The stars show out in Oklahoma City as the Spurs hold on to win Game 1 through 2 overtimes & a late surge by the defending champs.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013<\/strong> About 60 minutes before tipoff of Game 1 between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder\u00a0in the Western Conference Finals<\/a>, Spurs rookie Dylan Harper learned he was starting in place of injured De\u2019Aaron Fox.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTreat it like every other game,\u201d Harper said. \u201cGoing with the mindset of just being me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That mentality worked\u00a0for\u00a0the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While Victor Wembanyama\u2019s historic performance<\/a> dominated the\u00a0postgame\u00a0conversation, Harper\u2019s production was important and impressive in the Spurs\u2019\u00a0122-115 double-overtime victory<\/a> against the Thunder in Game 1 Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n With Fox sidelined\u00a0because of\u00a0right foot soreness, Harper\u00a0played 47 minutes and had 24 points, 11 rebounds, seven steals and six assists.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Dylan Harper records 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and seven steals in a Game 1 double OT win.<\/p>\n He\u00a0became\u00a0the second rookie with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals in a playoff game since steals were first recorded in 1973-74, joining Magic Johnson (1980).\u00a0In the past 46 seasons, just three players have posted those stats in a conference finals game: Julius Erving, Larry\u00a0Bird\u00a0and Harper, according to basketball-reference.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n Combine Harper\u2019s play with backcourt mate Stephon Castle\u2019s 17 points, 11 assists, six rebounds\u00a0and San Antonio\u2019s starting\u00a0guards\u00a0outperformed Oklahoma City\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort.\u00a0<\/p>\n This Spurs roster is taking shape and revealing what\u2019s possible now and also in the future \u2013 a credit to the early 20-somethings. Harper turned 20 on March 2, and Castle, the 2024-25 NBA Rookie of the Year, is 21. They were part of a Game 1 Spurs starting lineup with an average age of 22 years, 346 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Stephon Castle drops 17 points and dishes 11 dimes in a double OT victory in Game 1.<\/p>\n Both have had their moments in the playoffs prior to the West Finals. Castle scored 32 points against the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round and had 32 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in Game 6 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference semifinals. Harper had 27 points and 10 rebounds against the Trail Blazers in Game 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Spurs got lucky in the 2025 draft lottery\u00a0moving up\u00a0from the projected No. 8 pick to\u00a0No. 2,\u00a0and they selected Harper, who was known for his offense at Rutgers. Turns out, he can\u00a0defend, too.\u00a0He was in passing lanes,\u00a0intercepting\u00a0and deflecting the basketball, which sometimes led to layups for Harper.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the game, he was the first person I saw, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Bro, I don\u2019t understand. You\u2019re going on fastbreaks one-on-three and laying it up like nobody\u2019s in front of you,\u2019\u201d San Antonio\u2019s Devin Vassell said. \u201cThe way he\u2019s able to get to the paint and finish, I haven\u2019t seen it like that before. He\u2019s going to keep growing. He\u2019s just going to keep getting better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Going to a deep team that was ready for a playoff push meant Harper\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0going to start\u00a0much\u00a0this season\u00a0and\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0log\u00a0as many minutes as\u00a0other\u00a0lottery picks.\u00a0Eleven rookies played more minutes than\u00a0Harper\u00a0and eight scored more points.\u00a0<\/p>\n How many rookies have played more minutes than Harper in the playoffs? One, and VJ Edgecombe\u2019s season is over. How many rookies have\u00a0scored\u00a0more points than Harper in the playoffs? None. How many have more steals? None. Ands who has the best plus-minus? Harper at plus-103.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just been very rewarding for someone that\u2019s tried to support\u00a0him through\u00a0this year and help him in terms of coaching him at times and giving him guidance of just trusting us,\u201d\u00a0Spurs coach Mitch\u00a0Johnson said. \u201cHe was this good eight months ago. But we wanted him to get some corporate knowledge and learn the program and the fundamentals of this league and how tough it was, and to get in better shape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Harper embraced the opportunity and the role.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u00a0feel like not a lot of people get this experience just to be a part of such a great organization, a great group of guys,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI feel like the locker room is great. I\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0want to be anywhere else.\u00a0This is\u00a0kind\u00a0of\u00a0where\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0supposed to be and just keep on just taking step after step.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He added: \u201cEarlier in the season when everyone\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0see the vision, I\u00a0kind of saw\u00a0it and doubled down on it\u00a0just wanting to win. I\u00a0have\u00a0never been in this position, but\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0got to embrace a position like this if you want\u00a0to help the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Johnson was noncommittal about Fox\u2019s availability for Game 2.\u00a0Regardless of Fox\u2019s status, Harper will be an important part of San Antonio\u2019s rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Jeff Zillgitt has covered the NBA since 2008. You can email him at\u00a0jzillgitt@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stars show out in Oklahoma City as the Spurs hold on to win Game 1 through 2…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":808597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,12551,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-808596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-stephon-castle","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116603946687163792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}