Thunder 106, Spurs 116: The Day After Report
Recapping the Thunder's loss to the Spurs on February 04, 2026.
Nuggets & Notes
- In a much-hyped match-up between the Western Conference's top two teams, all the hype went out the window with the Oklahoma City Thunder only dressing 8 players.
- Ajay Mitchell, Chet Holmgren, Luguentz Dort, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Jared McCain, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Nikola Topic, and Thomas Sorber filled the Thunder's injury report. That's a lot of players.
- With such a short-handed team, and without a player who has been a primary ballhandler, I was expecting this one to be over by halftime.
- I was wrong. This was the most impressive loss of the year for the Thunder. Jaylin Williams, Kenrich Williams, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Cason Wallace, Brooks Barnhizer, Branden Carlson, and Chris Youngblood--they played hard and played up to a very good San Antonio Spurs team.
- Honestly, if OKC didn't get killed on the glass (OKC gave up 18 offensive rebounds), and Isaiah Joe played a typical Isaiah Joe game, the Thunder might have stolen this one in San Antonio.
- After the Spurs built a 52-30 lead early in the second quarter, the short-handed Thunder could have mailed it in, but not these guys.
- The Spurs were content to let the Thunder take three pointers, and credit to the Thunder for taking what the defensive gave them. OKC attempted 47 threes, and shot well, converting 40% of them. Forty-seven threes is the sixth most the Thunder have attempted in a game this year.
- The Spurs interior defense kept Oklahoma City out of the paint. Victor Wembanyama deterred a lot inside, helping to limit OKC to just 26 points in the paint.
- More on the Spurs defense: San Antonio was intent on packing the paint, and I mean, literally packing the paint. They were dropping everyone and leaving OKC wide-open in the midrange. There were numerous times a Thunder player would be in the midrange, and no Spurs defender was within 3 feet. The Spurs were daring OKC to take the low-percentage shot. And it worked.
- Before the game, Mark Daigneault said that Jaylin Williams would serve as the orchestrator of the Thunder offense. That's probably why J-Will led the team with 40 minutes on the court. Because the Spurs were crowding the paint, it limited what Jaylin could do as a distributor, but he was still a big contributor, dropping in 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists.
- Kenrich Williams led OKC in scoring with 25 points (along with 9 rebounds). Honestly, I kind of enjoyed seeing Kenny get a lot of touches and possessions.
- I expected a huge Aaron Wiggins scoring game, but Wiggins ultimately seemed focused on making the right basketball play. Wiggins scored 20 points, but he also dished 6 assists, along with 5 (!!) steals. Wiggins was constantly driving and dishing.
- How about Brooks Barnhizer? I think the NBA game is still ahead of him, but he did not hesitate a beat to take open threes. And the dude converted at a great clip–the rookie was 4-of-9 from three.
One Key Takeaway
There's not a lot you can take away from a game that had so many players on the shelf. In the grand scheme, this game means little other than narrowing the space between the Thunder and Spurs in the standings.
That said, I kind of enjoyed watching this game. I enjoyed watching guys who don't really get to use up a lot of possessions get the chance to showcase. I enjoyed seeing how the team would do without the SGA emergency-button available. I enjoyed watching these guys compete, believing that they could upset the Spurs.
But I would certainly enjoy a healthier Thunder team on Saturday against the Rockets.
