Pregame Primer: Wembanyama and the Spurs come to town

Game Info

NBA.com preview | Tip-off: 8:30 PM | Broadcast: ESPN

3 Big Things

• Thunder vs. Spurs. Attention for the Chet Holmgren/Victor Wembanyama matchup has eclipsed the Oklahoma City/San Antonio rivalry of late. The Spurs are not in the Thunder's league, so this game is just another dot on the schedule for 2024/25. But Wemby and the Spurs will be coming as fully fledged title hopefuls very soon, and the long-running OKC/San Antonio rivalry gets richer on nights like tonight.
• Chet vs. Wemby. No shame in hyping this, too. Last week, Holmgren measured up against the best frontcourt star for a current contender (Jokic/Denver). Tonight, he squares up for round 4 of what will be many, many battles against the league's premier talent at his position. We broke down Chet's hot start on the latest podcast:

• The 5% mark of the season. With the fourth game under their belts after this one, we'll have a small but real sample size that will show up again in home/away and month-by-month splits for the rest of the season.

Prediction

My formula is pretty simple for this one. (5CS - 3WM) x (4WH - 1HH) = 6

(5 Holmgren stocks minus 3 Wemby threes) times (4 Wemby Bleacher Report highlight tweets minus 1 Chet Bleacher Report highlight tweets) equals Thunder by 6)