Victor Wembanyama enters the new campaign as the MVP favorite, and the San Antonio Spurs are poised to contend for the championship after reaching the NBA Finals last season. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the two-time reigning MVP, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are just 16 months removed from hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Any Wemby/Spurs coronation will likely still have to survive SGA/OKC. The visitors made themselves comfortable in Frost Bank Center on Tuesday night.
The Spurs failed to protect their house during their season opener and suffered a 116-104 loss. Wembanyama scored only 12 points on ugly 1-of-13 shooting, despite finding other ways to contribute, and San Antonio as a whole shot 39 percent while conceding 31 fast break points off 14 turnovers.
The face of the franchise, and potentially the NBA, attributed “bad closeouts” and miscommunication on defense as the main cause of the disappointing outcome, per Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News.
Article Continues Below“It's like they were playing the right way,” Wembanyama said, according to Orsborn. “I'm sure they were having fun tonight. They were making the extra pass and we weren't making the extra effort.”