Thunder’s Jared McCain reveals team strategy to slow down Victor Wembanyama

After the Oklahoma City Thunder lost Game 1 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, it became evident that slowing down Victor Wembanyama was crucial if they were to advance to the NBA Finals. Wembanyama ran riot against the Thunder, recording a 41-point, 24-rebound stat line all while making some of the biggest shots of the game in the Spurs’ 123-115 win this past Monday.

Since then, Wembanyama hasn’t been as dominant on the scoring column. He did score 21 and 26 points, respectively, in Games 2 and 3, but both of those games resulted in Thunder wins — with OKC taking a 2-1 series lead after scoring a 123-108 victory on Friday night on the road.

Make no mistake about it, Wembanyama has still been good for the Spurs. But he hasn’t played at the elite level that’s been necessary to power his team over the might of this deep Thunder squad. And after the Thunder’s Game 3 win, Jared McCain, who scored 24 points off the bench on Friday, broke down what the team is doing to make life difficult for the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.

“Being able to be physical with him. But it takes the whole team, so being able to lock in as one and rebound, especially, against him (is crucial to slowing him down),” McCain told Michael Eaves of SportsCenter.

"When we came to the timeout, nobody was down. Everybody was ready to keep going and throw another punch." @J_mccain_24 describes to @michaeleaves the Thunder's mentality when trailing 15-0 to start the game pic.twitter.com/rHs6I0hbeq

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 23, 2026

The Thunder have indeed made a much more concerted effort in roughing Wembanyama up, and while the Spurs star has still been able to get his fair share of points, he hasn’t quite taken over the game the way he did in Game 1. Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso have come in to wear Wembanyama down, and it’s been working.

Perhaps OKC has found the blueprint to slowing Wembanyama down, although the Spurs are going to be working overtime in finding ways to make life easier for the 7’4″ wunderkind.

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