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Tim MacMahon
OKLAHOMA CITY — On Christmas Day, after losing to the same foe three times in a span of 12 days, reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander flatly stated that the San Antonio Spurs had proven to be better than the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The defending champions responded with a 119-98 home win Tuesday night in the latest rematch between the top two teams in the Western Conference standings.
That rout prompted Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored a game-high 34 points, to reach another simple conclusion.
«Tonight’s result tells us that when we play a certain way, with a certain sense of urgency, with a certain sense of force, aggressiveness, and attention to detail, it doesn’t matter who is on the other side,» Gilgeous-Alexander said. «Nothing that I didn’t expect. I knew that if we played a certain way, we’d be able to beat anybody in the world.»
The Thunder acknowledged that the atmosphere at the Paycom Center had a heightened sense of intensity because of the upstart Spurs’ success against them this season.
San Antonio snapped Oklahoma City’s 16-game winning streak with a 111-109 win in the NBA Cup semifinal on Dec. 13, which was only the Thunder’s second loss after a record-tying 24-1 start.
The Spurs followed that with a pair of convincing victories in a three-day span: a 30-point rout in San Antonio on Dec. 23 and the 15-point win in Oklahoma City on Christmas. That prompted widespread discussion about Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs emerging as rivals to Oklahoma City’s potential dynasty.
But Tuesday night’s was a much more typical outing for the Thunder (34-7), who have an average margin of plus-13.2 points, putting them on pace to break the NBA record for point differential Oklahoma City set during its 68-win campaign last season. Physical, smothering defense fueled efficient offense as Oklahoma City blew the game open by outscoring San Antonio by a 40-24 margin in the third quarter.
«Every game feels like a rivalry at some point because we’re defending champs and teams are throwing their best punch at us every single game,» said Thunder forward Jalen Williams, who scored 20 points. «But I will say this team makes us play 48 minutes of basketball to where we’ve got to really pay attention, and it’s extremely fun to play against them throughout the season. You can feel like us making them better and them making us better throughout the course of the season as we’re playing. But the rivalry stuff, I don’t get caught up into it.»
The Thunder’s fan base, on the other hand, certainly seems to feed into the rivalry.
Wembanyama, in particular, was frequently booed throughout the course of the game. The crowd took exception to a few foul calls that in Wembanyama’s favor when he ended up sprawled out the court, but Oklahoma City’s physical defense took a toll on the 7-foot-4 center, who scored only seven of his 17 points and grabbed only two of his seven rebounds in the second half.
«Of course they came prepared, but I don’t think they changed too many things,» Wembanyama said. «They trusted their own identity.»
The Thunder were especially effective attacking the basket despite the presence of Wembanyama, the NBA’s premier shot blocker. Oklahoma City finished with 56 points in the paint.
The Thunder made 10 of 14 shots (71.4%) that were contested by Wembanyama, a stark contrast to going 16-of-39 (41.0%) on such attempts in the first three meetings between the teams, according to GeniusIQ. That was by far the highest field goal percentage allowed on contested shots by Wembanyama this season.
«It’s never about the other team,» said Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 16 points in the paint. «It’s always about us. We’ve gotten to where we’ve got because we’ve focused on ourselves.»
