{"id":494902,"date":"2025-12-25T08:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T08:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/494902\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T08:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T08:54:12","slug":"game-preview-san-antonio-spurs-vs-oklahoma-city-thunder-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/494902\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs vs Oklahoma City Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">I\u2019m not sure what to write on the heels of the Silver and Black handing the Thunder a 20-point loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Is it odd that the league scheduled a set of back-to-back games against the Thunder, especially since the intention was obviously to make Spurs v. Thunder a marquee Christmas event? Yes, yes it is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On the other hand, I don\u2019t think the league counted on San Antonio seemingly having Oklahoma City\u2019s number as they have so far. Which is also odd, because why would you want these teams on national television if you fully expect one of them to kick the other one around?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">I\u2019d like to credit the league office with anticipating what the Spurs have become\/are becoming, but I don\u2019t buy it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">All I think is that they were hoping to stir the Wemby v. Chet narrative a bit more, and man, has that backfired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Even in limited minutes, Wemby has done everything he can to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Wemby_Muse\/status\/2003664132273508833\" rel=\"nofollow\">visibly humiliate<\/a> Chet Holmgren, and has mostly succeded. Nothing about it feels like Ali\/Frazier or Foreman\/Ali. More like Tyson\/Spinks if you ask me. Tyson\/Holmes, at best.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Still, 2-0 is just holding down home court in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">These young Spurs, fiery though they are, still have more to prove, and will face the defending champs on their home court (where they are still undefeated this season), in one of the biggest regular-season games of the year, still smarting after a pretty public spanking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Chances are, they\u2019re going to be locked in. Chances are, they\u2019ll be out for blood, as whispers about their resolve and their championship fortune against the Pacers (and their defensive officiating) have grown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">They\u2019re going to want to halt the idea that the Spurs have their number from gaining further momentum, or giving other teams a blueprint for how to beat them. I\u2019d expect them to come out hot, and then we shall see exactly what these Spurs have in them when the tides turn, and the odds seem stacked against them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">So far, the Thunder are 0-2 against the Spurs. There\u2019s no way that they like that. There\u2019s no way that they\u2019re happy about not having a rebuttal for Wemby\u2019s commentary on \u201cethical basketball\u201d indirectly skewering them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">They may have taken this Spurs team lightly in the recent past, but no longer. Now the real games commence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And as for the Spurs, well, a third win would not only give them the season series against the Thunder, it would also serve as an incredibly public confirmation of something monstrous slouching towards the Larry O\u2019Brien once more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.poundingtherock.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Antonio Spurs<\/a> (22-7) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (26-4)<\/p>\n<p>December 25th, 2025 | 1:30 PM CT<\/p>\n<p>Watch: ABC\/ESPN | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Thunder Injuries: Thomas Sorber &#8211; Out (Knee), Nikola Topic &#8211; Out (Cancer), Ajay Mitchell &#8211; Out (Concussion), Jaylin Williams &#8211; Out (Foot), Ousmane Dieng &#8211; Out (Calf)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m not sure what to write on the heels of the Silver and Black handing the Thunder a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,6,969,474,4075,4074,534,5595],"class_list":{"0":"post-494902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-san-antonio","11":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","12":"tag-sanantonio","13":"tag-sanantoniospurs","14":"tag-spurs","15":"tag-spurs-game-previews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115779368622767694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}