Masters of the storm

The Spurs become the first team to beat the Thunder handily this season, and the first to beat them twice. What does this mean for San Antonio and Oklahoma City now and beyond?

Good morning. Let's basketball.

When the Spurs edged the Thunder in the NBA Cup semifinals in Victor Wembanyama's return to action 10 days ago, even the crustiest skeptics had to raise an eyebrow. When the Spurs beat the Thunder by 20 on Tuesday, everyone should be sitting at attention.

No one beats the Thunder, period. They had one bizarre collapse against Portland back in early November, and then the loss to the Spurs in Vegas, and then oh yeah Anthony Edwards outclutched Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Friday. And now this. The Spurs, facing the specter of playing the unstoppable Thunder three times in 12 days, beat them twice with the thrilling finale due on Christmas. Perhaps as impressive is that they, the Spurs, created garbage time against Oklahoma City thanks to a 16-4 run early in the fourth. No one puts the Thunder in garbage time. The Thunder did.

The quartet of Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, De'Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper have played six times now. Five – everything except the NBA Cup title game against New York – were wins. (And that one technically does not count in the historical log of this season.) The Spurs are 16-3 in Harper's games this season, 16-5 in Fox's games, 16-4 in Castle's games and 13-4 in Wembanyama's games. San Antonio started the season 8-4 and has gone 14-3 since then. We were talking about OKC is historic terms, like, a week ago. San Antonio is only 3.5 games behind them in the standings, and sits ahead of the Nuggets, Lakers, Wolves and Rockets.

And just to add a little oomph to the point I'm making: Wembanyama and Castle are 21 years old, Harper is 19 and old man Fox just turned 28.