Thunder dominates Spurs in a highly anticipated showdown, igniting debate about the NBA's newest, hottest rivalry. Emotions ran high on national TV.
We can finally press pause on that whole Spurs are the Thunder kryptonite chatter.
Oklahoma City exacted a bit of payback with a 119-98 win over San Antonio in the rowdy confines of The Paycom Center on Tuesday night. The blow out victory was a sigh of relief for Thunder fans after seeing their team fall to the Spurs in the previous three meetings this season.
The hype heading into Thunder vs Spurs Part IV was massive. The game was flexed to a national television audience on NBC/Peacock. #1 in the West versus #2 in the West. Chet versus Wemby. The champs versus the up and coming contenders. The Loud City crowd in Oklahoma City cheered and jeered like it was mid-May and not mid-winter. Shoot, even the usually even keeled, cool, calm and collected MVP jawed at his opponent for maybe the first time in his career. The stakes feel higher and the emotions run hotter in these matchups.
Which all leads everyone who watched in the arena or at home or following highlights on social media to draw the same conclusion: it sure feels like the NBA's newest and best rivalry has arrived.
"I don't know, you guys control the rivalry thing. I don't really care to be honest," Jalen Williams said when asked postgame if he thought a rivalry has been born. "Every game feels like a rivalry at some point because we're the defending champs and teams are throwing their best punch at us every game... It's extremely fun to play against them throughout the season. You can feel us making them better and them making us better throughout the course of the season. The rivalry stuff, I don't get caught up into it and all that other stuff. I think the more we talk about it and try to force a rivalry. And like, 'Is it a rivalry?'. If you gotta ask, it probably ain't one yet. That's my mindset going into it. You don't really have to guess if the old Lakers and Celtics was a rivalry or like the Pistons and Bulls were a rivalry cause you just know. So if you gotta ask, probably not yet."
Williams makes a great point. While Thunder vs Spurs has all the makings of a great rivalry, that type of true bad blood between teams, players and fanbases are forged in the grueling, anxiety inducing setting of long playoff battles. San Antonio hasn't even made the playoffs since the 2019-2020 season. Oklahoma City are the champs.
We should put a pin in the rivalry talks for now, but I get the sneaking suspicion we'll have to revisit this conversation in a few months. Or, at least, in three weeks when the Thunder and Spurs face off for the fifth and final time this regular season.