As Luke Kornet set a screen, that was enough for Stephon Castle to get ahead of Jalen Williams. He trapped the All-NBA player with a jail dribble as he waited for him to catch up from behind. A bump later, the 21-year-old drew the and-one bucket.

The Oklahoma City Thunder learned they have a San Antonio Spurs problem after their 117-102 loss on Christmas. In less than two weeks, the reigning NBA champion has lost to the up-and-coming squad three times. Pretty unprecedented stuff for this iteration.

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Hoping to go back-to-back, the Thunder have learned of their first real challenger. The Spurs have surprised the NBA with their acceleration of a rebuild to a title contender. Victor Wembanyama gets all of the headlines, but a perfect mix of youth and veterans has forced folks to wonder if they’re OKC’s Kryptonite.

Sounds familiar?

The Thunder were in the Spurs’ sneakers just two seasons ago. As Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ascended into a perennial MVP candidate, OKC won 57 games and grabbed the first seed on the final day of the 2023-24 regular season. Eventually, they lost to the Dallas Mavericks in Round 2 of the NBA playoffs.

That said, the Thunder had arrived. No longer were they a rebuild team. They were back to being a contender that eventually steamrolled the rest of the league and captured the 2025 NBA championship. After a third loss to San Antonio, Jalen Williams sees a younger version of OKC in it.

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“There’s this guy on their team that’s 7-foot-5 and takes up a lot of space on the court. That’s that defensively. And offensively, they play as a team. They kinda remind me of our second year,” Williams said. “How together they play and figuring that out as a team. They all do well in their role and are OK with that. Which is fun to play against and definitely gives us a lot to learn from in regards to that. That’s pretty cool to see it. It sucks to be on the other end but watching a team over the course of basketball history that’s figured out how to improve.”

I don’t think the comparison is too far-fetched. Of course, everything starts and stops with Wembanyama. He’s universally seen as a top-five player. But Castle’s leap has been huge for them. Dylan Harper has been an energy boost off the bench. And then the veterans have perfectly fit in with De’Aaron Fox, Harrison Barnes and Luke Kornet.

You can see how advantageous their slightly younger roster is compared to OKC’s. Armed with speed and athleticism, they sliced through their league-best defense like it was cheese. The Thunder’s defense degraded from all-time special to elementary levels. No other team has done that to them on that side of the ball.

We’ll see what happens in the NBA playoffs. Typically, teams need a few battle scars with each step they take. Ask OKC. But no doubt about it — San Antonio has risen as the first team that could dethrone OKC. These last two weeks have shown they’re a matchup nightmare until proven otherwise.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Jalen Williams says Spurs’ ascension remind him of 2024 Thunder