The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Houston Rockets, and Victor Wembanyama understands that in-state games have a bit more weight than most regular-season showdowns.
This season, the NBA is billing the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder as the top rivals in the entire league. Of course, the Spurs' win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday cemented Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards as rivals, and the Spurs' in-state beef with both the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets remains intense.
The Spurs blew a 16-point lead to the Rockets on Tuesday, dropping the game 111-106 and letting Houston even up the season series. Both teams have superstars, elite defenders, and a promising young core, so the Spurs and Rockets will be a must-watch matchup for the next several seasons.
As the Spurs prepare to take Houston on again next week, Wembanyama looked back on some of the battles the two teams have had.
Spurs/Rockets Rivalry Runs Deep#
The Rockets hold a 3-1 playoff lead over the Spurs all-time, although the Spurs have won five titles since Houston last made the NBA Finals. Historically, these are two of the better teams in the NBA, and their current rebuild/competitive windows seem to be following the same timeline.
Basically, Wembanyama and Alperen Sengun will get to have more than their fair share of battles.
Wemby is constantly surrounded by Spurs' legends like David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili, who all had high-profile games against the Rockets. However, Wembanyama picked up on the intricacies of the rivalry while training with the greatest Rocket ever.
"I got to learn a little more about that when I worked with Hakeem," said Wembanyama of the Spurs/Rockets rivalry. "I watched some clips in the games, you know, of the payoffs between the Spurs and the Rockets. I mean, I know it's two great teams."
The Rockets got the better of Wembanyama in the most recent game, holding him to just 14 points and 0-for-7 shooting from deep. Still, he knows he'll get a chance at revenge sooner rather than later.
"It's a more interesting matchup than the average, I would say," Wembanyama explained in French. "It's also a game that you play four times a year per season, so it's not like the final of the league, but it's definitely a very interesting rivalry."
If the playoffs started today, the Spurs and Rockets wouldn't meet until the Western Conference Finals, but there's a lot of basketball left to be played, and a postseason matchup can't be counted out.