Game Thread Spurs (17-7) vs Thunder (24-1) (Sat 12/13/25) [8:00PM CDT]

[spursparker9]

What if—just hear this out—Mark Daigneault, Sam Presti, Clay Bennett, or any combination of them decided to play mind games with the young Spurs? Pull a classic CIA Pop-style move. What if they intentionally tanke the game to get some rest? Bench the Starters. Do they really care as much as the media and the fans about the all-time regular season record or the NBA Emirates Cup?

Nah impossible. They are definitely going for the NBA record 74-8 and better

 

[spursparker9]

If okc can get away with jdub on Wemby, then SA has some serious problems to fix.

Let's hope Wemby can recall his training with Dream, KG and the shaolin monks and punish these mismatch

 

[Spurs Homer]

It all comes down to fouls…

Okc fouls hard- every trip down the floor…they swipe at ballhandlers and refs swallow their whistles…

The bet they make is that the refs cannot call every foul so every trip on defense are 3-4-5 fouls and no whistles…naturally teams look up at the score and they are down by 18-20 and they are called for fouls but okc is not…

So do the young spurs get frustrated and fight and play as aggressive as okc and force the refs to do their jobs?

Or do they fold and let okc run away with the game?

 

[sKiN20]

This is a 40pt game loss. With wemby shittin the bed.

 

[John B]

Spurs by 7. GSG!!!

 

[spurraider21]

It all comes down to fouls…

Okc fouls hard- every trip down the floor…they swipe at ballhandlers and refs swallow their whistles…

The bet they make is that the refs cannot call every foul so every trip on defense are 3-4-5 fouls and no whistles…naturally teams look up at the score and they are down by 18-20 and they are called for fouls but okc is not…

So do the young spurs get frustrated and fight and play as aggressive as okc and force the refs to do their jobs?

Or do they fold and let okc run away with the game?

People say “OKC fouls every time and the refs can’t call all of them” but this would logically imply they get called for a ton of fouls and should get called for even more.

But they don’t rank that high on foul calls to begin with

 

[Chinook]

People say “OKC fouls every time and the refs can’t call all of them” but this would logically imply they get called for a ton of fouls and should get called for even more.

But they don’t rank that high on foul calls to begin with

Not necessarily. It's more like if the refs had a low enough threshold to call a foul during a normal defensive series for the Thunder, they'd be calling them all the time. So rather than OKC committing 60 fouls and the refs only calling 20 of them, the refs are in a situation where they'd have to either call 60 or only call 10.

I'm not saying that's what's happening here -- I haven't watched the Thunder at all outside of Spurs games for a while now. I'm just saying that's a way for both ideas to be true at the same time. Just like an umpire can establish a strike zone, the refs can establish a threshold of permitted physicality, and with both the conventional wisdom is it's discretionary but should be consistent for both teams. The issue, of course, is that it's not consistent for both teams, or for all 10 players, or for all 48 minutes. Too much of it is finesse and interpretation. Too many make up calls. Too much tolerance for complaining and flopping. The Lakers were embarrassing last night in how much they cried after every bit of contact (and SVG was horrendous for agreeing with them every time and then saying nothing about the Spurs). If that's how SGA is when he doesn't happen to get a call, I am not looking forward to the game on Saturday.

 

[Spurs Homer]

People say “OKC fouls every time and the refs can’t call all of them” but this would logically imply they get called for a ton of fouls and should get called for even more.

But they don’t rank that high on foul calls to begin with

I dont think they get called enough…which would be fine if it went both ways..but every game i see them play the hack away and the opponent gets called for the same fouls that okc does not get called for…

Then the opponent gets discouraged and okc goes up by 20-25 pts and its basically another blowout

If they call both teams evenly- that would be nice- and im hoping the spurs get a fair shake at least ….

On the other hand..i might just be biased against okc? ; )

 

[scott]

People say “OKC fouls every time and the refs can’t call all of them” but this would logically imply they get called for a ton of fouls and should get called for even more.

But they don’t rank that high on foul calls to begin with

Not necessarily. It's more like if the refs had a low enough threshold to call a foul during a normal defensive series for the Thunder, they'd be calling them all the time. So rather than OKC committing 60 fouls and the refs only calling 20 of them, the refs are in a situation where they'd have to either call 60 or only call 10.

