NBA Cup 2025: Behind Victor Wembanyama, Spurs end Thunder win streak, advance to Cup title game
The conventional wisdom around the NBA is that Oklahoma City is the present, while San Antonio is the future.
Victor Wembanyama has other ideas.
In his return after missing a dozen games with a calf strain, Wembanyama scored 22 points, grabbed nine rebounds and was +21 in 22 minutes of play, sparking the Spurs to a dramatic win and ending the Thunder’s 16-game winning streak in one of the best games of the season.
San Antonio has advanced and will take on New York in the Emirates NBA Cup championship game on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
It wasn’t just Wembanyama; it was the Spurs guards — who lifted the team to a 9-3 record while Wemby was out — who stepped up. De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle each also had 22 points. All of them, including Wemby, came through in the clutch against the defending champs.
“Some people are built for these moments. Some people aren’t. We definitely are,” Wembanyama said of the young Spurs team.
As they have seemingly done to everyone of late, the Thunder got out to an early lead thanks to their defense, which held the Spurs to 34.6% shooting and 20 points in the first quarter. OKC led by 11 after one, behind 10 points from SGA. They eventually pushed that lead up to 16.
These Spurs would not go quietly.
One thing that changed was Wembanyama. While he was available, a minutes limit meant he came off the bench for the first time in his career, and coach Mitch Johnson didn’t put him in until the second quarter.
“As soon as Vic came in, he had the impact that we needed,” said Devin Vassell, who scored 23 points on the night.
Wemby sparked the comeback, and behind him the Spurs ended the first half on a 13-0 run that set up a riveting second half of basketball.
It was more than just Wembanyama. The Spurs also defended well as a team and used player motion to get some quality looks against the Thunder.
“I thought for stretches of the game, they played really well without him, too,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I didn’t think it was isolated to him. I thought that was a great team win for them. They won as a team. A lot of their guys played well.”
Much like they did the last time they were in Las Vegas — losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Cup Finals a year ago — the Thunder had a rough shooting night. OKC was 9-of-37 (24.3%) from 3-point range. While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked every bit the MVP on his way to a game-high 29 points, take him out of the equation and the Thunder shot just 37.7% from the field. Jalen Williams was 5-of-16 and Lu Dort was 1-of-7.
Oklahoma City falls to 24-2 on the season, the second-best record in NBA history through 26 games (trailing the 25-1 2016 Golden State Warriors).
Isaiah Hartenstein returned after missing six games with a calf strain, which meant for the first time this season Daigneault had his ideal starting five healthy and together. That lineup got them off to a fast start and was +1 for the game in a little over 10 minutes of action.
Two of the Thunder’s next five games are against the Spurs, so we’re going to see more of this matchup — and those have become must-watch games.
But first, the Spurs have to play for the NBA Cup.
