Both the San Antonio Spurs and visiting Oklahoma City Thunder will look to return to the winning track when they meet on Tuesday in a Western Conference Group B game in the NBA Cup.
The Thunder beat Phoenix on Friday to capture their initial NBA Cup game and share the top spot in West Group B with the Los Angeles Lakers. San Antonio lost its opening Cup game on Friday to the Lakers and remain without a victory in five Cup games since its inception in 2023.
Oklahoma City hits the road after a 121-119 home loss to Dallas on Sunday that snapped a three-game winning streak. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 36 points on 13-of-19 shooting and led a late Thunder comeback by hitting a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left that brought OKC to within a possession.
Gilgeous-Alexander then forced a jump ball, won possession and was fouled with less than five seconds to play. He made the first free throw and missed the second intentionally but the Thunder could not convert a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Oklahoma City was overwhelmed on the boards 53-29 and surrendered 18 of those on the defensive end. The Thunder were without injured forward Chet Holmgren for the fourth straight game. Holmgren is expected to be out until at least February with a hip injury.
The Thunder’s injuries in the pivot to Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams as well as Holmgren have forced them into a “small ball” lineup.
“We’ve won games without centers,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Now it presents a different challenge, and you have to do certain things to win a basketball game that you might not necessarily have to do when you have a center.”
Jalen Williams added 27 points for Oklahoma City while Luguentz Dort had 18 and Dillon Jones scored 12.
“We’re not trying to survive,” Jalen Williams said. “We’re going out there to win every game. Obviously, we want our bigs back and to be healthy, but we’re not victims.”
The Spurs head home after a quick trip to Dallas, where they fell to the Mavericks 110-93 while playing without forward Victor Wembanyama (knee contusion) and guard Devin Vassell (right foot injury management). Wembanyama is doubtful for Tuesday.
Those two players were sorely missed as San Antonio was outscored by 20 points in a lackluster third quarter and never recovered.
Zach Collins finished with a season-high 20 points for the Spurs, with Sandro Mamukelashvili adding 14, Julian Champagnie scoring 13, Stephon Castle posting 12 and Chris Paul adding 11. San Antonio has dropped two straight games after winning a season-best two in a row.
“We’ve had some inconsistent good moments,” Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson said. “The problem is the inconsistency of it. So think just continuing to try to put together a consistent 48 minutes and get healthy and kind of try to build on this stuff, hopefully we can catch a rhythm here.”
The availability of Vassell, who would likely come off the bench, for Tuesday’s game is yet to be determined.
San Antonio’s next three games (and four of its next five) are at home. For the Thunder, Tuesday’s game is the first in a stretch of nine road games in their next 11.