I'm not saying that's what's happening here -- I haven't watched the Thunder at all outside of Spurs games for a while now. I'm just saying that's a way for both ideas to be true at the same time. Just like an umpire can establish a strike zone, the refs can establish a threshold of permitted physicality, and with both the conventional wisdom is it's discretionary but should be consistent for both teams. The issue, of course, is that it's not consistent for both teams, or for all 10 players, or for all 48 minutes. Too much of it is finesse and interpretation. Too many make up calls. Too much tolerance for complaining and flopping. The Lakers were embarrassing last night in how much they cried after every bit of contact (and SVG was horrendous for agreeing with them every time and then saying nothing about the Spurs). If that's how SGA is when he doesn't happen to get a call, I am not looking forward to the game on Saturday.

What Chinook is describing is what I've heard Vecenie and Lowe discuss what OKC does.

They play super aggressive and foul a lot, and then set that level of play as the standard which causes the officials to back off on the calls lest they appear that they are calling non-stop fouls on OKC. I think it was Lowe today (but it might have been Vecenie) who mentioned that with the number of fouls called so far this year being up (and indeed, so far this year the average NBA game is has 2.5 more fouls/game compared to last year, which was pretty much on par with the year before) - that the rest of the league has "caught up" to OKC.

Do the numbers show this? Let's see:

Season	OKC Rank Fouls/Gm (1st being most per game)	OKC Fouls/Gm	League Average Fouls/Gm
2025-26	14	20.8	21.1
2024-25	6	19.9	18.6
2023-24	12	18.8	18.7
2022-23	7	21.0	20.0

So last year they definitely fouls a lot more than league average, but this year they are middle of the pack in this year and actually slightly below league average. (For the record, the Spurs are 18th at PV/gm at 20.6... Lakers only get called for 19.4/gm which ranks them 28th. Only CHA and DEN commit fewer fouls)

Even if what Lowe or Vecenie say (sorry I cannot remember which show this week this discussion was had... hell, it might have even been Simmons... I've listened to those 3 this week) is true... it would appear that it was just kind of a one year anomaly?

I have also heard people say that Caruso is the best in the league at playing right on the limit of aggressive physical defense and is a "student of the game" who "knows the rules better than anyone". Probably somewhat true but also kind of sounds like fluff.

 

[inagra]

What Chinook is describing is what I've heard Vecenie and Lowe discuss what OKC does.

Lowe back in the day said Chris Paul did this vs the Warriors (in particular with Steph Curry). Play super physical, set the standard and refs would have to back off.

 

[Fireball]

Just make it interesting. Vegas crowd can be weird with these two teams ... which team will have more fans behind it?

 

[brazil]

Now this is taking one for the team... Spurs are only playing against a 24-1 team, hottest start in the history of the NBA

 

[SpursBills]

A ton of similarities between this OKC team and the 2015-2016 Warriors -

Both relatively young teams with a young big 3 core coming off a title where they were sort of discredited because important players on opponents' teams got injured (Kyrie/Kevin Love vs Haliburton; arguably can count Tatum as well), now coming into the season with a chip on their shoulder

Both at the forefront of a new style of play that's breaking the league (3 point revolution vs horizontal swarming defense)

Both lead by a 27 year old superstar with historic efficiency (Curry's buoyed by his 3P volume, SGA by the way he's officiated)

OKC just needs to lose the finals after a 3-1 lead and get a random injection of elite talent next season (top 3 draft pick? Giannis for picks?) to make history rhyme
Luckily, the current cap makes this much tougher

 

[spursfanfromafar]

A ton of similarities between this OKC team and the 2015-2016 Warriors -

Both relatively young teams with a young big 3 core coming off a title where they were sort of discredited because important players on opponents' teams got injured (Kyrie/Kevin Love vs Haliburton; arguably can count Tatum as well), now coming into the season with a chip on their shoulder

Both at the forefront of a new style of play that's breaking the league (3 point revolution vs horizontal swarming defense)

Both lead by a 27 year old superstar with historic efficiency (Curry's buoyed by his 3P volume, SGA by the way he's officiated)

OKC just needs to lose the finals after a 3-1 lead and get a random injection of elite talent next season (top 3 draft pick? Giannis for picks?) to make history rhyme
Luckily, the current cap makes this much tougher

A bit of a or probably a big difference from 10 years ago - the Warriors were obsessed with the record and ran into fumes by the time they reached the business end of the NBA finals.

