A moment of Zen about the Spurs’ opening night loss to the Thunder

The Spurs are tied for last place with a bunch of bad teams. Other winless teams the Spurs are tied with include the Bulls, Bucks, Nets, Pelicans, Suns and Kings. Not a group to be associated with. The Spurs are also tied with the “world champion New York Knicks”. Feels odd to write those words after 53 years. And because of Tuesday’s night’s game, the Spurs main rival is undefeated on the season.

And yes, the Spurs’ best player had a dreadful offensive game against the Thunder. Near the end of the second quarter, I asked my friend who was watching the game with me, “Does Victor have a basket yet?” The answer was “no”. And he didn’t actually make a “shot” all night – his one basket came in the second half on a dunk off a lob pass.

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And yes, the Spurs second-longest tenured player, Devin Vassell, scored only 7 points in 31 minutes, on 25% shooting. Perhaps being forced to defend OKC bigs like Holmgren on the other end was a bit draining?

And yes, the Thunder’s best player had a great offensive game. I was surprised to see that the box score had SGA at only 13 for 27 from the floor. It felt like he didn’t miss any. It also felt like a bunch of shots were punctuated with “and one!” Which always sucks.

And yes, the Thunder’s bigs looked pretty good. Punching bag Chet Holmgren outscored Victor Wembanyama 14-12 and blocked his shot at least once, looking not at all like the cowering Chet from last season’s WC Finals. And the Thunder new kid, Aday Mara, played a very effective 12 minutes, making three times as many shots as Victor, and doing something never before seen: blocking a lob-dunk by our Frenchman. The Spanish dude might be a problem going forward.

And the Thunder defense looked very strong, not missing Lu Dort at all. Alex Caruso was his usual pesky self on D and also nailed both of this three-pointers. SGA was also great on D, getting three steals and three blocks – he is clearly ahead in the MVP race thus far in the season. (Though Anthony Edwards may want a word.)

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Based on all of that, the consensus among the media, and presumably everyone who watched the game, is that the Thunder…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/moment-zen-spurs-opening-night-195852290.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-22 19:58:00

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