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Smashing into Victor Wembanyama underneath the rim, Isaiah Hartenstein did the unthinkable. He forced San Antonio's NBA superstar to miss a rare shot just feet away from the basket with a textbook block. Sticking with the 28-year-old, the short-handed OKC enjoyed another humongous night from him.
The Oklahoma City Thunder picked up a critical 127-114 Game 5 win over the San Antonio Spurs. They're now ahead 3-2 in the 2026 Western Conference Finals.
Hartenstein finished with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting, 15 rebounds and four assists. He also had one block.
This is likely the script the Thunder will have to copy one last time to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals. Sure, their two All-NBA guys have to play at their level, but the rest of the group have to pitch in to make up for notable absences. Hartenstein was part of that cavalry.
On one end, Hartenstein logged the double-double. His floater has remained a weapon for the Thunder. When that's not falling, his catch radius has made him the perfect lob threat. On the boards, he helped OKC stay on par with San Antonio's size as the second-chance points were limited. He also helped run a glued-together second-unit offense by feeding DHOs to OKC's bench scorers.
And on the other end, Hartenstein once again got the brunt of Wembanyama. It was back to him struggling to stamp his scoring presence with an inefficient night from the seven-footer. Seldom did you feel his domination on the court. Instead, he looked like a 22-year-old going through his first Western Conference Finals.
"At the end of the day, with any great player, you're not going to stop them just with one player. Just going in there, just making his looks hard. Making sure he just doesn't get anything easy," Hartenstein said about defending Wembanyama. "I think we just did a great job as a team, just executing that. Again, he's a great player, so you just have to do it as a collective way."
The Thunder inch closer to getting to another NBA Finals. All without Jalen Williams for most of the playoff journey. Not even the biggest OKC homers could've imagined this, if you told them back in April he'd only play two full postseason games. But somehow, the reigning NBA champions have taped together a winning group despite missing important parts. Hartenstein has played a key role in that.
"I think we were really disappointed at the way we played. I don't think we could've played any worse in Game 4, to be honest. So we just wanted to come out with a little more sense of urgency and just play better. I don't think we could've really played any worse than we did in Game 4," Hartenstein said. "We still have one more game to win. We're not going to act like we achieved anything yet. We're going to go into San Antonio with the same sense of urgency. We haven't achieved anything."
Now, time for our prerequisite referee talk. Per usual, there was a lot of referee chatter online. Last game, Scott Foster was the household name. This game, it was Tony Brothers. With the game nearing three hours and both taking a ton of combined free throws, there was talk about how much they disrupted the game's flow. Especially in the second half. But Hartenstein didn't want to hear any of that.
"What you want from referees is just to know what you can do in the court. I think they did a great job today. They were just equal. You knew what the intensity was. Knew kinda how the game was going. I think that's all you expect from the refs. The refs are not going to be perfect," Hartenstein said. "I think everyone, the fans, always want the refs to be perfect. But just like us, we're not going to make every shot. They're not going to see every call. If you want that, you can find an AI program that will do that. But the game will probably take five hours if you really want to go do it like that."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Recently a hot-button issue, why Isaiah Hartenstein refuses to call out NBA referees
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