The OKCT are playing upto deep bench and are barely breaking a sweat and yet going 24-1. This one seems like a bigger juggernaut than the pre-Durant-bandwagoned Warriors.

 

[Quentin_Compson]

FTs have gone up across the league because there are (unfortunately, in my opinion) more fouls being called this season compared to 2024/25. As for SGA, his FT rate isn't even the highest of his career so far this season, and league wide, his FT rate is only the 14th-highest this season, behind guys such as Jimmy Butler, Avdija, Tre Jones (!), Austin Reaves and Doncic.

 

[timtonymanu]

If both of Duncan's knees weren't cooked and the Spurs didn't run into a terrible matchup with OKC in the 2nd round, they would have beaten the Warriors in 2016. They matched up so well with them. Only 6 wins behind them in the standings. Warriors were exploitable at that time which is why they lost to Cleveland.

OKC is a different monster. We do matchup better against them than most other teams, but they really do not have any weaknesses. I'm excited to see how we look even if they blow us out. They are the team in the way of the Spurs and best to get a mini playoff matchup right now.

Can't wait for the media narrative changes/knee jerk reactions if we lose on Saturday though.

 

[CGD]

It’s almost like we have a small playoff series against these guys coming up, playing them 3 times in 12 days (and a forth in Jan).

 

[brazil]

and some dudes here are not impressed by OKC

 

[CGD]

FTs have gone up across the league because there are (unfortunately, in my opinion) more fouls being called this season compared to 2024/25. As for SGA, his FT rate isn't even the highest of his career so far this season, and league wide, his FT rate is only the 14th-highest this season, behind guys such as Jimmy Butler, Avdija, Tre Jones (!), Austin Reaves and Doncic.

View attachment 82

It’s still pretty high once you take out those low usage guys (Powell, etc).

 

[ginobilized]

The only 2 games I'm missing so far this year was the Lakers age and tomorrow night. Super bummed, but, life does happen occasionally.
Wish I could be here to complain about OKC, complain about the Spurs, celebrate whoever is playing well and maybe, just maybe, celebrate a victory against these self-righteous, hacking bastards. We've beaten them before and tend to play well against better competition.

Give 'em hell Bums!!!

 

[Strategic]

Yeah okc got a team but I’m not gonna sit around for 2 days and slobber over them. A couple of important things for the Spurs chances: Castle and Harper can’t afford early unnecessary fouls cause they gonna be needed for this team to compete late. Second, Chet is not a facilitator, he averages less than 2 assists for his career. Coach needs to figure out a way to take advantage of this.

 

[Strategic]

I’m blacked out on league pass for these 3 Thunder games. Hopefully all 3 will be on ESPN, network or TBS.

 

[scott]

I’m usually not one for “moral victories” type of shit… but if we do lose on Saturday (which it likely) then I do think it will be helpful for this team.

What we’ve seen so far is that this TEAM (which I want to highlight, because they are really coming together in a noticeable way) seems to learn and rebound from their mistakes and shortcomings. I don’t think they’ll lose to OKC and simply take it as “well golly shucks we were just lucky to make it this far”. I think we have a bunch of competitors on this team now who will get hunger from losing to OKC.

I said it before… but this is the true beginning of THE rivalry in the NBA over the next 5+ years

 

[RC_Drunkford]

so it looks like the team stats on NBA.com are not adjusted to 100 posessions, which skews them.

OKC‘s DRtg per 100 possessions is actually 104.7.

The Spurs DRtg per 100 possessions with Wemby is 102.

So we are much closer to them defensively too. We might actually best equipped to beat them.

 

[OK Computer]

If the refs are going to call ticky tack fouls, you might as well be physical about it. I say start Jeremy and make him be dirty around Shai for six fouls. I’m not even kidding. Get in their heads.