The Oklahoma City Thunder seemed invincible. The defending NBA champions have won 24 of their first twenty-five games of the 2025-2026 season, tying the Golden State Warriors’ best start to a season in ten years.
Nota bene, in that 2015-2016 championship, Steph Curry ended the regular season with a record of 73/9, a record that has not been broken since then. It is a different matter that they then lost the championship final 4-3 against the Cleveland Cavaliers led by LeBron James, moreover, from a 3-1 lead.
Well, on Saturday night, the Thunder hosted the San Antonio Spurs on a neutral court in Las Vegas in the NBA Cup semifinals. As mentioned, the Thunder were 24/1, the Spurs were 17/7. There is no question as to who is the most likely, although the chances of the guests were improved by the fact that the brilliant French midfielder Victor Wembanyama appeared for the game after a 12-game forced rest. True, he hadn’t started yet, but he was already sitting on the bench.
A taste of Wemby’s movements
And at the start of the second quarter, when he took off his headband to signal that he was entering the game, the crowd went wild. Wemby came in, and although the management limited his minutes due to his injury, he scored 22 points in 21 minutes, pulled down 9 rebounds, dished out 2 assists, had a steal and two blocks, was 6/11 from the field, and the + value was +21, which means that the Spurs won by 21 points in the 21 minutes he spent on the court.
By the way, Wemby is a full-blooded polymath, plays chess well, reads passionately, is interested in the arts, paints well and speaks a bunch of languages. Oh, and he does judo and is an excellent soccer goalkeeper!
The Texans won the game 111-109, and thus the team qualified for Tuesday’s finals, where they will face the New York Knicks, who defeated the Orlando Magic 132-120. For the Knicks, Jalen Brunson scored a season-high 40 points.
NBA-giving
semi-finals:
- San Antonio Spurs–Oklahoma City Thunder 111–109
- Ld.: Vassell 23, Wembanyama, Fox and Castle 22-22, respectively. Gilgeous-Alexander 29, Holmgren and J. Williams 17 each, Caruso 11, Hartenstein 10.
- New York Knicks–Orlando Magic 132–120
- Ld.: Brunson 40, Towns 29, Anunoby 24, Bridges 16, Hart 22, ill. Suggs 26, Banchero 25, Bane 18, Carter 14, Black 12.
(Cover photo by Victor Wembanyama on December 13, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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