Guitarsoup said:

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2008and1 said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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With Kristaps Porzingis' future in ATL up in the air, one interesting scenario presented by league personnel includes the Hawks moving him in a package for Nikola Vucevic and Coby White.

The Hawks are not expected to go all-in for an All-Star, despite discussing such a move. https://t.co/JEsAprAaXP

— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) December 23, 2025

I can't imagine Chicago does that.

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Chicago needs to find a way out of purgatory.

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Kristaps with some incurable disease ain't the path

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He makes them worse. They need to get worse.

None of that previous post was meant to detract from the Spurs tonight and general direction of the franchise. You guys have a great thing going. I can see a long term rivalry on the horizon.

FTAG 2000 said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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Spurs win
Nuggets lost
Hawks lost

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Fakers too

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Rockets too

Deluxe said:

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I can see a long term rivalry on the horizon.

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This is what I'm most excited about honestly. We had the lakers in the 2000s and the heat in the 2010s.

Deluxe said:

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Ag Natural said:

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I havent watched a ton of Thunder games. So is SA just a bad match up or what? They supposed to be one of the best teams ever.

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It's possible. I'm not sure yet.

OKC is perfectly built for an 82 game sample size. By the end of the year, they'll be 8-10 games clear of the rest of the west. They're young. Tons of depth. Well coached. Have a built in +10 edge every night in terms of points off turnovers (avg). Have a superstar to plug gaps.

They make alot of their bread and butter against the low/mid tier NBA teams early in the second quarter when they unleash fresh Caruso and Cason on second/third string ball-handlers. They put alot of games out of reach early and therefore get the benefit of resting SGA in alot of fourth quarters. It's pretty uncanny how effortlessly they take care of business against lesser teams.

But the more the sample size shrinks and the higher the level of competition gets, the more teams like DEN, SA and maybe HOU can give them problems. OKC is far from a lock from winning the title, though I'd still probably call them the favorites because I think snatching home court from them will be tough.

When all the ebbs and flows of an 82 game schedule get put aside and it's OKC's best vs SA/DEN/HOU's best in a physical, slowed down series, the Thunder have exploitable flaws. SGA has to work alot harder. Jdub and Chet are really good but inconsistent and unreliable in terms of living up to their billing. Dort can be virtually unplayable at times. Cason, Caruso and Hart are all good players but not reliable offensively every night.

If I was to "make excuses" for tonight's game specifically, three of their four losses this year have come in the second night of road back-to-backs (the Vegas loss being the lone exception). Granted I'm pretty sure tonight is the first time they've lost by more than five. A total beatdown.

Jdub also hasn't played very well since returning from injury. Maybe he needs a little more time but each passing game leaves me more skeptical of him taking that next step to being a clear-cut top 10-15 guy. Ajay has been a more trustworthy second-playmaker option so far this year but he was out tonight.

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I think this is pretty spot on.

SGA is their primary playmaker, but he is primarily a scorer first. JDub hasn't been as good this year and Ajay was out. And I think the ball movement being down was obvious.

I think the Spurs play SGA WAY differently than everyone else by giving him more room and just having him make his shots. He's still going to convert at a high rate, but the Spurs aren't going to get in foul trouble and SGA isn't going to get the FTs he is used to. Smart, disciplined defense.

Then there is the Wemby effect. SGA challenged Wemby a few times in the paint, but overall, Chet melted and OKC avoided the paint. Spurs are able to play better man defense around the perimeter and limit the wide open shots. Both teams shot extremely well. OKC shot 54/40/86 and lost by 20.

But the big factors were that OKC was below their season averages in assists, FTA, steals, and blocks.

I think the way the Spurs play by giving SGA space plus the outrage by Chris Finch, all the talking heads, and fans has led to the NBA refs reevaluating SGA's foul baiting and OKC's defense. There were so many hacks across the arms in the previous game that weren't called that were getting called in this game. Because Mitch Johnson (got a tech last game) and Chris Finch (Minnesota's HC was ejected in the first few minutes the other day after the refs wouldn't call blatantly obvious fouls on OKC.)

