The proverbial ‘Are the Spurs good enough to beat the Thunder in a seven-game series?’ question will likely become somewhat nauseating for the next few months. But it’s fun for basketball. A good rivalry has just been born.
What will happen in May? It’s hard to say. If you ask the Thunder, they didn’t play their best basketball when they lost to the Thunder for the third time this season Thursday.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: “We have to get better as group. You don’t lose to a team three times in a row in a short span without them being better than you.
We have to get better. Look in the mirror, and that’s everybody from top to bottom, if we want to reach our ultimate goal” pic.twitter.com/g6tBBqGhOZ
— Josue Pavón (@Joe_Sway) December 25, 2025
After defeating the Thunder on Dec. 13th, Victor Wembanyama told reporters about what he called the Spurs brand of “pure and ethical basketball”,
“I’m just glad to be part of something that’s growing to be so beautiful — pure and ethical basketball.”
Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama after upsetting the Thunder in the NBA Cup semifinals: “I’m just glad to be part of something that’s growing to be so beautiful — pure and ethical basketball.” pic.twitter.com/AoBAUlTSgs
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) December 14, 2025
Wemby was later asked to expound on that comment, as reported by Marcus Thompson of The Athletic:
“In modern basketball,” he said, “we see a lot of brands of basketball that don’t offer much variety in the dangers they pose to the opponents. Lots of isolation ball and, sometimes, kind of forced basketball. And we try to propose a brand of basketball that can be described as more old-school sometimes — the Spurs way as well. So it’s tactically more correct basketball, in my opinion.”
Victor Wembanyama explains why he said he wants to play “ethical” basketball after beating the Thunder:
“In modern basketball, we see a lot of brands of basketball that don’t offer much variety in dangers they propose to the opponents. Lots of isolation ball and, sometimes, kind… pic.twitter.com/wKdm85UVnu
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) December 15, 2025
The Thunder, who started out 24-2, yes 24 wins and just 2 losses, before losing to the Spurs on Dec. 13th were impressive but boring. More ho-hum Thunder beating everyone. No let up from the Championship. Then Wemby and Co. took them down three straight. The Spurs are now right there now at just 2.5 games back. They meet again Jan. 13th and Feb. 4th 2026.
NBA Standings as of Dec. 26th 2025
SGA for his part doesn’t seem that worried.
“Everybody picks up a basketball and wants to win, and they’re going to test themselves against us,” Gilgeous-Alexander said (via The Oklahoman) after the game.
“Now, the Spurs have passed that test three times in a row. And we’ve failed the test three times in a row.”
