Shai said before the game that playing at Christmas “was one of his great illusions when he started watching basketball, my best memories are of the games at Christmas”. From today, the games at that time of year will no longer be among his best memories. With the whole country, and many others around the world watching, the Thunder lost for the third time in 10 days to San Antonio 102-117
The Spurs have turned the season around as if it were a sock. In three games they have managed to knock down the team that had established itself as the great dominator threatening a long hegemony. Suddenly, the Texans have brought them down to earth and turned them into an earthly and vulnerable team.
The victory in the semifinals of the Cup could have been an accident. The second was in San Antonio, and well, by 20 but it could be another accident. The Christmas Day game, besides the fact that it is the most anticipated moment until the Playoffs, took place in Oklahoma, where the Thunder had a record of 14-0. The message is clear, the Spurs must be considered among the favorites for the title.
The Spurs showed an unusual poise for a team made up of such young players, but there is no choice but to start believing that they are genuine title contenders. With the permission of the Denver Nuggets (and we’ll see if the Lakers and Rockets), in the West everything points to a conference final between the Thunder and Spurs. They have two more duels left (January 14 and February 5), and the Texans have already won the series in the regular season
And it was not only the victory, again very comfortable, but the way to achieve it. They knew how to defend their advantages and responded with baskets the timid moments of reaction of the champions. An example, twice had to call time out Mitch Johnson by certain local approach, and twice the Spurs came out of it with a basket
Da’Aaron had an outstanding game with 29 points and 3/4 three-pointers.Victor Wembanyama followed with 19 and 11 rebounds coming off the bench again, but playing 26 minutes. Stephon Castle, who continues to grow, also contributed 19 points and 7 assists and Harrison Barnes had 15
In the Thunder, their Christmas nightmare was in three-point shooting: 11/44. San Antonio made the same 11 triples, but shot much less, 29. Alex Caruso was especially bad with 3/13, but his first hit was on the tenth attempt. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 22 points, just enough to save his streak of consecutive games with 20 or more points, which he leaves at 101, the second longest in history. Isaiah Hartenstein scored 13 points and 12 rebounds and Chet Holgren had another double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds. Perhaps, in the season, there will be a before and after these 10 days of victories for the Spurs against the Thunder.
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