Thunder Beat Spurs 116-104 on Opening Night as Gilgeous-Alexander Scores 32

SAN ANTONIO

Five months after the San Antonio Spurs ended their season one win short of the NBA Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder walked back into Frost Bank Center and won the reunion going away. Oklahoma City beat San Antonio 116-104 on Tuesday night, behind 32 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, in a game the Thunder controlled from the middle of the first quarter onward — and one that briefly boiled over into a scuffle before halftime. It was the rematch Previously previewed in its opening-night lookahead, and it played out as a statement from the team that spent the summer waiting for it.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 32 points, six rebounds and four assists, according to USA Today. San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, had a night that was somehow dominant and miserable at the same time: 12 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and six blocks — but 1-for-13 shooting from the field, including misses on his first 12 attempts, per USA Today and the Associated Press. The Thunder led for all but the opening five minutes of the game, according to the AP, and built a 21-point halftime lead that San Antonio's second-half surge could never quite erase.

A scuffle, then a 22-point swing

The rivalry picked up right where it left off. Three minutes into the second quarter, San Antonio's De'Aaron Fox received a Flagrant Foul 1 for tossing Chet Holmgren to the court after the two became entangled in the paint, according to the Associated Press. The play set off a scrum in which Wembanyama and Oklahoma City's Jaylin Williams had to be separated after pushing each other, and technical fouls were assessed to Wembanyama, Jaylin Williams, Jalen Williams and Kenrich Williams, per the AP.

What followed decided the game. Oklahoma City answered the scuffle with a 9-0 run, and after a Harrison Barnes 3-pointer briefly interrupted it, the Thunder scored 13 straight points, capped by a Cason Wallace 3-pointer that made it 59-33, according to the AP. Oklahoma City outscored San Antonio 31-16 in the second quarter and took a 65-44 lead into halftime, per the quarter scores. A game that was 34-28 after one quarter had become a rout in the space of about nine minutes — and the home crowd that had arrived expecting a celebration of last spring's conference title run instead watched its team chase the game the rest of the night.

Wembanyama's strangest stat line

Wembanyama's shooting line will lead every recap of this game, and it deserves a second look rather than a laugh. He missed his first 12 shots, including an alley-oop attempt that was blocked by 7-foot-3 Thunder rookie Aday Mara, according to the AP. His only field goal of the night came on an alley-oop pass from Fox as time expired in the third quarter. It was his fewest made field goals in a game since going 2-for-5 against Minnesota on May 10, per the AP.

And yet San Antonio stayed competitive in the second half in part because of everything else Wembanyama did. His six blocks anchored a defense that finally slowed Oklahoma City after halftime, his 13 rebounds led the Spurs, and he went 10-for-12 at the free-throw line to reach his 12 points, according to the game's box score. The Spurs won the third quarter 36-28 and the fourth 24-23. The problem was never the second half. The problem was a second quarter in which San Antonio scored 16 points and gave up 31, and a franchise player who could not buy a basket until the final second of the third.

The Spurs' push, and the Thunder's answer

San Antonio opened the second half on a 23-9 run and pulled within single digits after trailing by as many as 26 in the first half, according to the AP. Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 24 points, rookie Dylan Harper added 18, and Fox finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, per the box score. For a few minutes in the third quarter, Frost Bank Center sounded like it did in May.

Oklahoma City's answer came from its depth as much as its star. Jared McCain scored 20 points off the bench on 6-for-8 shooting from 3-point range, according to the AP, and Gilgeous-Alexander and McCain combined for 25 points in the second half as the Thunder repeatedly blunted San Antonio's runs, per the AP. Every time the Spurs cut the lead to a place where one stop mattered, Oklahoma City found a clean look — and unlike last spring, it was San Antonio that ran out of answers late.

One of 82 — but not just any one

Context is what made this more than a routine opener. San Antonio beat Oklahoma City 111-103 in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals on May 30, in Oklahoma City, according to the AP, and also won last season's regular-season series 4-1, including the NBA Cup semifinal, per The Oklahoman. The Spurs went on to lose the NBA Finals to the New York Knicks — who themselves lost earlier on Tuesday, beaten 106-100 by Philadelphia in the game covered in Previously's report from Madison Square Garden. Gilgeous-Alexander arrived off his second MVP season and Oklahoma City's 2025 championship, and USA Today's preseason top-100 ranking lists him No. 1 and the 22-year-old Wembanyama No. 3 — the two early MVP favorites, on the floor together, on night one.

Gilgeous-Alexander played down the revenge angle afterward. "Obviously, it's the team that eliminated us from achieving our goal, but for us, I think it was more we're just happy to be back," he said on the NBC broadcast after the game, via USA Today. "One of 82. This doesn't prove anything. This doesn't mean anything besides the fact that we won tonight. We took a step in the right direction. We gotta do it 81 more times."

The next steps come quickly. Oklahoma City hosts Denver on Thursday night, and San Antonio hosts Houston in Austin on Friday night, according to the AP. Follow both clubs on the Thunder team page and the Spurs team page, and the opening week on the NBA hub and the Previously sports front.