Good luck to the San Antonio Spurs team that has to try and stop the rolling Thunder, that are the defending Emirates NBA Cup champions.
NBA odds will have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his teammates as favorites. That’s because they have won 24 of 25 games and 16 in a row.
OKC is outscoring its opponents by an astounding 17 points per game. It earned its spot in the semifinal by destroying Phoenix 138-89 in a quarterfinal. The other half of the Western Conference semi features the Spurs, who went into Los Angeles and handled the Lakers by 13 points.
This team is strong and would give OKC a huge test if it were at full strength but has been missing the great Victor Wembanyama.
One Spur who will be back is Stephon Castle. He had 30 points in the win over the Lakers in his second game back after missing 10 with a bad hip.
The good news on Wembanyama, who missed his 12th straight, is he did travel with the team.
Could he play on Saturday? “He’s doing great, he’s getting very, very close,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said this week. “Unfortunately, all of the added excitement is not going to play into the decision on if he plays or not … that’s more of an outside narrative.”
The teams have not played yet, but will meet three times over the 12 days starting today.
