Wembanyama, Spurs send the West finals back to Oklahoma City for Game 7, routing the Thunder 118-91

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Victor Wembanyama had 28 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks and the San Antonio Spurs sent the Western Conference finals back to Oklahoma City for Game 7, routing the Thunder 118-91 on Thursday night.

Game 7 is Saturday night in Oklahoma City, with the winner hosting the New York Knicks on Wednesday night to open the NBA Finals.

Wembanyama and the Spurs responded to a listless 127-114 loss in Game 5 on Tuesday night with their most energized outing of this see-saw series.

“(Playing with desperation) just feels like it erases kind of all the little mistakes that we do that are human nature, whether it’s in the regular season or previous games,” Wembanyama said. “Just got to fight that all the time and put your backs against the wall. It feels like it’s the best opportunity to be able to play.”

Dylan Harper had 18 points, Stephon Castle added 17 and Devin Vassell had 12 points and two thunderous blocks for San Antonio.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was limited to a team-high 15 points on 6-for-18 shooting for defending champion Oklahoma City.

“I just think all of our focus and attention was on the defensive end,” Castle said. “I don’t think scoring against them has been a problem for us. I think just our self-infliced mistakes, like turnovers and allowing them to get offensive rebounds and easy buckets is what slows us down."

The Thunder were scoreless for eight minutes in the third as the Spurs ran off 22 straight points to make it 92-64 with 56 seconds left in the quarter.

“I don’t know that it was necessarily anything we did wrong,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought we were ready to play. I felt confident going into the game, and I felt confident at halftime. It had the makings of a road win if we could be the team that threw the punch in the third and they were the team that did that.”

The average margin of victory has been 15.3 points, with the Spurs winning by an average of 18.3 points.

Wembanyama has been at the forefront of all three victories.

The 7-foot-4 star joined Hall of Famers David Robinson and Tim Duncan as the only players in franchise history with five games of 25 points and 10 rebounds in a single postseason.

Wembanyama made his first two shots — both 3-pointers — and blocked Gilgeous-Alexander’s layup in the first 1:27 as San Antonio took a 9-2 lead.

“I think we were consistent and we did what we needed to do,” Wembanyama said. “Trusted the game, trusted the basketball gods.”

Wembanyama had 11 points, five rebounds an assist and a block in the opening quarter.

The series remained physical and contentious, with the Thunder's Chet Holmgren jawing with and bumping into Vassell after the Spurs' wing blocked the 7-footer’s dunk attempt in the second quarter.

Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams returned after reinjuring his hamstring in Game 2 and missing the next three games. Williams was limited to one point on 0-for-1 shooting in 10 minutes.

Holmgren had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) speaks to reammates after a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder after Game 6 in the Western Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5) shoots over Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams (8) in the second half of Game 6 in the Western Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren (7) reacts to a blocked shot against the San Antonio Spurs in the second half of Game 6 in the Western Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5) drives past Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort (5) in the second half of Game 6 in the Western Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace (22) shoots against San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (3) in the second half of Game 6 in the Western Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The title match in soccer’s biggest club competition is here: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Arsenal in the Champions League final in Budapest, Hungary.

PSG is looking to win Europe’s elite competition for a second straight year, while Arsenal is bidding to become European champion for the first time on its return to the final after a 20-year wait.

Both teams are coming off winning their own domestic leagues, in France and England, respectively.

Here's the Latest ahead of the 1600 GMT kickoff:

Zohran Mamdani is a big Arsenal fan and the New York Mayor was seen wearing club-branded clothing when he joined residents across the city for Eid al-Adha prayers this week.

In an article he has written for The Athletic ahead of the final, Mamdani said he started supporting Arsenal from the age of 9 after his uncle “introduced me to a team with a cannon on its shirt.”

He says supporting the team “increasingly became an exercise in nostalgia” until the recent uplift under Mikel Arteta.

“Over these past two years, no matter how chaotic life became, Arsenal remained the constant,” he writes.

Mamdani acknowledges PSG is “brilliant” and “frustratingly well-managed” by Luis Enrique, but has a message for Arsenal and its fans: “Enjoy this moment, because they don’t come around often.”

Fans are making their way to the stadium under a cloudy, threatening sky in Budapest, and they’ll have a role to play in the final.

