OffRtg: 118.0 (7) DefRtg: 113.8 (14) NetRtg: +4.2 (8) Pace: 100.9 (16)

The Spurs went 9-3 during Victor Wembanyama’s absence, but they’re in the Emirates NBA Cup final because he was back in uniform on Saturday and helping them put an end to the Thunder’s 16-game winning streak.

Three takeaways

1. The win on Saturday was the Spurs’ worst offensive game of the season (111 points on 106 possessions), but it was also the Thunder’s worst (109 on 107). Oklahoma City scored just 40 points on 48 possessions (shooting 4-for-13 in the paint) in Wembanyama’s 21 minutes on the floor. The Spurs have now allowed 110.7 per 100 in the 13 games he’s played and just 104.3 per 100 in his 437 minutes on the floor.

2. The Lakers lead the league in free-throw differential, but the Spurs handed them their worst differential (29-17) of the season on Wednesday. San Antonio has seen the league’s third biggest jump in free throw rate from last season, with Wembanyama (from 22.1 to 41.4 attempts per 100 shots from the field) and Stephon Castle (from 34.8 to 52.0 per 100) having seen the third and seventh biggest jumps among 120 players with at least 200 field goal attempts in each of the last two seasons.

3. Their three games last week were the first three games in which the Spurs had Castle, De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper all in uniform. They haven’t had all three on the floor together, but each player has had their moments. Harper (on the floor instead of Castle) had the game-winning bucket in New Orleans, Castle scored an efficient 30 points (while also guarding Luka Dončić) in L.A., and Fox had the first six points on the critical, 13-0 run to close the first half against the Thunder.

Coming up: The Cup final will come against an even better offense than that of the Thunder, and the Knicks are more of a jump-shooting team than Oklahoma City. But Wembanyama’s presence in the paint should help the Spurs defend the 3-point line better, with the corners being particularly important on Tuesday. The Knicks’ 5 corner 3s per game would be the most for any team in the 47-year history of the 3-point line, and they were 8-for-15 from the corners in their Christmas win over the Spurs (the last game Wembanyama played vs. New York) last year.