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Editor\u2019s Note: Read more NBA coverage from Yahoo Sports here<\/a>. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its teams.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n When a team beats you three times in two weeks, you kind of have to tip your cap to them. So that\u2019s exactly what the\u00a0NBA\u2019s reigning Most Valuable Player\u00a0did.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to get better, as a group,\u201d Shai Gilgeous-Alexander\u00a0told reporters<\/a>\u00a0after the Spurs vanquished his Thunder on Christmas Day \u2014 San Antonio\u2019s third consecutive victory over the defending NBA champions. \u201cYou don\u2019t lose to a team three times in a row in a short span without them being better than you. So we have to get better. We have to look in the mirror. And that\u2019s everybody, from top to bottom, if we want to reach our ultimate goal.\u201d<\/p>\n Oklahoma City might not necessarily love what it\u2019s seen in the mirror over the past few weeks \u2014 a\u00a0reflection decidedly more mortal\u00a0than the nearly unmarked visage that had opened its title defense with 24 wins in 25 tries. But after winning three straight to enter Tuesday\u2019s highly anticipated rematch with the Spurs atop the West at 33-7, the Thunder have the opportunity to show what they\u2019ve taken from those bracing defeats at the hands of their conference rival \u2014 the lessons they\u2019ve learned about themselves and what\u2019s proven to be an awfully worthy adversary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to win \u2014 just like every other night,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0after Sunday\u2019s win over the Heat. \u201cYou wake up and you want to win a basketball game. That\u2019s obviously a very good team who\u2019s gotten the better of us recently.\u201d<\/p>\n But why, exactly, has San Antonio been so successful against a Thunder team that\u2019s won nearly 90% of its games against the rest of the NBA? Let\u2019s take a look at three reasons why the Spurs have proven a particularly difficult matchup for Oklahoma City \u2014 starting with the literal and figurative biggest one:<\/p>\n The Spurs have Victor Wembanyama, who is huge and good<\/p>\n The Spurs and Thunder have shared the floor for 144 minutes across three games this season. In the 70 minutes that Wembanyama has played, San Antonio has outscored Oklahoma City\u00a0by\u00a047 points<\/a>; in the 74 that he\u2019s sat, the Thunder are plus-10. Sometimes, the explanation is as easy to see as the 7-foot-4 monument striding imperiously around the court.<\/p>\n Before these two teams squared off in the NBA Cup semifinals,\u00a0I wrote this: \u201cHardly anybody has made Oklahoma City feel uncomfortable throughout its historic rampage to a 24-1 record. Well, a 7-foot-whatever ambulatory eclipse has a way of unsettling an offense: Just 27.2% of San Antonio opponents\u2019 shot attempts have come at the basket with Wembanyama on the floor, which would be the second-lowest mark in the NBA over the course of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n That pattern has held against the Thunder. Overall this season, Oklahoma City has taken\u00a031% of its field-goal attempts at the rim\u00a0\u2014 just south of league average, according to Cleaning the Glass \u2014 and scored\u00a051.7 points per 100 possessions in the paint<\/a>, tied for eighth in the NBA. Against the Spurs, though? That\u2019s dropped to just\u00a022.2% of OKC\u2019s shots, a mark that would rival the Celtics for\u00a0dead last in the NBA, and\u00a046 points-per-100 in the paint<\/a>, which would\u00a0rank 25th<\/a>.<\/p>\n Narrow the aperture down to just the minutes when Wembanyama\u2019s been on the floor, stalking menacingly around the half-court, and that plunges to\u00a033.3\u00a0points-per-100 in the paint<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 galactically, laughably below the least potent interior attacks in the league. The Thunder have shot a\u00a0dismal 35.7% from the field<\/a>\u00a0in Wembanyama\u2019s floor time, with 19 turnovers against 24 assists.