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Tim MacMahonDec 14, 2025, 02:29 AM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas MavericksAppears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM<\/p>\n LAS VEGAS — Minutes after the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>‘s second loss of the season, some of the defending champions’ veterans loudly and playfully chided injured rookie Thomas Sorber<\/a> for failing to have towels in their lockers on time.<\/p>\n They laughed while declaring that this failure to properly execute a rookie duty would result in Sorber having to “spin” when the team returned home, referring to a Wheel of Fortune-style device at the team’s practice facility that is used to assign an additional chore.<\/p>\n The Thunder were disappointed by their 111-109 loss to the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> in Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinal, which snapped Oklahoma City’s franchise-record 16-game winning streak, but far from despondent.<\/p>\n “Personally, I think it’s exciting,” Oklahoma City superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> said. “It’s easier to learn when you don’t feel the way you want to feel. It stings a little bit more.<\/p>\n “We’ll also see these guys [twice in the next] games. So it will be a good challenge. Kind of like an automatic test, almost like in school. You fail the test, you get to retest a couple days later. That’s what it will probably feel like. Losing is where you find growth and where you really get better.”<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks 1 Related<\/p>\n The Thunder, who had their preferred starting lineup available for the first time since the Game 7 win in the NBA Finals, had matched the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors’ record for the best 25-game start in NBA history by going 24-1 with a plus-17.4 average point differential.<\/p>\n “What are we, 24-2?” Thunder forward Jalen Williams<\/a> said. “I mean, we can go home and just hang our hat on that, or we can look at it as a way to get better and understand that we played against a playoff team that beat us and gave us a 2 on our [record]. So that’s how we’ll look at it from a competitive standpoint.”<\/p>\n Oklahoma City opened Saturday’s game by performing up to its standard, building a 16-point lead with a few minutes left in the second quarter. But the Spurs rallied to within three by halftime and took the lead with a 10-0 run in the third quarter.<\/p>\n “We got off to a decent start, but they won the last three quarters,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “They outplayed us tonight. This was a close game, but they outplayed us and deserved to win.<\/p>\n “I’m not sure exactly what happened in terms of what flipped it. But out of the 48 minutes, I thought they outplayed us for the majority of that. It’s hard to win a game, or at least control a game, when that’s the case.”<\/p>\n The return of Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, who sat out the first quarter due to his minutes restriction after missing the previous 12 games due to a calf strain, was the primary factor in San Antonio turning the game around.<\/p>\n Wembanyama was a dominant force on both ends of the floor in his 21 minutes, finishing with 22 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Spurs outscored the Thunder by 21 with Wembanyama on the floor.<\/p>\n “He’s just a mismatch for everybody. He’s 7-whatever he is, got good skill. That one possession, I knocked the ball away once and then hit it when on the way up, and he still found a way to make the shot,” Thunder guard Alex Caruso<\/a> said, referring to the bucket that gave the Spurs the lead for good with 2:32 remaining. “Just a great player, and he’s going to keep getting better, too.”<\/p>\n The Thunder had a chance to send the game into overtime in the final second, but Caruso wasn’t able to make a miraculous tip-in of Williams’ intentionally missed free throw. Caruso and others in an Oklahoma City uniform thought there was contact on the play that could have merited a foul call, but he said he didn’t expect to get that kind of whistle with the game on the line.<\/p>\n “I don’t know, maybe,” Daigneault said when asked if there should have been a foul called on the play. “But when we play like that, I just am not going to come up in here and rail about the officiating. No one wants to hear that, to be honest with you.”<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765698248_613_r1588299_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
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<\/a><\/p>\nShai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder blew a 16-point lead and fell to 24-2 on the season after Saturday’s 111-109 loss to the Spurs.\u00a0Photo by Ethan Miller\/Getty Images<\/p>\n