SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The San Antonio Spurs are the hottest team in the NBA just a year removed from two of the worst seasons in franchise history.
So players and fans can be excused for celebrating a win in December like it’s 1999 and their first NBA championship.
San Antonio beat Oklahoma City 130-110 on Tuesday night, handing the Thunder their worst defeat of the season and their second loss to the Spurs in 11 days. It was the Spurs' seventh straight
victory, the league's longest active streak.
Just don’t call the matchup between the teams a rivalry — yet.
“I don’t view it as a budding rivalry,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said of Oklahoma City. “Our group’s been together 25-some-odd games. That team won 16 games in the playoffs (last season) to win a championship. I don’t want to disrespect their program and what they’ve built. We are trying to build something and we’re chasing every other single team in this league.”
The Spurs and Thunder play for the third time in two weeks on Thursday in Oklahoma City.
San Antonio beat Oklahoma City 111-109 on Dec. 13 in the NBA Cup semifinals.
“It is good we get to play them as much as we do because they’re a really good team,” Thunder forward Jalen Williams said.
San Antonio has won 14 of 17, including victories against the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers, and moved into second place in the Western Conference.
Keldon Johnson scored 25 points, Stephon Castle added 24 and Harrison Barnes had 20 on Tuesday as the Spurs pulled within 3 1/2 games of the Thunder atop the West. San Antonio outscored Oklahoma City 43-28 in the fourth quarter, turning a tense game with 15 lead changes and 13 ties into a blowout.
“I think it would have been a great game to watch,” Spurs star Victor Wembanyama said. “I’ll watch it again.”
Wembanyama almost watched the game from the best seat in sold-out Frost Bank Center.
The 7-foot-3 center was downgraded to questionable on Monday as he continues to rehabilitate from a strained left calf that kept him out for 12 games. He was cleared to play a half hour before tipoff and came off the bench for the sixth straight time since returning.
“He’s a really, really good player, but he’s not their whole team at all,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They’ve got a lot of good guys, they’ve got good balance, they’re well coached. They were super sharp tonight. They played with a great sense of purpose and they executed really well.”
The Spurs have had seven different players lead the team in scoring during their longest winning streak since 2015.
“We get it done by committee,” Keldon Johnson said. “Each night it could be somebody different and it has been someone different each and every night. Knowing we have that luxury, that we can have multiple guys that can have a night, but we all understand the team aspect of it that if someone has it going, we’ve got to get him the ball.”
It’s a welcome change for a storied franchise that has fallen on hard times.
The Spurs tied an NBA record with 22 consecutive postseason appearances beginning in 1998, the season before capturing their first of five championships. San Antonio has since missed the playoffs in six straight seasons.
The Spurs finished 34-48 last season after consecutive 22-60 seasons, one loss shy of the franchise's worst record of 21-61 set in 1989. San Antonio has rallied this year, starting with a franchise record 5-0 start.
“It tells me how much better we are from the beginning of the season,” Wembanyama said of Tuesday's win. “We can still get much better, but it means something for sure.”
Until then, Wembanyama dismisses any talk of a rivalry with the reigning champions.
Plus, he knows what a real rivalry is, having grown up watching Paris Saint-Germain face Marseille in soccer.
While the Spurs are still developing, Wembanyama is bringing some of that soccer fervor to San Antonio. He created a super fan group called the San Antonio Jackals.
Following the game, Wembanyama introduced what he hopes is a new tradition he worked on with the Jackals while sidelined with the calf injury.
The Spurs gave Wembanyama a microphone and brought a large bass drum onto the court. Wembanyama asked fans to stand, outstretch their arms and clap once after he pounded on the drum. The pause between each Wembanyama thump of the drum decreased until the Spurs fans were clapping wildly in celebration.
“That was phenomenal,” Barnes said. “I heard about it on the fly. That was great. He may have a career in marketing. The way he got that stadium going, that was great.”
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