they've won. They know in game seven on their home court. We know this crowd will be loud and rockous and it will be jumping in there. So, they need Wimby to be Wimby the best player on the entire floor on either team. Then they're going to need their defense because their defense is what's giving OKC's the most problem. The uh Steph Castle on SGA has been a problem as well as a double teaming and just funneling him down there. So, they're going to need a big game offensively from WBY and defensively from the whole team.
All right, we have the QR codes. Who wins tonight? Hey, fellas, it's a tough call, but I gotta go with the I got to go with the trends. I'm going with the Thunder. They 4-0 in home game in game sevens at home. They and this series has kind of been back and forth with the home team winning the last few. So, I'm going to stick with that trend. I think SGA has a big night. The supporting cast steps up and they win. We're going to find out tonight. Game seven, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Quinton Richardson joined the program this morning. We'll see you in a bit.
Yes, sir. Oh, come on. Everyone's wondering what kind of response we would get. What a start for Wendy is just one game first here tonight. Man, what a finish. The defense of the Spurs. They have answered the bell here. Oklahoma City is absolutely disconnected. They just punched and we didn't punch back. 200 run for the Spurs. This is a scary Spurs team. The Spurs have pulled it off and there will be a seventh game from the hype hands to our hype man.
It's Tyler Fuldram sports. We're raising the roof this morning on raising the standard as raising some funds as well. Eyes on game seven tonight in Oklahoma City. Fulham, what's the best bet? I want to see the Spurs win. Let me just throw that out there. But my best bet is actually the Thunder. I think the Thunder have the advantage here situationally. Victor Romanyama is probably going to be the best player on the floor. And OKC is dealing with a little bit of injury issues, but they have SGA the MVP. They have the experience. They have the homecourt advantage. And they have a
game seven that is probably going to be allowed to be played very physical cuz the refs don't want to be involved. They want the players to decide this. And if the game is amped up in physicality that benefits an OKC team that is as physical as any in the NBA. So again, I want to see Wimi and the Spurs go to the final. Wimby against the Knicks, that would be a ratings bonanza. But I think the better bet is actually the Thunder in this spot due to their experience. Last two games have pretty much been at that number about three and a half. Home team has won. Home team is covered. What's another play that you like tonight?
I mentioned it with the way this game is probably going to be played very physically, maybe a slow tempo. I like the under. When you talk about game sevens in an NBA playoff series, you usually see more often than not the under hit. Why? Well, again, you're allowed to play a more physical brand of defense. Rotations are tightened, which means minutes are lengthened for individual players, which means in the second half you get a little more tired, which means you're not running up and down the floor as often as you did. This is scary because these two teams can obviously fill it up. The winning team in almost every game has scored at least 120 points. Four of the six games have gone over the total, but I'm going to
lean into a trend since 201617. 15 of the 21 game sevens we have seen in the NBA finals have gone under the game seven closing total. Okay, we'll find out later tonight. Game seven in Oklahoma City. We have a game seven in the NBA Western Conference Finals. Spurs at the Thunder tonight. This marks the fourth winner take all game between two teams that won at least 60 games in the regular season. The previous three were all decided by one point or went to overtime. Now, the Spurs starters have little game seven experience as Dearan Fox is the only to have played in one before. While OKC has
11 combined game sevens from its starters. And the battle of two of the league's best ends tonight as this is the first game seven matchup between two top three finishers and MVP building since 1982 when Larry Bird and Dr. J faced off. NBA reporter Tim McMahon joining us now on Sports Center. Tim, no Jaylen Williams for OKC tonight. He played just 10 minutes in game six after missing games three, four, and five with a hamstring injury. What more can you tell us about him not playing tonight? Howdy, Jay. He played those 10 minutes and look, they didn't go well. The hamstring is not healthy. He wasn't anywhere close to being himself. They were outscored by 18 points in the 10 minutes with him on the floor. He had no
burst. He had no rhythm. and really he had no business being on the floor, especially with this caliber of competition with the stakes this high. Uh you know, they huddled up and the determination was made that there was too much risk and no real upside to have Jaylen Williams on the floor for game seven tonight. Let's talk about Sheay for a second. He's averaging just 24 points per game, shooting only 38% from the floor in this series. What's he said about the looks that he's getting against this Spurs defense?
Well, look, he says that he's taken shots that he's taken plenty of times before and they feel good. You know, they're just not going in. Now, the shot quality will tell you these are tough shots. Uh, but, you know, Shay said it's too late for him to abandon his work, abandon his game, and abandon who he is. That, you know, this late in the year, he's just got to trust it and live and die with it. You know, it makes no bones about it. He called this the biggest game of his life. The circumstances are tough. No Jayen Williams, no AJ Mitchell. He's really the one dynamic uh playmaker left standing for the Thunder against an elite Spurs defense, but the back-to-back MVP needs to come through for the Thunder tonight.
Yeah, he has four straight games shooting no better than 40% for the first time since 2021 2022 season. Tim's going to be back in a bit with more on the Spurs. For now, let's go over to Hannah. Yeah, and NBA analyst Quinton Richardson with us. Q. Uh, in game six, SGAA was a game worst, minus 28 on the court. He only had 15 points. Um, it's interesting. He calls this the biggest game of his life, uh, given that the finals went the distance last year. But what does he need to do tonight to get his team back there? Yeah, I think he just needs to be who he is, the MVP of the league, the backtoback MVP of the league. He's got to get some better quality
shots because last game he had a lot of one-on-one covers. I think they, you know, mixed it up and caught him off guard with that cuz they have been doing so much doubling. And Steph Castle has done a great job individually, but make no bones about it, he has to get closer to his spots. He's a mid-range uh nightmare. He has to get to more high quality shots in that mid-range, get more shots to the basket. I think the offense has to create opportunities for him to be getting downhill with Wimby away from the hole and then he can get rolling if he gets a couple mid-range to inside shots. Yeah, and as we just talked about also, the
Thunder are short-handed. No JD Dub, no AJ Mitchell down two guys that they have really depended upon. Who has to step up for OKC tonight? I'm looking for Caruso, Jared McCain, and Kase Wallace to be huge, huge guys that help off the bench. I'm not sure if McCain will be starting or not or like he did last game, but either way, I look for those three guys to be guys that are huge contributors, especially here at home. All of these guys play a lot better at home in the last few games. It's been back and forth with the home team winning and those guys have all played well at home. So, I think I
think Caruso, Kase Wallace, and definitely Jared McCain need to step up and have big nights for them to win tonight. Hey, real quick though, what about Chad Holgren? I mean, this is a guy that they paid to be their third star along with SGA and JDub. Don't they need more from him? They would definitely they could definitely use a huge game out of him and that would help immensely. But I mean he's been playing solid, but I wouldn't say he's been having the huge games that they would need for him. But they could definitely take a huge game from Chad Hungry tonight and that would definitely lift them in a big way.
