Spurs aren't thinking about being ahead of schedule. They're just focused on the conference finals.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The San Antonio Spurs weren't supposed to be this far along at this point in their development, entering the Western Conference finals with confidence, momentum — and just about everything they need on the court except for significant NBA playoffs experience.

The Spurs aren't concerned about everybody else's timeline. They've got another series to play soon against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, and they're aiming to win it.

“I understand the general expectations of what we were supposed to do in October aren’t necessarily aligned with where we’re at right now," coach Mitch Johnson said after the 139-109 romp past the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night that finished the second-round series in six games. “We never talked about what we were going to be or what we were going to do. We just knew that we had a lot of potential and we were going to try to be the best team we could be.”

Drafting Victor Wembanyama with the first overall pick in 2023 was the most obvious step toward this moment for a proud franchise that collective five NBA championships over coach Gregg Popovich's storied tenure from 1997-2024, but the way they've assembled a strong, smart, speedy and slick-shooting backcourt around him has proven to be a masterpiece in roster building.

Stephon Castle, who led the Spurs with 32 points and 11 rebounds in Game 6 and went 5 for 7 from 3-point range, was the fourth overall pick in the 2024 draft. Dylan Harper, whose energy off the bench was a consistent edge in the series, was the second overall pick in the 2025 draft. Six of their nine primary rotation players were first-round draft picks by the Spurs.

Then there was the trade for two-time All-Star De'Aaron Fox last year, adding a steady veteran for Castle and Harper to emulate.

“They’re as coachable as anybody we have,” Johnson said. “They listen when we tell them stuff, and they get on the court and they’re just like attack dogs and they just go. I think the one thing I can give them both credit on and praise them is they don’t make a lot of repeatable mistakes.”

The Timberwolves had far more collective experience in the playoffs and overall over the Spurs, but they were the ones who made far more of those correctible gaffes. The younger Spurs looked like they had the better on-court habits, starting and ending with their determination and ability to get out on the fast break and beat the Timberwolves back in transition.

“We’re a really talented group that plays together and plays very selfless, and we’re all young,” Castle said. "I think we can beat anybody on any given night. Us just being very selfless in the way we move the ball, it’s just fun to play.”

Wembanyama in particular matured a lot within the series, after his ejection early in Game 4 for elbowing Naz Reid in the neck. He came back with a measured vengeance in Game 5 and was content to play a supporting role in Game 6 while Castle and Fox did most of the damage for a machine-like offense that scored 36, 38 and 36 points over the first three quarters.

“It feels like it’s connection between each other in the first minutes of the game,” said Wembanyama, who had 19 points in 27 minutes in Game 6. “This team, whenever we’ve hit first and taken an early lead, we’ve beat them. Really, whenever we beat them it was by like 30 every time. The way they play also makes it that they get tired because they play so physical, and we try to beat them with pace.”

Even though this group has logged only 11 playoff games together, the Spurs clearly don't look out of their element on the big stage.

“The nature of the playoffs makes it that we’re going to play against better and better teams. There was already a leap between the first and second round. It’s going to be probably an even bigger leap between the second and third," Wembanyama said. "We’ve got guidance. We’ve got a good coaching staff — the best, actually. So we can trust them.”

Starting on Monday night in Oklahoma City.

“Just the words ‘conference finals’ is crazy. It’s like something I heard my whole life, and now being in it is just special,” Wembanyama said. " It’s hopefully many more conference finals to come.”

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San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) celebrates a score with guard Stephon Castle (5) during the first half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball second-round playoffs series in Minneapolis, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson watches from the bench during the first half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball second-round playoffs series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, left, and Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, right, greet following Game 6 of an NBA basketball second-round playoffs series in Minneapolis, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots over Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ayo Dosunmu (13) during the first half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball second-round playoffs series in Minneapolis, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) celebrates a score with guard De'aaron Fox (4) during the first half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball second-round playoffs series in Minneapolis, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Thousands of people rallied Saturday in the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement to mobilize a new voting rights era as conservative states dismantle congressional districts that helped secure Black political representation.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called Montgomery “sacred soil” in the fight for civil rights.

“If we in our generation do not now do our duty, we will lose the gains and the rights and the liberties that our ancestors afforded us,” Booker said.

The crowd was led in chants of “we won’t go back” and “we fight.”

“We are not going down without a fight. We are not going down to Jim Crow maps,” Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case said.

A crowd of thousands gathered in front of the city’s historic Alabama Capitol, the place where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke in 1965 at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. The stage, set in front of the Capitol, was flanked from behind by statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and civil rights icon Rosa Parks — dueling tributes erected nearly 90 years apart.

Speakers said the spot was once the temple of the confederacy and became holy ground of the civil rights movement.

Some in the crowd said the effort to redraw lines has echoes of the past.

“We lived through the “60s. It takes you back. When you think that Alabama’s moving forward, it takes two steps back,” said Camellia A Hooks, 70, of Montgomery, Alabama.

The rally began in Selma, where a violent clash between law enforcement and voting rights activists in 1965 galvanized support for passage of the Voting Rights Act. It then moved to the state Capitol, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “How Long, Not Long” speech that same year.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Louisiana hollowed out voting rights law that was already weakened by a separate decision in 2013 and then narrowed further over the years. That helped clear the way for stricter voter ID laws, registration restrictions, and limits on early voting and polling place changes, including in states that once needed federal preclearance before they could change voting laws because of their historical discrimination against Black voters.

Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement are alarmed by the speed of the rollbacks, noting that protections won through generations of sacrifice have been weakened in little more than a decade.

Kirk Carrington, 75, was a teen in 1965 when law enforcement officers attacked marchers in Selma on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” A white man on a horse wielding a stick chased Carrington through the streets.

“It’s really just appalling to me and all the young people that marched during the ’60s, fought hard to get voting rights, equal rights and civil rights,” Carrington said. “It’s sad that it’s continuing after 60-plus-odd years that we are still fighting for the same thing we fought for back then.”

Montgomery is home to one of the congressional districts that is being altered in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

A federal court in 2023 redrew Alabama's 2nd Congressional District after ruling that the state intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents, who make up about 27% of its population. The court said there should be a district where Black people are a majority or near-majority and have an opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.

But the Supreme Court cleared the way for a different map that could let the GOP reclaim the seat. While the matter remains under litigation, the state plans special primaries Aug. 11 under the new map.

Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who won election in the district in 2024, said the dispute is not about him but rather people's opportunity to have representation.

“When Republicans are literally turning back the clock on what representation, what the faces of representation, look like, what the opportunities, legitimate opportunities for representation look like across this country, then I think it starts to resonate with people in a little bit of a different way,” Figures said.

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, a Republican, said the Louisiana ruling provided an opportunity to revisit a map that was forced on the state by the federal court.

“People tend to forget what happened. When this thing went to court, the Republican Party had that seat, congressional seat two,” Ledbetter said last week. “There’s been a push through the courts to try to overtake some of these red state seats, and that’s certainly what happened in that one.”

Evan Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case, said there is grief over the implosion of the Voting Rights Act but it is crucial that people recommit to the fight.

“We have to accept that this is the new reality, whether we like it or not,” Milligan said. “We don’t have to accept that this will be the reality for the next 10 years or two years or forever.”

A man sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The State capitol is seen during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A protestor holds a sign of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A man sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A protestor holds a sign of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

U.S. Sen Corey Booker, D-NY., has his photo taken during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

People gather during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

U.S. Sen Corey Booker, D-NY., has his photo taken during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Aaron McGuire sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)