Thunder visit Spurs in opener rematch of West finals
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
The Oklahoma City Thunder visited the San Antonio Spurs in the season opener, a rematch of last spring's Western Conference Finals.
San Antonio won that series in seven games, so the Thunder's response is the early storyline.
Background
The Oklahoma City Thunder are the NBA team that went 64-18 last season and lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 Western Conference Finals. The Spurs won that series in seven games to reach their first NBA Finals since 2014, then lost to the Knicks in five games. The Oct 20 game was the teams' first meeting of the 2026-27 regular season and part of the Opening Night slate, with tip-off listed for 8:30 p.m. CT on NBC and Peacock. The teams met 12 times a year ago, and the Thunder were down two of their top five players in the conference finals.
How it unfolded
- May 22, 2026Game three of the Western Conference Finals was played at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.
- May 30, 2026The Spurs defeated the Thunder in Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.
- Oct 20, 2026The Thunder visited the Spurs at Frost Bank Center in the season opener and a rematch of last spring's Western Conference Finals, tipping off at 8:30 p.m. CT on NBC and Peacock.
- Oct 20, 2026ESPN's live score showed Thunder 70, Spurs 58, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on 19 points and Victor Wembanyama on 8 points (0-7 FG).
- Oct 22, 2026The Thunder were next scheduled to face the Nuggets.
Who’s saying what
- Bulls
- Yahoo Sports' Thunder Wire said the Thunder were excited to take revenge on the team that booted them last year.
- Analysts
- An Oregonlive.com model projected Spurs 116, Thunder 114, with win probabilities of Spurs 56.3% and Thunder 43.7%.
- Caution
- Yahoo Sports' Rylan Stiles wrote that if the Thunder lose again, the narratives will spin out of control and create a cloud that the team isn't good enough to get past the Spurs.
- Support
- Yahoo Sports' Devon Birdsong predicted the game would go down to the wire once again and picked the Spurs.