After two victories on December 14 and 24, San Antonio beat the defending champions Thunder for the third time in a row, with a big success at the Paycom Center, the first in Oklahoma. A series that seems to change the cards in the race for the NBA title.
Back-to-back-to-back. The Spurs defeated the Thunder again, for the third time this season, even though OKC is the leader of the Western Conference. After being +17 at the end of the third quarter, Victor Wembanyama’s teammates were caught and Oklahoma was only -9. The Frenchman, vital defensively and omnipresent in the paint on both sides, finished the match with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 2 assists. The Spurs thus consolidated their 2nd place in the Western Conference (23 wins – 7 losses), behind Oklahoma City, which has 26 wins for 5 losses, including 3 against the new Texan rival.
It was “Wemby” – greeted by the whistles of the local arena – who weighed in during his entry in the middle of the first quarter to allow San Antonio to finish with an 11-0 run in a match with a lot of success on both sides and very few lost balls. Only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finds the fault in front of him and pushes him back before shooting from mid-distance (34-28). Which was not enough for the Thunder to lead at the end of the first quarter, which ended 41-36 in favor of… the Spurs.
Wembanyama with limited but valuable playing time
Wemby continues his encounter without forcing and places an authoritarian tap dunk on Hartenstein’s head (43-49). Barnes scores three points in a catch and shoot straight away to drive the point home and allow the Spurs to take the lead at +13. The number 1 of San Antonio is still missing three points, but can count on De’Aaron Fox for yet another mid-distance basket, he will score 29 in total. 60-69 at the break, thanks to great efforts from Gilgeous-Alexander (16 pts) to prevent OKC from sinking.
San Antonio maintained a serious gap throughout the 2nd quarter and resisted the hot atmosphere in Oklahoma, which died down at the start of the 3rd. And it’s even Wemby who shines with the pass for Harper, who concludes with a powerful dunk under the circle for the +17 basket. And even if at the end of the match, Caruso wakes up to give some slight hope to his team, the premature exit of SGA says everything about the ambitions of an OKC which admits defeat.
Wembanyama even indulges himself, offering himself a 3-pointer off the screen, then a rebound and a tap on the following action, to score 11 rebounds, 19 points at the end of the game, 2 assists and 1 block, despite limited playing time. Fox was strong in the first half (29 pts), Castle valuable to finish the job (19 pts, 7 assists). Canadian MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander completely shut down after halftime and was contained to 22 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, in a match where the Thunder were clumsy from afar (11 out of 44 at 25%).
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