Thunder Bench Powers Comeback Win Against Spurs in Game 3

Down 15-0 to the San Antonio Spurs not even three minutes into Game 3 of the Western Conference finals on Friday night, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault went to his bench for the first time.

And everything changed in an instant, a harbinger of what was to come.

The Oklahoma City bench keeps getting better in these Western Conference finals -- and, with all respect to MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander , the backups are the reason the Thunder are two wins away from a return the NBA Finals.

The Thunder got 50 points from their reserves in Game 1, then 57 in Game 2 -- and on Friday, the bench mob struck again, scoring 76 points and keying Oklahoma City's 123-108 win over San Antonio for a 2-1 series lead.

The 76 bench points were the most by a team in a conference finals game since the NBA went to the 16-team playoff format in 1984. The previous mark was 69 by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1985. Only two Thunder starters scored in double figures -- Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points and Chet Holmgren had 14.

The bench more than made up for that.

Jared McCain scored 24 points for the Thunder; that's a playoff career best. Jaylin Williams -- that's the forward, with Thunder guard Jalen Williams out with hamstring issues again -- hit five 3-pointers and scored 18; that was also a playoff career high. And Alex Caruso had 15 points, giving him 63 in this series; that's the best three-game scoring span of his career.

Oklahoma City's bench contributed 62% of the scoring for the Thunder in Game 3 -- something no team had done in a winning effort during a conference finals game in the last four decades.

Victor Wembanyama had 24 points for San Antonio. Devin Vassell added 20 and De'Aaron Fox had 15 in his series debut. The Spurs raced to a 15-0 lead, the longest run to open a game in the conference finals since the play-by-play era began in 1997.

Fox opened the run by wrapping in a driving layup and Wembanyama followed by crossing over Isaiah Hartenstein to drill a 3-pointer. Vassell's 3-pointer put the Spurs up 10-0, leading to an early timeout by Daigneault.

Hartenstein broke the drought with a runner over Wembanyama, but the center was immediately greeted with thunderous boos after his physical play against the Spurs in Game 2.

The Thunder went on a 13-2 run when Wembanyama went to the bench and closed the first quarter trailing 31-26.

It was a pattern the Spurs could not overcome.

The series continued to be chippy with emotions boiling over early in the second half. Stephon Castle hit the court on back-to-back dunk attempts. The second resulted in a flagrant 1 foul against Ajay Mitchell and technical fouls on Mitchell and Vassell after the two exchanged words following the foul.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams extended Oklahoma City's first lead to 35-31.

The Thunder have won two straight after the Spurs' double-overtime victory in Game 1. Game 4 is Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

_Originally reported by [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48849356/thunder-get-76-points-bench-game-3-win-vs-spurs-go-2-1-west-finals)._