I’ve watched my last required game: Give the Spurs the authority to Saint Nick's workshop. Assign Stephon Castle in charge of gift manufacturing. Permit De’Aaron Fox throw presents into chimneys, from any range he’d like. Devin Vassell can decorate the festive biscuits. Barnes has the brigade of assistants covered. And, of course, Santa Claus’s transport must without delay be altered for a more statuesque, slender pilot so that the immense Victor Wembanyama can drive it without issue.
The remarkable San Antonio squad have felled the Thunder on three occasions in two weeks, and in accomplishing this have revitalized this NBA season. I now have greater belief in the team's ability to deliver excitement to the public than any festive tales of old.
An Ominous Opening
It seemed bleak for a period. The Thunder might have won the Larry O’Brien trophy in June, but began this season in even more threatening form. They strung together 24 victories in their initial 25 contests (the lone loss was a freak 20-point rally). In most of them of those games, Jalen Williams, their next best player, was on the sidelines healing from wrist surgery. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, their top player, rarely had to play in the final period. The Thunder beat the Sacramento Kings by 31. The Los Angeles Lakers, who some thought to be a plausible challenger, lost by 29; their basketball savant Doncic appeared as if he was competing with ten men. The Suns' valiant first resulted in a narrow defeat, by just four points. When they met again 12 days later, the Thunder triumphed by 49. This game knocked all the remaining leaves off the trees and started winter 10 days ahead of schedule. Oklahoma City seemed poised to demolishing every team in its path, even the Warriors' fabled regular season record of 73-9.
A Question of Style
The Thunder do not employ a overly appealing style of basketball. They expertly leverage the officials' dilemma over which infractions to call (a constant whistle disrupts the flow of the game, an inconsistent one allows players escape punishment for clear violations), often causing SGA shooting free throws after calls that would be best ignored, while personified pest Caruso seems to have total license to do anything he likes on the defensive end. Some profess to appreciate, SGA contorting his body to draw small touches from defenders; I can only imagine those same people also like being kicked hard in a sensitive area. That’s not to mention man-mountain Dort flying off his feet and into opponents after numerous debatably light touches. This tactics allows detractors to cling to the idea that in a world with ideal officiating, the Thunder would be a average team. True basketball heads know it’s far more exasperating than essential to the Thunder’s success, but the widespread irritation is enough to incline some fans who might otherwise be neutral into supporting Oklahoma City’s defeat.
Dominance can be coldly thrilling to watch, but a historically great performance tends to generate reduced amazement the more times it repeats. How many times does anyone really want to watch one team beat another by 35? In the end you remember that the intrigue is the point. The Thunder were sapping the season of excitement, accumulating leads on other teams in the table as well as on the court.
The San Antonio Response
Through the first half of the first quarter of the initial Spurs-Thunder game this season, San Antonio found themselves behind by 16 and seemed poised to go the identical path as every other team. Instead, they have unleashed chaos on the Thunder ever since.
Against the Spurs, the Thunder look beatable. Each member of their starting lineup deserves significant credit for that, but this is Wemby's team, and the Thunder know it. “There’s this player on their team that’s seven-foot-five and occupies a lot of room on the court,” Williams remarked, with some exasperation, when asked what made the Spurs such a difficult opponent. The Thunder’s tall defender, 7ft 1in Chet Holmgren, is the tallest player on the floor in most games, at liberty to secure boards and reject opposing shots. Next to Wembanyama, he’s smaller, crude, and even hesitant. Wembanyama’s contempt for Holmgren is apparent in how he reacts each time Holmgren misses a free throw, as though he’s scored a major victory; the way he fouls him with a bit of extra venom; the way he told reporters he does not view Holmgren a rival. (There is indeed no question over which player is more talented.) At this rate Holmgren must expect Wemby to burst out of the pantry, taunting, when he stretches for a bite to eat.
A Festive Declaration
The Spurs led by Wembanyama made their most conclusive statement yet on Christmas, defeating the Thunder by 15 on their home floor. San Antonio took the inevitable early surge well yet again, bouncing back to drop 41 points on the league’s best defense in the first quarter. Fox easily found the tiny holes in that defense to the sum of 29 points. The Spurs even limited SGA to a year-low 22. He attempted to offset it by zipping passes to open teammates behind the arc, but they let him down by bricking almost every single attempt.
A Thunder believer would say that a sufficient number of those threes will go in in the future to produce a win or a closer loss, but I found the misses symptomatic of a flaw. Off the back of his fluid stepback jumper, Gilgeous-Alexander is the steadiest scoring engine in the league. He is challenging to guard and extremely difficult to stop. But even he can’t shoulder an offense solely on his own. The Spurs put Gilgeous-Alexander under enough pressure that he had to distribute more than usual, and his supporting parts struggled under the greater burden. Dort and Caruso are good for the sporadic three-pointer, but relying on them to make the long shot is the least desirable situation the Thunder want to be.
Shifting the Balance
The Spurs’ rise couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Not only have they forcefully cemented themselves as title contenders – but they’ve allowed fans to see the Thunder in {higher definition|sharper focus|
