Spurs' Victor Wembanyama ID's What Went Wrong As Rockets Await

Victor Wembanyama blocked 6 shots in the San Antonio Spurs’ 116-104 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday at Frost Bank Center.

He also had 12 points and 13 rebounds. Wembanyama went 10-of-12 at the free-throw line, and his only field goal was an alley-oop from De’Aaron Fox at the third-quarter buzzer, after he missed his first 12 shots.

The opener was the first meeting between the teams since May 30, when San Antonio won Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals 111-103 at Paycom Center. Wembanyama opened that series with 41 points and 24 rebounds in a 122-115 double-overtime win in Game 1.

Oklahoma City went 64-18 last season, the NBA’s best record for a second straight year. The Spurs went 62-20.

Wembanyama said the Spurs cannot get away with the kind of mistakes they made against a team as good as Oklahoma City.

“I don’t know,” Wembanyama said. “The first quarter felt like both teams were figuring things out, doing mistakes. We just did more mistakes, but they didn’t play, they’re the same team, we’re the same team, they didn’t play much more physical or did anything much different. We did many more mistakes, though.”

Officials assessed Fox a Flagrant 1 foul with 9:21 left in the second quarter after he and Chet Holmgren got tangled up in the paint. Wembanyama said he was “trying to pull him away from trouble” in the moments that followed.

Holmgren made both free throws. Kenrich Williams followed with a 3-pointer, and Oklahoma City later stretched its lead to 26. The Thunder led 65-44 at halftime.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson went with Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, and Wembanyama as his starters, the three-guard lineup he settled on during the preseason. Fox, Castle, and Harper played 25 minutes together during the 2025-26 regular season.

A little bit of everything was off for San Antonio on Tuesday, on both ends of the floor.

“I would say we haven’t been good enough to find that out, to find out about this,” Wembanyama explained. “We need to start by playing normal, being our normal selves, before we can jump to conclusions.”

Those five starters opened the third quarter on a 23-9 run. Harper opened the half with two running layups, and Castle’s layup at the 6:05 mark made it 74-67.

As a basketball player, Wembanyama did not feel like himself Tuesday.

“It was defense fueling our offense and our talented guys, guards doing what they do,” Wembanyama said. “It felt more natural in this moment. It felt like offense was [feeding] our defense and vice versa.”

Wembanyama blocked Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the rim with 5:57 left in the third. In the second quarter, he blocked two Holmgren turnaround jumpers 23 seconds apart.

He totaled 197 blocks last season and became the first player to receive every first-place vote for Defensive Player of the Year. He also made the All-NBA First Team and finished third in MVP voting.

The Thunder finished with 10 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points. Wembanyama said Oklahoma City got two offensive rebounds on the same possession at least once.

“I think there were some times where we were really, really good, and we don’t finish the [possession],” Wembanyama said. “Sometimes those moments are loud, when we give them like two offensive boards on the same [possession], or we play great defense, we get the ball off of their hot guys, and we barely do a closeout or we do a bad closeout or we miscommunicate.”

“It’s like they were playing the right way,” Wembanyama continued. “I’m sure they were having fun tonight. They were making the extra pass, and we weren’t making the extra effort.”

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 32 points on 13-of-27 shooting. Jared McCain scored 20 points and went 6-of-8 from deep.

San Antonio plays the Houston Rockets on Friday at 8:30 p.m. CT at the Moody Center in Austin.