{"id":178528,"date":"2025-12-11T06:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178528\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T06:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T06:22:07","slug":"takeaways-top-moments-as-thunder-and-spurs-advance-to-nba-cup-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178528\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways, top moments as Thunder and Spurs advance to NBA Cup semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With two spots in the NBA Cup semifinals clinched Tuesday, Western Conference teams in the quarterfinals were on the clock Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<p>The defending NBA champion <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"bd458c44-2d33-47eb-cebc-35d3d4ac595c\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/okc\/oklahoma-city-thunder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> hosted the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"c6eade89-5971-0e84-8ccb-cd91482b2b50\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/phx\/phoenix-suns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Phoenix Suns<\/a> in the first matchup before the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"8aef8547-32f5-0943-a1de-e734567674cc\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/sa\/san-antonio-spurs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Antonio Spurs<\/a> visited the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/lal\/los-angeles-lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma City cruised to a dominant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nba\/game\/_\/gameId\/401809835\/suns-thunder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">138-89<\/a> victory, punching its ticket to Las Vegas. The victory marked the Thunder&#8217;s 16th straight of the season, their longest win streak in franchise history. They also boast a 24-1 record, tying the 2015-16 <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"77a8546f-24bf-a333-8161-bf9f75396c49\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/gs\/golden-state-warriors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Golden State Warriors<\/a> with the best 25-game start in NBA history.<\/p>\n<p>Reigning MVP <a data-player-guid=\"4dcec409-3ff9-2881-2bc3-b4289ce6c36d\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4278073\/shai-gilgeous-alexander\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> led Oklahoma City with 28 points, and center <a data-player-guid=\"d28316e9-20cc-3cb2-b5d7-afdb6418315b\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4433255\/chet-holmgren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chet Holmgren<\/a> put up 24 points and eight rebounds. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with a whopping plus-minus of plus-43. The Thunder are no strangers to Vegas, reaching the NBA Cup final last season, where they lost to the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"f59bbabc-eedb-9ad2-c5dd-9bcd9f450a2f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/mil\/milwaukee-bucks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the later matchup, the Spurs defeated the Lakers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/nba\/game\/_\/gameId\/401809836\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">132-119<\/a> after leading by as many as 24. Without <a data-player-guid=\"0e8844b2-d923-3926-82d2-f19a29d69490\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/5104157\/victor-wembanyama\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a> because of a calf injury, San Antonio had seven players in double figures, led by a season-high 30 points from <a data-player-guid=\"26c7892b-12d0-3b1d-9645-f881921a1a20\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4845367\/stephon-castle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stephon Castle<\/a> plus 10 rebounds and 6 assists. <a data-player-guid=\"5f18d1cf-1c2e-3601-a04e-1a3fc84d8ef1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4066259\/deaaron-fox\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">De&#8217;Aaron Fox<\/a> contributed 20 points with <a data-player-guid=\"691dfac0-35e1-b597-c503-f0211c8f7f6f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/4395723\/keldon-johnson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Keldon Johnson<\/a> putting up 17 off the bench.<\/p>\n<p>The Spurs fired on all cylinders on offense, shooting 45% from deep and 50% from the field, hindering any potential Lakers&#8217; comeback. Their speed also was on full display, putting up 27 fast-break points. San Antonio had 16 points off 11 Los Angeles turnovers.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers have now trailed by by 20 or more in three of their past five games after trailing by 20 in only two of their first 19 games. Each of their seven losses this season have been double digits. <a data-player-guid=\"583794eb-0f38-9bbd-3e25-9dd33b7f83b8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/3945274\/luka-doncic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luka Doncic<\/a> led Los Angeles with 35 points as well as 8 assists and 5 rebounds. <a data-player-guid=\"f5096a5b-cbc5-1d7f-d406-56c623c434e5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/2990992\/marcus-smart\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marcus Smart<\/a> added 26 points and eight 3-pointers off the bench, while <a data-player-guid=\"1f6592b3-ff53-d321-8dc5-6038d48c1786\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/player\/_\/id\/1966\/lebron-james\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LeBron James<\/a> had 19 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder will face the Spurs in Las Vegas at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Below are the takeaways from each game, as well as top moments and highlights.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/_end_rule.png\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With two spots in the NBA Cup semifinals clinched Tuesday, Western Conference teams in the quarterfinals were on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-178528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}