The headline coming out of San Antonio's Game 6 win in Minnesota was Victor Wembanyama refusing to fall to "the dark side." The deeper read on NBA on Prime was a different one. The Spurs are in the Western Conference Finals because their backcourt has quietly become a problem nobody has fully solved.
Steve Smith laid the case out as the panel debated whether the Spurs are a genuine threat to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. "It's incredible — they have three guards that can really get to the basket almost anytime they want," Smith said. "I think it's a decision defenses have to make. And you've also got Victor Wembanyama. You've got shooters around them. So it's an embarrassment of wealth in some respects for this team that they can play both sides of the ball. They can come at you in different ways."
In the closeout game alone, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell and De'Aaron Fox combined for 68 points and six different Spurs scored in double digits. The result was 25-year-old average age in the starting lineup, a 36-year-old head coach in Mitch Johnson, and a roster that just dispatched a Minnesota team that had been to back-to-back conference finals.
"I'm just impressed at an average age of 25 in that starting lineup and a 35, 36-year-old coach," Udonis Haslem said. "This is extremely impressive for me. Losing Game 1 and then to rattle off four straight says a lot about who they are, collectively but also individually. They just seem like they're about business. They look like they enjoy playing basketball with each other."
The argument the panel kept returning to is that the Spurs' offense does not generate empty possessions in the way young teams normally do. "How good they are offensively is because they don't let you off the hook," Haslem said. "They do not get empty possessions. They might turn it over, but they do not get empty possessions. They drive the basketball. They spray to the open guy. If he has a shot, he takes it. If he doesn't, you have Wemby at the rim."
Wembanyama himself talked about his guards immediately after Game 6, and his framing matched the panel's. "I saw them overcome some heavy difficulties, heavy pressure all the time," Wemby told Taylor Rooks. "It was a hard series, a tough series, and a lot of responsibilities were on them because of the way they were guarding the pick and roll — they had to make a lot of decisions. I had to execute the screens but then the decision was on them. Steph today had an amazing pass, an amazing late pass. These three guards all play way different, and they all bring something to the table when they sub in."
Where the panel diverged was on the OKC matchup itself. Haslem and Smith painted San Antonio as a meaningful threat. "This is a tough matchup for OKC also," Smith said. "OKC can pressure you, turn you over, but the Spurs are a tough matchup with those three guards, the way they're so poised. They don't turn the ball over. They're smart. Wemby's a game-changer on both ends. So this will be a heck of a series and we're all going to be tuned in." Dirk Nowitzki was unconvinced — he called the Thunder "a giant" and was the only voice on the panel willing to dismiss the Spurs' regular-season edge of 4-1 against Oklahoma City out of hand.
Haslem volunteered the warning to San Antonio himself. "Do not be immature and think whatever happened in the regular season matters right now in the playoffs," he said. "You went against a Portland Trail Blazers team that you were just better than. Then you went against a Minnesota Timberwolves team who was hurt. Anthony Edwards was not 100 percent. They lost Jaden McDaniels. You're going against a full team now. This is 0-0. We're starting from scratch."
The other adjustment the Spurs will have to make is a defensive one. The Wolves played Wembanyama into Rudy Gobert. The Thunder will play him into Chet Holmgren. "You're going against a big who can shoot the ball from the perimeter," Smith said. "So Wemby has to be a little more careful when he goes to block those shots because you have a guy that can spread the floor. It's not going to be as easy as it was when you're guarding Gobert."
The series is, in NBA on Prime's framing, a coaching chess match between Mark Daigneault and Mitch Johnson, a chess match decided as much by Castle, Fox and Vassell as by the two French centerpieces. "There are wrinkles to their defense that we haven't seen yet," Smith said of San Antonio. "I'm excited for that little chess match." After watching the Spurs survive Minnesota, the rest of the panel sounded like they were too.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/spurs-three-guards-wcf-x-factor-nba-on-prime-haslem-steve-smith-may-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