If OKC can't get away with some of the physical defense they have been used to getting away with, their defense becomes less effective. And OKC is actually not good at drawing fouls outside of SGA. SGA is an elite foul baiter, (LeBron recently compared him to Harden, and didnt mean it the way I would mean it) but the rest of the team doesn't get the calls that way. The Spurs are obviously playing SGA tough, but with room for him to get off his shot so he can't bait the refs. And things like him kicking his legs out into Harper in the previous game are things that should be an offensive foul when Harper was staying 3 feet away from him. You can't give SGA a punt returner's halo, but that's almost what the refs have mandated.

OKC has a great coach and great depth and will adjust. But if they aren't getting away with the physical defense they are used to and SGA can't bait the calls he is used to, they do lose a lot of advantages the team has.

What a wonderful Christmas Story: Kelly Olynyk and his wife, Jackie, found a lost dog in San Antonio during the holidays. Here is how the little pup, Harley, was reunited with its owner 🤎 pic.twitter.com/kJXMfl3WCk

— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) December 24, 2025

Anyone have video of Kornet's block and coast to coast from a few days ago?

pkag02 said:

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Anyone have video of Kornet's block and coast to coast from a few days ago?

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NBA didnt put it in their highlights package of the game. Just looked. Never saw it make Twitter.

Dort kicking out to trip Barnes .

• Flagrant Foul Penalty 1: Unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent
• • Definition: Unnecessary contact with an opponent, often involving illegal extensions (like a leg or elbow) or hard, non-basketball plays.
  • • Extending a leg to trip an opponent (non-basketball play).

Guitarsoup said:

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Dort kicking out to trip Barnes .

• Flagrant Foul Penalty 1: Unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent
• • Definition: Unnecessary contact with an opponent, often involving illegal extensions (like a leg or elbow) or hard, non-basketball plays.
  • • Extending a leg to trip an opponent (non-basketball play).

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Yea that one was definitely deserving of a flagrant. Love that they did that and flopped all over the place and we still smoked them. Fully expect some home cooking tomorrow though.

Btw. Guess who was in the building last night yall ❤️ pic.twitter.com/79SFYiluiv

— Bobby Z ♠️ (@BZSPURS) December 24, 2025

Spurs are 10 point dogs tomorrow. Fighting words.

"Keldon is a defensive guy who can shoot the rock" is all I need to hear to understand if yall even care about watching us. https://t.co/3F2h8rlPxR

— Six (@SixZamier) December 24, 2025

Keldon Johnson will play his 400th game with the @spurs tomorrow. His current 6138 total points are 5th most in franchise history in one's first 400 games with the club.
1.Robinson: 10,144
2.Duncan: 9,100
3.Mitchell: 8,664
4.Leonard: 6,533
5.Johnson: 6,138 #PorVida

— Dan Weiss (@DanWeissPBP) December 25, 2025

Call that a moving screen on Kornet but not on Harkensteim the very next play. Wow

Okc moving screen every play and it's cool. Spurs set one with a little movement and it's a foul. Cool refs that's how it's gonna be.

Just letting caruso D Wemby with both arms wrapped around him.

This should be a multi-game suspension. pic.twitter.com/16CRgrx0cj

— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) December 25, 2025

So Wemby catches the pass about 30ft from the basket and the OKC defender stays under him causing him to come down and fall down with the defender. How is that any different from not giving a shooter room to come down?

duck79 said:

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So Wemby catches the pass about 30ft from the basket and the OKC defender stays under him causing him to come down and fall down with the defender. How is that any different from not giving a shooter room to come down?

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I was yelling at the TV when that happened.

duck79 said:

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So Wemby catches the pass about 30ft from the basket and the OKC defender stays under him causing him to come down and fall down with the defender. How is that any different from not giving a shooter room to come down?

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It's not. Peak thunderrefs