En route to their 127-114 win over the Spurs in Game 5, the OKC Thunder managed to finally neutralize star center Victor Wembanyama.
He was held to a mediocre 4-for-15 shooting from the floor and a middling six-rebound performance while San Antonio literally lost the 38 minutes of action he recorded by minus-eight.
Though once believed impossible, the frontcourt combination of Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Jaylin Williams succeeded in slowing down the 7-foot-4 wunderkind, and, as a result, Oklahoma City now stands one win away from heading to its second straight NBA Finals.
While Thunder fans are certainly elated to find the club in such a situation, Wembanyama is absolutely irate, as reports have now surfaced that he "surprised the media masses" following Tuesday night's contest and "walked right past them on the way to the team bus," choosing not to adhere to league-mandated media duties.
In essence, it seems that due to his own poor performance, coupled with his direct big man counterpart and budding rival in Holmgren having a strong start and standout overall showing on the night (16 points and 11 rebounds on 66.7 percent shooting), the Spurs' cornerstone opted to rage quit instead of holding himself accountable in front of the media.
Thunder star's remarks could mean more rage quits could be coming
What's arguably the scariest talking point when it comes to Oklahoma City's 3-2 series lead and the fact that Game 5 seemingly sent Wembanyama packing with steam coming out of his ears is the fact that they've been able to have this level of success while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has underperformed.
At least, up to his own standards.
Following Tuesday's win, the two-time MVP revealed that he thinks his play so far this series has been far from good, and even believes that Game 5 saw "the worst start to a basketball game in my career."
It's truly remarkable that Gilgeous-Alexander is this dissatisfied with his performance thus far in the Western Conference Finals, even though he's averaging 26.2 points, 9.8 assists, 3.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals, and a block per game, and he just wrapped up his latest outing with a series-high 32 points.
Considering the Thunder have forced Wembanyama into a warning-worthy temper tantrum with the way he's been playing, just imagine how bad the pivot's rage quit will look once Shai finally has a performance that he actually approves of.
Add us as a preferred source on Google