The top two teams in the Western Conference — and two of the NBA’s biggest stars — square off Wednesday when the Oklahoma City Thunder host the San Antonio Spurs in a Christmas Day matchup.
The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama made a splash in his Christmas debut last year, putting up 42 points in a 117-114 loss to the New York Knicks.
Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA MVP, has never played in a Christmas Day game
“It’ll be fun,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Playing on Christmas Day in itself is a dream come true. I watched the NBA games growing up every single Christmas so that’ll be super fun.
“And then against a really good basketball team that just beat the … out of us, it’ll be fun.”
Two of Oklahoma City’s four losses have come to San Antonio, both in less than two weeks.
That included the Spurs’ 130-110 win on Tuesday in San Antonio.
Wembanyama has been cautious about calling the Thunder a rival — yet. He said the process is one that takes years to build.
“It feels like saying it is a rivalry … is not something that feels natural,” Wembanyama said. “… I hope it will be soon but we’re definitely getting closer.”
Even though the Spurs have beaten the defending champions twice, Wembanyama said his team can’t take Oklahoma City lightly going into their second meeting in three days.
“They’re going to be locked in more than any time before probably,” Wembanyama said. “I know it’s a resourceful team but we’re going to be there too.”
San Antonio comes into the game on a league-best seven-game winning streak, its longest since March 2019.
Wembanyama has come off the bench in six games since returning from missing nearly a month with a calf injury, although one of those games (the NBA Cup championship) doesn’t count for official stats.
In Tuesday’s game, the Spurs outscored the Thunder 20-11 off turnovers and 60-48 in the paint.
Oklahoma City leads the league, averaging 25.0 points off turnovers per game while San Antonio is averaging 18.4.
Since winning 24 of their first 25 games, the Thunder have dropped three of their last five.
On Tuesday, the Spurs shot 57.1% from the floor. No team had shot better than 48.8% against Oklahoma City previously.
“The game is going to look different every night and for me, I just never like to make the excuse of makes and misses being the outcome,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’ve won games where teams have shot well above where they’re expected and we’ve lost games where we shot better than expected. We — especially this basketball group and the guys on this roster that I’m confident in — know how to win a game no matter what makes and misses looks like and getting back to that will help us regardless of who’s hot and who’s not.”
The Thunder are in a Christmas Day game for the first time since 2018.
San Antonio is playing on Christmas for the second consecutive season.
The Thunder are 6-14 all-time on Christmas, though all six wins have come in the nine Christmas Day games since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City.
San Antonio is 5-7 all-time on the holiday, with its last win coming in 2016.
–Field Level Media
