Well, well, well. The San Antonio Spurs are proving that the Oklahoma City Thunder are not so mighty after all. The Christmas Day victory marks their third against them in 12 days and eight in a row, which has given them a ton of street cred, as they got it done in style. De’Aaron Fox was the best player on the floor in the first half, but a bunch of guys had their moments on the glittering stage.
By game 30 (23-7), teams have established their identity, and so far, the Spurs are a heavyweight contender
who handed the Thunder their first lump of coal at home this year. Notably, one of the most memorable highlights came at the post-game presser, when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said, “You don’t lose to a team three times in a row in a short span without them being better than you.”
Smart players pass up the good looks for the great ones, and there aren’t many better than giving it to an unguarded Dylan Harper. He was a blur in transition and maneuvered his way into the lane easily. This is also one of the handful of possessions that highlight Victor Wembanyama’s great instincts, too. As the years go by, they’ll have innumerable connections, but this one was the fourth between them.
You know, for such a great defensive team, the Thunder have too many sequences not seeing the ball and man at the same time. Aside from going up 16 points going into the fourth quarter, this type of play from Keldon Johnson emotionally rallied the troops, keeping them fierce for what was left. It wasn’t his night to be the hot reserve as he only had nine points, but he’s always playing hard and impacting the game in other ways, like grabbing seven rebounds.
It’s always special when someone gets the reigning MVP on a highlight. Here, it felt like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was thinking to himself, “No he won’t”, but Devin Vassell nailed it in his eye. Vassell missed everything after that, but he built enough goodwill on that and played most of the second-half minutes. This was only his fourth game this year logging below 10 points.
Wemby naturally play with a lot finesse, but he hasn’t been slacking in his strength training. It allows him to throw his weight around with extra ease and it’s too much for most opponents. Aside from barreling through the lane for a mean putback, he also used his power to establish position on his face-up moves. This was his sixth game coming off the bench, and his third double-double in that span. He didn’t need to be the overwhelming force and knew when to take step back when others were in a groove.
Castle had four turnovers because he got too ambitious with his passing, but when you play high-level defense like him and score so efficiently, the blunders don’t weigh so much. He also threw some fine passes.
It doesn’t matter that Fox only had eight points on 37.5 percent shooting in the second half; the Spurs have a surplus of weapons anyway, and his early work set the mood in his Christmas Day debut. He weaved through traffic like a master Formula pilot and nailed shots at short, middle and long range. It was a big-time response from him as he was held to six points on Tuesday against the same opponent.
Finally, here are the complete highlights.
