From The Sports Desk: Thunder strike

We’re officially in the middle of an all-time great Western Conference finals. We’ll recap that, plus look ahead to Formula 1’s Montreal Grand Prix and continue our World Cup player countdown.

We’re officially in the middle of an all-time great Western Conference finals. We’ll recap that, plus look ahead to Formula 1’s Montreal Grand Prix. We also feature Iran soccer star Mehdi Taremi as today’s World Cup spotlight player.

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The hotly contested Western Conference finals are now tied 1-1 after the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the San Antonio Spurs 122-113 last night. After losing its first game of the postseason, OKC received a championship response from MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 30 points to go along with four rebounds and nine assists.

The unsung hero for the Thunder, however, was center Isaiah Hartenstein. After playing only 12 minutes in Game 1, Hartenstein played 27 in Game 2. He also played an incredibly physical defense on San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama, using every grab, hold and push in the book to make life miserable for the Spurs big man. Wemby still finished with a remarkable stat line — 21 points, 17 rebounds and four assists — but he labored through a game he wasn’t able to dominate.