Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Discusses OKC Thunder Bout With Spurs

The Oklahoma City Thunder have already lost three straight to the San Antonio Spurs, only one of those games were competitive, the most recent pair of outings saw the Spurs run the OKC Thunder out of the gym in blow out fashion.

Now, the two sides meet for a fourth time, the second time in the Paycom Center, and the Bricktown Ballers are looking to do damage control on the narratives surrounding them following that three game stretch that all came in the span of three weeks.

Oklahoma City went from the overwhelming favorites to go back-to-back to now just a popular pick to make the Finals again with many shifting their attention to the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs. The league feels more open and truly in the midst of a parity era since the Thunder have came down from the high of a 24-1 start.

The past six champions have failed to even make it out of the second round, the Thunder representing the seventh straight unique winner, will learn their fate in a few months. The last time a team went back-to-back was in 2018 as the Golden State Warriors hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Oklahoma City felt best equipped of all the past champions in that stretch to buck this current trend.

Then, the Spurs games happened where San Antonio truly out played Oklahoma City three straight times and their defense flustered the Thunder's offense and made a historically good OKC defense look pedestrian in the latter two meetings.

While one win in January will not wipe away how bad the Spurs forced the Thunder to look earlier this season, a loss to go 0-4 against San Antonio would certainly cause a massive stir both locally and nationally.

Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been very matter of fact about this Spurs matchup, going as far as to crown San Antonio as better than Oklahoma City following the Christmas Day loss. This week, the League's MVP was once again honest about the matchup.

"I haven't thought about it yet, but since we are here, yup, we gotta win. Just like every other night. Wake up and you want to win a basketball game. It's obviously a very good team who's gotten the better of us recently. Should be a fun one, should be competitive. We got to go out there and do the necessary things to win the game and if we don't will most likely lose," Gilgeous-Alexander candidly explained following Sunday's win over the Heat.

The OKC Thunder and San Antonio Spurs each are missing a key member of their respective rotations in this game with Isaiah Hartenstein and Devin Vassell in street clothes, but are otherwise healthy.

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