<\/p>\n Perhaps the loudest thing about the impact Wembanyama makes, though, is how quiet the Thunder are around the basket. Oklahoma City has attempted\u00a0just\u00a0four\u00a0shots at the rim with Wemby as the nearest defender<\/a>\u00a0in 70 minutes of floor time, according to Second Spectrum. Sometimes, dominance looks like a would-be layup pinned against the glass or tossed into the 10th row. Sometimes, though, it looks like one of the\u00a0highest-volume<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0highest-scoring<\/a>\u00a0driving teams in the NBA repeatedly deciding to get out of a kitchen that\u2019s too damn hot, resulting in a steady stream of 3-point shots by players \u2014 chiefly Alex Caruso, Luguentz Dort and Cason Wallace \u2014 you\u2019d much rather see hoisting than SGA:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n That, as\u00a0my podcast partner\u00a0Tom Haberstroh noted, is the\u00a0Wemby Effect: the ability to set, determine and enforce the terms of engagement against an offense that consistently generates points at an elite level against damn near everybody else. And yes, if Caruso, Dort and Wallace\u00a0make\u00a0those frequently wide-open shots they\u2019re getting served up, then you probably lose. When they go a combined 13-for-51 (25.5%) from long distance, though? You probably don\u2019t.<\/p>\n The Spurs\u2019 defensive success against the Thunder isn\u2019t\u00a0only\u00a0about Big Vic \u2014 the Spurs\u2019 excellent positional size on the wing (headlined by the 6-6 Castle matching up damn nearly perfectly with SGA) allows them to switch assignments along the perimeter, limiting driving opportunities and forcing OKC to grind out possessions without a clear advantage created up top \u2014 but ultimately, it all comes back to the big fella. Oklahoma City scores\u00a0118 points per 100 possessions<\/a>\u00a0against the league at large; against Wembanyama, that free falls to\u00a088.9\u00a0points-per-100<\/a>.<\/p>\n Combine that with the impact he can have on the\u00a0offensive\u00a0end, where Wemby\u2019s averaging\u00a027.4 points per 36 minutes<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0.657 true shooting<\/a>\u00a0against OKC \u2026<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2026 and you\u2019ve got the sort of game-breaker capable of fundamentally dislocating even the best team in the NBA.<\/p>\n The Spurs don\u2019t turn the ball over<\/p>\n As much as anything besides SGA\u2019s drives to the basket, this era of Oklahoma City basketball has been defined by an ability to generate mistakes. (Well, if you\u2019re\u00a0Chris Finch, maybe it\u2019s by how much they foul. To-may-to, to-mah-to.)<\/p>\n When the Thunder rose out of the West\u2019s basement to win 40 games and make the play-in tournament in 2022-23, they finished second in both\u00a0opponent turnover percentage<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0points scored off turnovers<\/a>. They led the NBA in those categories in\u00a0each<\/a>\u00a0of<\/a>\u00a0the last\u00a0two<\/a>\u00a0seasons<\/a>. They\u2019re on pace to do it again\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0season<\/a>, averaging more than 25 points per game after opponents lose the ball and\u00a01.42 points per possession following a steal\u00a0\u2014 a rate of offensive efficiency head and shoulders above what even the very best operations in the NBA\u00a0average in the half-court.<\/p>\n This is the theory on which the Thunder\u2019s defense rests. Deploy demons like Dort, Wallace and Caruso to harass and harangue opposing ball-handlers all over the floor; watch as the collective ball pressure bursts the offense\u2019s pipes; pick up the loose change and deposit it at the other end; lather, rinse, repeat.<\/p>\n As you\u2019ve probably noticed over the past few seasons, it\u2019s been a wildly profitable approach. In this matchup, though \u2014 against a Spurs team that has the\u00a0fourth-lowest turnover rate in the NBA\u00a0\u2014 it hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n This, in part, is the theory on which the Spurs\u2019\u00a0offense\u00a0rests this season. Deploy three top-shelf facilitators: a bona fide All-Star\/All-NBA-caliber lead guard in De\u2019Aaron Fox; a\u00a0rising star in sophomore phenom Stephon Castle; and Dylan Harper, the second pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, who\u2019s near the top of the leaderboard in assist-to-turnover ratio among\u00a0rookies<\/a>\u00a0(and top-15 among all\u00a0reserve guards<\/a>). Trust them to steer professionally and confidently through traffic, consistently touch the paint and distribute the playmaking responsibilities widely enough that OKC\u2019s pressure can\u2019t break anything:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Head coach Mitch Johnson has kept at least two of Fox, Castle and Harper on the floor\u00a0for 121 of the 144 minutes\u00a0the Spurs have played against the Thunder this season, according to PBP Stats \u2014 ensuring that he\u2019s got multiple high-level ball-handlers on the floor at nearly all times. It\u2019s paid off: San Antonio has committed\u00a0just 41 turnovers across those 144 minutes<\/a>, good for a\u00a012.3% turnover rate<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which would be the\u00a0second-lowest rate in the NBA<\/a>\u00a0over the course of the full season, just behind the Thunder themselves.