After it looked like the Oklahoma City Thunder would steamroll the rest of the NBA on their way to a second championship, the San Antonio Spurs spent the last two weeks rising from the field as the first true challenger who could prevent that.

For the first time since Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ascended into an MVP-caliber player, the Thunder have lost three in a row to the same opponent. Losses to the Spurs in the NBA Cup semifinals, Festivus and Christmas Day have sounded the alarms.

At least through right now, the Thunder can’t figure out the Spurs. The toothpaste is officially out of the tube — OKC has gone from a team that could flirt with 73-plus wins to a team that could be bounced in the playoffs because of Victor Wembanyama and company.

After a couple of days mulling over the three losses, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault reflected on their Christmas Day loss — which was the first time they’ve lost at home since Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

The Thunder have two more matchups aligned with the Spurs for the rest of the 2025-26 regular season — at OKC on Jan. 13 and at San Antonio on Feb. 4. But even if they grab both games, this two-week stretch will cloud over them the rest of the way.

Here’s what Daigneault had to say about OKC’s losses to the Spurs as they continue to move along with the 2025-26 regular season:

Spurs were the better team

“I’m very careful after the game not to discredit the opponent. Every single win is an earned win. They earned the win. To simplify it down to the makes and misses would be oversimplifying and taking credit for the fact that they came in here and got that game with unbelievable collective will and collection. Hat tip to them.”

Offensive process was fine

“I thought our offensive process live and looking at the film, was better at home than at San Antonio. At San Antonio, we didn’t score the ball very well because we didn’t get good shots. Here, we got good ones that didn’t go down. We just got to have the discipline to double down on that and just trust over time that’ll regress to the mean. We’ll win more than we don’t when we do that.”

Defense, on the other hand

“Their shooting performance had to do with our defense. They did not feel us the same way that a lot of the opponents do. That’s a credit to them and the way they attacked. It doesn’t come down to makes or misses. They earned the win. They deserved to win. We have no problem acknowledging that.”

Mark Daigneault on reflecting on their 2 recent losses to the Spurs: “I thought our offensive process live and looking at the film, was better at home than at San Antonio. At San Antonio, we didn’t score the ball very well because we didn’t get good shots. Here, we got good ones… pic.twitter.com/6at9amej6Z

— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) December 27, 2025