There are nights in the NBA when the score tells the truth long before the final buzzer. Tuesday night in Oklahoma City was one of them.
The San Antonio Spurs’ 119–98 loss to the Thunder was less about one bad stretch and more about a familiar reality: a young team still learning how unforgiving elite competition can be. For a half, the Spurs hung around. After that, they were reminded how quickly things unravel when execution slips.
“We were not sharp tonight,” Spurs Head Coach Mitch Johnson said
after the game. The third quarter is what got away from us, but even in the first half, it felt like there was a lot of uncharacteristic lack of game play and execution. I don’t think we were very sharp from the beginning.”
San Antonio showed early signs of fight. Victor Wembanyama was active around the rim, Stephon Castle attacked with confidence, and the Spurs looked capable of trading punches. Castle, in particular, played with poise beyond his years, finishing with 20 points, eight assists and seven rebounds — the kind of stat line that hints at what the future might hold.
But promise only gets you so far.
Once Oklahoma City turned up the pressure, the cracks widened. The Spurs’ offense stalled into rushed threes and forced passes, a recipe that produced misses and fueled the Thunder’s transition game. San Antonio shot just 13-of-37 from beyond the arc, and many of those attempts came with a hand in the shooter’s face.
The game tilted in the Thunder’s favor decisively in the third quarter. Two separate runs (11-1 and 12-0) blew the doors open, and the Spurs never found a way to respond apart from a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter. Wembanyama finished with 17 points and seven rebounds; his brief exit after a collision didn’t help, but the bigger issue was what has plagued San Antonio all season: Poor shooting and inconistent play when things go sideways.
Case in point: De’Aaron Fox and Harrison Barnes combined for 15 points on 6-16 shooting from the floor. With San Antonio missing Devin Vassell to a groin strain, the Spurs needed all the help they could get. Castle may have had a decent night offensively, but he struggled to control the basketball. San Antonio committed 11 turnovers, and Castle had five of them on his own.
Oklahoma City’s defense made sure of that. The Thunder crowded the paint, challenged everything at the rim, and made up for their own mistakes with blocked shots and getting their hands into the passing lanes. San Antonio’s bench offered flashes — Dylan Harper’s 12 points and Luke Kornet’s work on the glass stood out — but there was no sustained push to change the night’s direction.
This wasn’t a loss that demands panic, but it does demand perspective. The Spurs are building something, and nights like this are part of the tuition. Against a Thunder team built to contend now, San Antonio looked like what it is — a group still learning how to win consistently in this league.
“It’s January in the NBA, and it’s tough,” Johnson said. You look around the league, and this is a month that tests you mentally, physically, and emotionally. These games will help us. These games will be learning experiences that we need to go through, and they will serve us well. It’s our job to make sure we maximize the learning moments from these games.”
The scoreboard was harsh, but the lesson was clear. Growth isn’t linear, and progress sometimes comes wrapped in a 21-point loss.
Game notes
- Wembanyama and Castle spent time grabbing their faces as well as on the ground on Tuesday. It appeared to be part of the OKC game plan to be physical with Wemby, and it worked. “It was a bit much tonight,” Wemby said of the physical nature of the game.
- Harrison Barnes’ rough patch continued on Tuesday as he finished with just two points on 1-of-7 shooting. Another tough moment with Vassell out as San Antonio could have used a big night from their veteran forward.
- The NBA on NBC theme still hits. I just wish the Spurs had more luck when having games on the Peacock network.
