OKC Thunder 'waste' away Alex Caruso's 31 points in Game 1 loss to Spurs

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Left completely open at the top of the key, Alex Caruso made San Antonio pay for their game plan once again. In a flow state, he swished in the outside jumper to put the OKC ahead by one point with under two minutes left in regulation. If the results were flipped, the 32-year-old would've been the talk of all the national sports shows.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were on the wrong side of an epic duel with the San Antonio Spurs in a stress-filled 122-115 double-overtime Game 1 loss. They start the 2026 Western Conference Finals in a 0-1 series deficit.

Caruso finished with 31 points on 11-of-19 shooting, two rebounds and one assist. He shot 8-of-14 from 3 and went 1-of-3 on free throws. He also had two steals and two blocks.

I mean, c'mon. This one stings. Real bad. Churning along through a down year in the regular season, Caruso has more than made up for his Christmas woes. The Spurs entered this game daring him to shoot as many as he wants from the outside. And they lost that bet. Badly.

"I think that's probably why I play better this time of year. Because winning is of the utmost importance. It carries a lot more weight in the playoffs than it does in the regular season. It's one of those things where you're just trying to make whatever the play is in front of you to win the game. For me tonight, it was getting a bunch of shots, and they were going in, so I just kept running with it," Caruso said. "Even then, trying to still do the other stuff I do defensively, create havoc, get to the rim a couple times. I mean, it's playoffs, Game 1 at home. You're juiced over trying to do whatever it takes to win the game."

Fitting the textbook definition of a playoff riser, Caruso had his best scoring outing since he joined the Thunder. Knocking down outside look after outside look, he had 16 points in the first half. Feeling himself, he had a couple of blue-collar driving layups through Victor Wembanyama and company.

In a now-or-never scenario, Caruso added to his total with eight big-time points in the fourth quarter. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander found him for all of his attempts as the Spurs played a risky number game to put all of their attention on the two-time MVP winner. Eventually, he found himself surpassing the 30-point total. Unreal.

"It was a great game from Alex. Sad it went to waste. He played his butt off tonight. Proud of him, but I expect that," Gilgeous-Alexander said about Caruso. "Especially this time of year. He always brings."

In the game's biggest moments, Caruso had to stomach defending Wembanyama. Since he arrived on the Thunder, the 32-year-old has punched above his weight on his defensive assignments. That's how he wrote his name in OKC lore when he took on Nikola Jokic in last year's NBA playoffs. While even he couldn't solve the daunting defensive puzzle, they must continue to test out ways to make things a little harder for San Antonio's NBA superstar.

"You can see the evolution through the season if you watch basketball. You kinda saw them making a concentrated effort to run better sets and different looks for him to get the ball closer to the rim rather than just trailing down the middle of the floor, catching a trail, putting on the ground," Caruso said. "Because he's much more effective when you can just catch the ball, obviously, 10 feet in and go finish. They've manipulated the game and run some good sets to get him the ball in advantageous areas."

You see why the Thunder have compared Caruso to their version of Andre Iguodala on the Golden State Warriors. Any regular-season shortcomings you might grow frustrated with can be put in the bin. The two-time NBA champion has proven playoff round after playoff round that he lives for these moments.

It's just extremely frustrating to see Caruso's epic 30-ball go in vain with a gut-punching double-overtime loss. If the Thunder eventually fall to the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, it feels like Game 1 will be the chapter they rue the most and spend the whole summer reliving in their thoughts.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: OKC Thunder 'waste' away Alex Caruso's 31 points in Game 1 loss to Spurs

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