Can the reigning champs finally conquer their rivals? Or will the young Spurs continue their dominance in this anticipated rematch?
Every once in awhile, the fourth installment in a series lives up to or even surpasses its predecessors.
Mad Max: Fury Road.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.
Rocky IV.
Hey, don't laugh. That Ivan Drago versus Apollo Creed fight completely wrecked one unnamed Thunder RoundTable writer when he or she was a kid.
Point being, there is some historically based hope that Oklahoma City Thunder versus San Antonio Spurs IV may meet expectations when the top two seeds square off at The Paycom Center on Tuesday night. While the first game in the season series turned into an instant classic, the following two sequels were more Speed 2: Cruise Control and Batman & Robin than The Godfather II and The Empire Strikes Back.
Game 1 ended in a close, back and forth 111-109 win for the Spurs in the NBA Cup Semifinals in Las Vegas. At the time, OKC was considered nearly unbeatable. In a way, it was the coming out party for Victor Wembanyama and Friends to a national audience.
Most NBA observers expected the Thunder to exact some revenge in the rematch. Wrong. Game 2 resulted in the Spurs blowing out the defending champs 130-110 in San Antonio.
Surely, Christmas Day just two days later in Oklahoma City would be the game where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren punched back. Nope. Game 3 saw the Spurs hand the Thunder their first home loss of the year to the tune of a 117-102 final score.
One might think one team being up 3-0 on the other would diminish some of the buzz around Game 4. Negative. This is still the #1 seed in the West vs the #2 seed in the West. This is still the unicorn vs the alien. The NBA flexed the game to a national television audience on NBC/Peacock. The entire hoops world wants to see if the champs can finally knock off their sudden rivals or if the young upstarts are truly a contender and OKC's kryptonite.
"I haven't thought about it but since we're here. Yep, we gotta win. Just like every other night," Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said during Sunday night's postgame when asked about the upcoming matchup with the Spurs. "You wake up and you want to win a basketball game. Now obviously, it's a very good team who's gotten the better of us recently. Should be a fun one, should be competitive. We gotta go out there and do the necessary things to win a game and if not, we'll most likely lose."
For the sake of OKC fans, let's hope the Thunder are playing the part of Rocky Balboa and the Spurs portray Ivan Drago in Part IV of this series.