"On Christmas Day, after losing to the same foe three times in a span of 12 days, reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander flatly stated that the San Antonio Spurs had proven to be better than the Oklahoma City Thunder. The defending champions responded with a 119-98 home win Tuesday night in the latest rematch between the top two teams in the Western Conference standings."
""Tonight's result tells us that when we play a certain way, with a certain sense of urgency, with a certain sense of force, aggressiveness, and attention to detail, it doesn't matter who is on the other side," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "Nothing that I didn't expect. I knew that if we played a certain way, we'd be able to beat anybody in the world.""
"The Thunder acknowledged that the atmosphere at the Paycom Center had a heightened sense of intensity because of the upstart Spurs' success against them this season. San Antonio snapped Oklahoma City's 16-game winning streak with a 111-109 win in the NBA Cup semifinal on Dec. 13, which was only the Thunder's second loss after a record-tying 24-1 start. The Spurs followed that with a pair of convincing victories in a three-day span: a 30-point rout in San Antonio on Dec. 23 and the 15-point win in Oklahoma City on Christmas."
The Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the San Antonio Spurs 119-98, reversing several recent losses and reclaiming control in the matchup. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points and emphasized that disciplined, urgent, aggressive play and attention to detail enable the team to beat any opponent. The Thunder entered the game 34-7 with an average margin of plus-13.2 points, on pace to challenge the franchise record for point differential. San Antonio previously snapped Oklahoma City's 16-game streak and won two more late-December games, fueling talk of a Spurs-Thunder rivalry.
Read at ESPN.com
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