Ever since the start of the 2024-2025 NBA season, the Oklahoma City Thunder looked like the team to beat. With a loaded, tightly-packed Western Conference, ruthless regular season games and playoff series only seemed to produce teams that would eventually fall to the Thunder. Sure, the Nuggets and Pacers gave them a run for their money, but it’s safe to say that OKC’s championship status was far from a surprise.
Entering the 2025-2026 season, narratives that favored the Thunder were still on the rise. A weakened Eastern Conference made a back-to-back championship obtainable. Based on sheer depth, OKC went into the rankings in a tier of their own. And so, with their historic 24-1 start, discussions were a matter of who could take their second crown away.
The first threat was history itself; the last seven championships have been secured by different teams. The second threat was money; SGA, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams will combine for roughly 125 million dollars on the 2026-2027 cap sheet. They will only get more expensive from here.
Then there comes the third. Obviously, if the franchise is not located in Charlotte, Brooklyn, New Orleans, or Washington D.C., the goal is to win and make noise. And boy, did the San Antonio Spurs make noise.
On December 13th, 23rd, and 25th, the Wembanyama-led-Spurs toppled the Thunder by scores of 111-109, 130-110, and 117-102, respectively. The best part? Wemby averaged just over 23 minutes in those matches coming off the bench. The 7’4” demon even clapped in the Thunder’s face after Holmgren’s missed free throw in the first game.
Forget the numbers…taking things from a pure matchup standpoint, the Spurs are built to weather the storm. Wembayama has learned to toss around Holmgren like a kid, as if he wasn’t a 7’1” Defensive Player of the Year candidate. He also brings to the table something that Jokic does not: total two-way domination. His mere presence in the paint is a mode of intimidation, focusing the slashing Thunder to scatter around the perimeter. For a non-basketball fan, at times it looks like a pack of wolves timidly circling a bear…
Sometimes, to conquer the enemy, it means beating them at their own craft. The athleticism from the Spurs’ guards in Fox, Castle, and Harper only add to this; they refuse to get bullied. And now with Wemby’s rim deterrence resulting in a jump shooting drizzle from an inconsistent Thunder squad, the Spurs are showing who can really play their brand of basketball.
Does this totally diminish the functionality of the OKC machine? No. Through the simple re-integration of Jalen Williams, Thunder fans shouldn’t panic about their own team. But for the San Antonio side, beating the defending champions thrice sprinkles realism into winning a playoff series against them. And if they beat the Thunder, the chances are high that the East will fall victim to them as well.
Lastly, after all of these talks on the rise of Wemby, I’ll leave you with a fact: he just turned 22 years old. Think about the discussions that will circle around in just five years. That’s when the real storm will begin. The Spurs have the Thunder’s number, and OKC should expect many calls from number 1 from now on.
