Spurs Earn High Praise From Thunder Guard Alex Caruso Before WCF

The No. 2 seed San Antonio Spurs are primed for a highly-anticipated Western Conference Finals clash against the reigning NBA-champion, No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Spurs reached this point with playoff wins over the Portland Trail Blazers and Minnesota Timberwolves. They earned the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference after notching a 62-20 record in the regular season - trailing only the Thunder (64-18).

Thunder guard Alex Caruso acknowledged the Spurs’ talent and discipline while speaking to reporters on Sunday.

“They won 62 games for a reason. They didn’t just roll the ball out and get lucky and win 60 games in the NBA. That’s a feat to be accomplished. You don’t do that with just physical talent. There’s some smarts that go into it and some IQ,” Caruso said. They’re a really well-coached team as well. Their bench has a lot of guys who’ve been around the league and know a lot of things about basketball.”

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“Them being able to implement that and get better as a team throughout the year is worth note and interesting to watch because that’s kind of the idea of us and what a lot of teams throughout the league want to do,” he added. “You want to be trending towards the end of the year, continue to get better, elevate yourself as a team and evolve. And I think they’ve done that.”

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The Spurs handed the Thunder four of their 18 losses in the regular season.

Game 1 will tipoff at 8:30 p.m. ET from Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center.

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This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 12:02 PM.