Anyone with eyeballs and a pulse will testify that Saturday\u2019s Emirates Cup semifinals between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder was one of the top games of the season. The fourth quarter alone had six lead changes, and if one didn\u2019t know any better, they might think they witnessed a playoff game.<\/p>\n
The Spurs punched their ticket to the Emirates Cup Finals by toppling the top team in the league. The Thunder habitually break opponents down mentally when taking double-digit leads, but the Spurs resisted when trailing by 16 points, and four of them went on to log at least 20 points, giving OKC their first loss in 38 days (16 games).<\/p>\n
Of course, it\u2019s just one night, and the Thunder can\u2019t fly that high forever, but it\u2019s a big deal that the Spurs could beat the squad that matched the best start through 25 games in NBA history (24-1), in a meaningful game.<\/p>\n
OKC\u2019s pressure had the Spurs on the ropes most of the first half, committing 11 turnovers and missing makeable 3-pointers that had their offense resembling an old car that takes a few key turns to start. Yet as the thought that maybe this team isn\u2019t ready for prime time probably raced through fans\u2019 minds, everything changed in Victor Wembanyama\u2019s stints as he threw his size around on the glass and set up teammates. He played like he knew time was running out, and it led to some poor decision-making with the ball, but he was the main reason they cut the deficit to three going into intermission.<\/p>\n
A few minutes into the third quarter, De\u2019Aaron Fox snatched San Antonio\u2018s first lead of the night as he raced past orange jerseys in transition. They didn\u2019t lead by more than six points because Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got where he wanted when he wanted.<\/p>\n
Naturally, Wemby saved his best for the fourth, nailing four baskets between three and 14 feet. Devin Vassell and Stephon Castle got in on the action, too, making two 3-pointers and two shots in the lane, helping the Spurs pull off the upset.<\/p>\n
The Cup finale will be on Tuesday against the New York Knicks, who have won 16 of their last 20 outings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone with eyeballs and a pulse will testify that Saturday\u2019s Emirates Cup semifinals between the San Antonio Spurs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83,20636,11430],"class_list":{"0":"post-87936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-san-antonio","9":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","10":"tag-san-antonio-news","11":"tag-spurs-analysis","12":"tag-what-we-learned"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}