{"id":569265,"date":"2026-01-29T21:01:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/569265\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T21:01:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:01:27","slug":"charles-barkley-breaks-down-why-victor-wembanyama-and-spurs-can-trouble-thunder-but-struggle-against-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/569265\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley Breaks Down Why Victor Wembanyama and Spurs Can Trouble Thunder, but Struggle Against Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most teams have at least 35 games to go before the postseason arrives. But it\u2019s never too early to start thinking ahead to possible playoff matchups.<\/p>\n

During the initial part of the season, it looked like the Thunder were locked to win the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy again. However, they\u2019ve looked much less invincible the past couple of months than earlier, when it looked like the 2015-16 Warriors\u2019 regular-season wins record would be in reach.<\/p>\n

The NBA can thank the Spurs for that. Victor Wembanyama<\/a> and Co. beat OKC three times in two back in December. The Thunder still own the best record in the league, but since their aura of invincibility has been shattered, they\u2019ve also suffered defeats to the Suns, Hornets, Heat, Pacers, and the Raptors.<\/p>\n

The title is still OKC\u2019s to lose, but with those head-to-head wins, the Spurs have elevated themselves. The time for rebuilding in San Antonio is clearly over, and justifiably, they\u2019ve become a trendy title pick. As they say in boxing, though, styles make fights.<\/p>\n

So just because the Spurs might have the upper hand on the Thunder, it doesn\u2019t mean they can just walk through anyone else in the West. Wednesday night, the Spurs picked up a come-from-behind win over fellow Texas contenders, the Houston Rockets. At halftime with the Spurs down, Charles Barkley explained why they\u2019re a better matchup for the Thunder than they are for the Rockets or Nuggets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an easier matchup for them,\u201d Chuck said<\/a> of the Thunder,\u00a0\u201cbecause when they have [Isaiah] Hartenstein out there. He\u2019s a liability on the offensive end, so their guards can pressure, pressure, pressure and funnel everything to Wemby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hall of Famer then explained where the Spurs fall short, pun intended. \u201cThe problem with the Spurs, when they play against [Alperen] Sengun and the Joker [Nikola Jokic], they\u2019re gonna occupy Wemby, and then their team gets really, really small when he has to stay out of the paint,\u201d said Barkley.<\/p>\n

Chuck may have exaggerated a bit by calling Isiaiah Hartenstein an offensive liability, but he may be on to something here. What he\u2019s probably trying to say is the offense doesn\u2019t run through Hartenstein the way it does Alperen Sengun or Nikola Jokic<\/a>. Hartenstein is not nearly the creative playmaker those two are, and the stats bear that out. He only averages 11.2 points and 3.0 assists per game.<\/p>\n

With his size and athleticism, Wemby is the most destructive force not only now, but possibly ever. But Sengun, and especially Jokic, aren\u2019t as bothered by size because they can do so many other things.<\/p>\n

Wemby hasn\u2019t faced Jokic yet this year, though the Spurs did win the lone matchup so far between these teams without the big Frenchman. The game was a 139-136 thriller.<\/p>\n

Last year, they went against each other twice in back-to-back nights, and Jokic seemed completely unfazed as he averaged 43.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 9.5 assists. The teams split 1-1. We\u2019ll see what happens when they meet three times in the season\u2019s final month.<\/p>\n

Wednesday night\u2019s comeback win was an important one for the Spurs. It showed they\u2019re capable of beating the Rockets on the road after Houston held Wemby down and beat them just last week.<\/p>\n

The Western Conference playoffs are going to be an absolute war. And if the standings hold, the Spurs will have to go through two of the three big teams in contention there (the Thunder, Nuggets, and the Rockets). Not to mention another capable team like the Lakers, Wolves, or the Suns.<\/p>\n

Is it already Wemby\u2019s league? We won\u2019t have to wait long to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most teams have at least 35 games to go before the postseason arrives. But it\u2019s never too early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,2001,6,969,474,4075,4074,534,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-569265","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-charles-barkley","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","13":"tag-sanantonio","14":"tag-sanantoniospurs","15":"tag-spurs","16":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115980408384748479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569265","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=569265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}