<\/p>\n (Also quietly big in this matchup? The forward trio of Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie, which firmly understands its collective assignment: If you\u2019ve got the shot, let it fly; if there\u2019s a gap, drive it hard; if there\u2019s not, keep the ball moving.)<\/p>\n Without its customary diet of opportunities to scoop up a live-ball turnover and take it the other way, Oklahoma City has scored\u00a016.3 points per game off turnovers against the Spurs<\/a>; that would rank\u00a026th\u00a0in the NBA for the season<\/a>, and is nearly\u00a0nine points per game\u00a0below the Thunder\u2019s season average. Remove that superpower, and you\u2019ve done the bulk of the work in making the champs look mortal.<\/p>\n The Spurs make you play Whac-A-Mole<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a fun one: The Spurs are 3-0 against the Thunder despite their supernatural, extraterrestrial best player not leading them in scoring in any of the three wins.<\/p>\n In the NBA Cup semifinals,\u00a0it was Devin Vassell<\/a>\u00a0(who\u2019ll miss Tuesday\u2019s tilt with the\u00a0left adductor strain\u00a0that\u2019s cost him the last seven games) who led four Spurs in double figures with 23 points.<\/p>\n In the Dec. 23 win,\u00a0it was Johnson<\/a>, who drilled five 3-pointers on his way to 25 points in 22 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n On Christmas Day,\u00a0it was Fox<\/a>, keeping the ball and the OKC defense on a string, alternately splashing jumpers and slicing to the rack for a game-high 29.<\/p>\n And the Spurs\u2019 leading scorer overall against the Thunder? That\u2019d be Castle, averaging 21.7 points per game while shooting a scorching 61.5% from the field, 46.2% from 3-point range and 84.6% from the foul line:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n That balance \u2014\u00a0six players averaging double-figures against the best defense in the land<\/a>, a number that doesn\u2019t include second-unit playmaker Harper \u2014 is a critical component of what makes San Antonio so tough to deal with.<\/p>\n The Spurs\u2019 ball-handlers and wings are big, long and strong enough to play through the physicality of Oklahoma City\u2019s armada of maulers. Their drivers have absolutely no compunction about taking the ball straight into the chests of Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein or anyone else in a Thunder jersey who might be waiting for them at the rim. And their fast-paced offensive style \u2014 tied for 13th in\u00a0seconds per touch<\/a>, ninth in\u00a0dribbles per touch<\/a>, tied for eighth in\u00a0average time to shot, about\u00a022 more passes per game than OKC<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 both prioritizes and rewards sharing.<\/p>\n The Thunder have arguably the best isolation player in the world, but if you can load up on Gilgeous-Alexander and force somebody else to try to beat you, they can be had \u2014 especially with All-NBA No. 2 option Jalen Williams\u00a0continuing to work his way back from offseason surgery to his shooting wrist. With the Spurs, if you lean too far into taking one option away, a handful of others will be waiting to make you pay.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat matters is to press where it hurts on the defense,\u201d Wembanyama\u00a0told reporters\u00a0after the Christmas Day win.<\/p>\n The Spurs have\u00a0done that more effectively than any other team in the NBA\u00a0this season. If they can do it again on Tuesday, they\u2019ll cement themselves as an eminently credible threat to do what nobody was able to do last spring: beat Oklahoma City four times in a seven-game series.<\/p>\n \u201cJust like anybody would be, and just like we would be if they had beaten us three times \u2014 maybe they\u2019re going to be pissed off, but they\u2019re already a good team before getting pissed off,\u201d Wembanyama\u00a0told reporters\u00a0. \u201c[\u2026] It\u2019s going to be a good challenge to go there again. I know we\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n