OKLAHOMA CITY — The NBA’s balance of power is shifting before our eyes. Rarely does the schedule create a moment in time where things can change so swiftly. Typically, it takes an injury or a trade to make things feel holistically different in the NBA.
But the Spurs’ three wins over the Thunder in 12 days are undeniably … something. A protracted simulation of a playoff series between the two top teams in the West has undeniably concluded that the Spurs are ready to live in the same stratosphere as the defending champions.
“You don’t lose to a team three times in a row, in a short span, without them being better than you.” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “So we have to get better. We have to look in the mirror, and that’s everybody, from top to bottom, if we want to reach our ultimate goal.”
The Spurs are making a case that they are the best team in the NBA right now. They’ve notched two consecutive wins over the Thunder that ended in garbage time, one on their home floor and one on Oklahoma City’s. They have three guards that can run the offense effectively for 48 minutes, none of whom is even their best player. Victor Wembanyama, still on a minutes limit after returning from a calf injury, isn’t even close to playing his best.
“We’re never going to let the talent of one guy take away from the collective,” Wembanyama said after the Spurs’ 117-102 Christmas Day win over the Thunder. “That’s what allows us to beat great teams like that.”
San Antonio is not at the top of the league right now because it had a good few weeks. It’s because the Spurs haven’t stopped growing since the season started, and still have so much more room to evolve.
The Thunder were off to the best start in NBA history not too long ago. Now, they come out the other side of this gauntlet just 2.5 games ahead of their renewed rivals in San Antonio.
The Spurs gifted the basketball world a sense of suspense for the rest of the season, a feeling that there is a true challenger to the throne this season with unquestioned credentials. While San Antonio is well ahead of schedule in its ascension, the Spurs’ success appears sustainable.
Wembanyama’s month-long absence with a left calf strain, timed with De’Aaron Fox’s season debut, afforded the Spurs a chance to find their offensive identity. Wembanyama has effectively worked his way back into the rotation without stepping in the way of a well-oiled machine. The result is a team that has no drop-off point, no lull that lets the opponent back into the game, even if that opponent is the Thunder, the paragon of consistent basketball.
The Spurs have been fairly consistent in their message of downplaying the significance of this string of wins over the top dog in the league. But that processing is preceded by a brief moment of self-adulation. They recognize that the Thunder beat teams through consistency and longevity.
But that’s exactly what the Spurs have done to flip the script.
“It’s not just that [the Thunder] win games, it’s the way that they win games and they just wear teams down,” said Fox, who had a game-high 29 points Thursday. “Just being able to withstand that and withstand the runs that they have and then go on runs of our own, I think that’s the more impressive part and that’s what we’re happy about.”
Wembanyama, who had 19 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes, explained that the Spurs are defined by their objective to manipulate the opponent’s weakness. “What matters is to press where it hurts on the defense,” he said.
As the game carried on Thursday, Wembanyama’s role on the current version of this team started to materialize.
The point guard triumvirate of Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper has made it easy for Wembanyama to take a backseat in the offense, giving him time to study coverages and figure out where his gravity can be useful. There were times that he would give a signal to a teammate to ad-lib a quick action, but sometimes he just improvises on his own and the other Spurs try to figure out how to work with it.
There was a peculiar moment late in the game, when Wembanyama started dribbling a bit haphazardly right toward Harrison Barnes in the corner. With nowhere left to go, he just tossed the ball to Barnes and started clapping as he ran toward the basket. The veteran wing lofted the ball just over the defense, hitting Wembanyama on the roll. The center dropped the ball, but then just picked it up and reached out to dunk the ball in a way only he can.
It was messy, but it was with intention.
“Sometimes, I still have these (moments) where it’s like kind of crazy or not as much under control,” Wembanyama said. “But it used to be much more and, now, it’s much more conscious.”
It was the kind of haphazard, yet effective basket he creates multiple times a night. It’s sloppy, it’s confounding, but it works. There were shades of Thunder MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in there with the way he hit the deck, stretching himself thin enough that he got somewhere nobody else can reach.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson compared it to how Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and Gilgeous-Alexander do things that their teammates haven’t quite seen before. It takes some time to learn how these stars’ instincts work.
These improvisational reads epitomized Wembanyama’s fit into the Spurs’ system, where there are a litany of guards roaming the paint and wings living out in the corners. He can be the connective tissue because of the way he manipulates the space around him. Now that the Spurs have gotten away from planting him in the post, he is finding more ways to work his way into the flow of the offense. It’s made them consistent enough to out-execute the consistency kings in Oklahoma City.
“His willingness to just play the game and execute whatever the game is calling upon has been the most impressive,” Johnson said. “I think that is what will continue to grow over time, is just the pattern recognition of what they are trying to take away from us or dictate on their terms, and then how he can help manipulate things and create advantages for himself and our team.”
That kind of connectivity is built before the game starts. Wembanyama said winning is a symptom of everything that happens behind closed doors. The Spurs are happy to come to work and the fun yields competitive basketball.
So now he is feeling something new. He’s winning at a rate he’s never experienced in the NBA, and feeling that dopamine rush more than ever.
“Each game is so intense, and it takes so much from you as a person, that the reward is just incredible,” Wembanyama said. “I don’t know whatever molecule it is in the brain or in the blood, what hormone, but it just feels incredible.”