The NBA has an unexpected new rivalry brewing—and it’s one nobody saw coming. The Oklahoma City Thunder, a relatively young franchise without the storied legacy of the San Antonio Spurs, has transformed into an unstoppable force. As defending champions, they’ve refused to give the league any breathing room.

The Spurs came into their fourth matchup of the season looking to disrupt that dominance, but OKC had other plans—delivering a crushing 119-98 blowout that prevented a season sweep. But the Thunder didn’t just win. They twisted the knife.

After OKC seemingly targeted Victor Wembanyama throughout the game—already enough to enrage the Spurs fanbase—Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took it a step further in his post-game interview. While acknowledging that the locker room was “supercharged” for the matchup, he casually dismissed their first victory over San Antonio in the 2025-26 season as just another routine Tuesday night.

“Uncomfortable feelings and adversity is where you find growth and find who you are. And we showed it tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said before leaning into the rivalry. “Tonight wasn’t our Super Bowl. It wasn’t anything else than another game in an 82-game season. We’ve got to find ways to get better.”

Talk about adding insult to injury.

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On the one hand, he says that the team was motivated like never before. On the other hand, he’s categorizing the victory as “just another game.”

Just when everyone thought OKC’s first loss to the Spurs was a fluke, the NBA Cup matchup and Christmas Day demystified the Thunder’s invincibility.

SGA was the engine for OKC, dropping 34 points (on 11-23 shooting), adding 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and a career-tying 4 blocks — making him the only player in the Thunder’s OKC era with multiple games of 30+ PTS, 5+ REB, 5+ AST, and 4+ BLK. The Thunder’s defense was lockdown, holding the Spurs to just 40% shooting overall.

He recorded a clean block on Victor Wembanyama (who finished with 17 points and 7 rebounds in a tough night), and those 4 blocks from a guard position were huge momentum-shifters, helping OKC rack up 11 total blocks as a team.

There was visible intensity after SGA hit a three. He exchanged words and gestures with Stephon Castle afterward, seemingly responding to the criticism surrounding him. The Spurs guard, Stephon Castle, had proven to be a particularly challenging matchup for SGA leading up to Tuesday’s game.

SGA is turning that narrative around by dismissing the idea that the Spurs are a glitch in their long-term goals. If that means he makes an enemy out of an entire fanbase, he’ll take it.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dismisses Victor Wembanyama’s clean defense

During the game, OKC came on the Spurs Nation radar for seemingly sabotaging Wemby. The French phenom is coming back from another injury, and there was a brief moment where he tripped on SGA. Spurs fans think it was deliberate. OKC fans claim it was reflex.

What can also categorically be a reflex is intense competition. As if the Super Bowl comment wasn’t enough, SGA was behind the mic at the post-game presser to fuel the rivalry.

When asked about Wemby’s defensive talent, something hyped by the NBA world for not being foul-heavy, unlike a certain someone, SGA pretty much dismissed him as “every other player in the league.”

He goes a step further, saying, “Like, every basketball player in the existence of basketball has things that they’re comfortable doing. And the better ones are better at getting to those things… Defensively, it’s your job to try to take them out of their comfort zone as much as you can throughout the night.”

By saying, “it’s never about the other team,” he’s reinforcing the narrative that the Spurs don’t have the postseason depth to make a title run.

But those looking in from the outside don’t see this as just another game. This is the start of a rivalry between two generational talents.