Not least with the rival chants that you might get to hear in your TV broadcast.

PSG’s most notable song will see their passionate Ultras bellow “Tous ensemble on chantera” (All together we will sing).

Arsenal fans have their own chant that has grown in popularity over the last few seasons in manager Arteta’s 6 ½-year reign, with a chorus taken from “The Angel (North London Forever)” -- written by singer and Arsenal fan Louis Dunford in 2022.

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This is the first European Cup final to be staged in Hungary and it comes at an interesting time for the Central European country, a few weeks after right-wing populist leader Viktor Orbán‘s heavy defeat in the elections.

Péter Magyar is the prime minister and is set to attend the match at the 67,000-seat Puskas Arena, a stadium that opened in 2019 and was built on the same site as the previous Ferenc Puskas Stadion — named after the Hungarian and Real Madrid great who won three European Cups as a player.

Orbán is a massive soccer fan and attempted to bring back the glory days of the 1950s, when Hungary had one of the world’s top teams.

To that end, the arena, located a few kilometers east of central Budapest, has become a well-known host for European games. The stadium staged the UEFA Super Cup in 2020, as well as a slew of Champions League group games and four European Championship matches in 2021. In 2023, it hosted the Europa League final won by Sevilla.

Pre-match entertainment is being provided by American rock band The Killers, who are best known for songs like “Mr. Brightside,” “Smile Like You Mean It” and “Somebody Told Me.”

It differs from the Super Bowl, where artists perform in a halftime show.

The Killers, who hail from Las Vegas, predicted an “epic match” when they were announced to be performing – though at the time, they didn’t know who the finalists would be.

In previous years, Linkin Park, Lenny Kravitz and Dua Lipa have been headliners in Champions League finals.

Some 48,000 fans are expected to fill PSG’s stadium in Paris, the Parc des Princes, to watch the match on giant screens.

PSG said Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire is among the officials expected to attend.

Former players, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Claude Makélélé and Ronaldinho, have been invited to Budapest for the final.

It’s the first time in 55 years that clubs from two different capital cities are competing in the final of Europe’s biggest club competition.

The last was Ajax (of Amsterdam) vs. Panathinaikos (of Athens) in 1971.

There were only two before that: Benfica (Lisbon) vs. Real Madrid in 1962 and Real Madrid vs. Partizan Belgrade in 1966.

This is also the first major European final featuring teams from France and England.

It’s the last match of the European club season – and World Cup coaches will be watching on with a mixture of intrigue and nervousness.

The World Cup begins in 12 days, and the squads of both PSG and Arsenal are bulging with players heading to the tournament being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Any injuries sustained in the final could be devastating so close to the big kickoff.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says winning the Premier League has whetted the players’ appetite for more trophies.

Nothing comes bigger than the Champions League.

“The ambition is bigger,” Arteta said in his pre-match news conference. “We have one, and we want the second one ... there has to be a platform to reach bigger destinations.”

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was the first player in the squad to get his hands on the Premier League trophy, and he liked it.

“When you get the taste of winning and lifting a trophy,” Odegaard says, “you know how nice it feels. And we want to do it again.”

Many of soccer’s superstar players will be taking the field at Puskas Arena – not least PSG forward Ousmane Dembélé, the most recent world player of the year.

Désiré Doué, the 20-year-old forward who lit up last year’s final with two goals in the record 5-0 win over Inter Milan, is still a shining light for PSG along with Georgia winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and three of Cristiano Ronaldo’s top teammates with Portugal – Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Joao Neves.

Arsenal has England stars Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice in midfield and the striker who has just sent Sweden to the World Cup – Viktor Gyökeres.

Groups of fans got physical late Friday in Budapest’s frequented party area, leading police to launch an investigation over disorderly conduct.

Videos on social media showed several dozen people throwing punches and kicks, driving another group down Király street in the capital’s District 7.

One fan held a burning red flare before throwing it toward the other group, which was retreating down the street. Budapest police said in a statement that the violence erupted shortly after midnight, and that it was using surveillance footage to try to identify participants.

__ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Generel view of the Puskas Arena a day ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

PSG supporters react as they make their way to the stadium ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rudolf Karancsi-Albert)

PSG supporters are accompanied by security ahead of the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rudolf Karancsi-Albert)