Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder shut down Victor Wembanyama to roll past Spurs on opening night

The NBA's reigning two-time MVP is picking up right where he left off. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 116-104 win over Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs at the Frost Bank Center on Tuesday night to kick off the 2026-27 NBA season. Gilgeous-Alexander looked as confident as ever coming out of the offseason and dropped 32 points with 5 rebounds and 4 assists. The Thunder pretty easily shut down Wembanyama, too. He had just 12 points and 13 rebounds, and had only a single made field goal on the night. Wembanyama bolted off the court as soon as the final buzzer sounded."We're just happy to be back," Gilgeous-Alexander said on NBC after the win. "The NBA's back. It's a longer summer when you don't win, and we felt that this summer. We're just happy to be back. "[It's] one of 82. This doesn't prove anything, this doesn't mean anything. … We took a step in the right direction."Thunder run away in heated first halfThe rivalry between the Thunder and Spurs heated up almost instantly on Tuesday night. After a contentious stretch early, Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox suddenly grabbed Thunder star Chet Holmgren by the hip and slammed him down as they were jostling for position in the paint. Holmgren, the 7-foot-1 center, is almost a full foot taller than Fox. That, of course, led to a pretty big scuffle in the paint. In the end, Wembanyama, Jalen Williams, Jaylin Williams and Kenrich Williams all received technical fouls for their actions. Fox was hit with a flagrant, too. Flagrant foul 1 on De’Aaron Fox for throwing Chet Holmgren to the ground.Victor Wembanyama, Jaylin Williams, Jalen Williams, and Kenrich Williams all pick up technical fouls after the Spurs and Thunder get into a scuffle in the second quarter of tonight’s season opener.…— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) October 21, 2026 But that sparked a huge run for the Thunder. They broke the game open with a quick 9-0 run after the altercation and ended up pushing it to 22-3 to take a 26-point lead at its peak. Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 16 points in the first half, and the Thunder took a 21-point lead into the break. They had 11 different players score, and went an impressive 10 of 14 from the 3-point line.Wembanyama, meanwhile, struggled offensively. While he had three blocks in the first 24 minutes, he went a rough 0 of 7 from the field. The Spurs opened the second half about as good as they could have and cut the game back to single digits after a 14-3 run. But it didn't last long, thanks in part to a huge sequence from Thunder rookie Aday Mara. The big man stuffed Wembanyama at the rim and then threw down his own lob at the other end just moments later.Aday Mara MAKING PLAYS in his first NBA game 🔥Big-time swat at the rim.Two-hand alley-oop slam.The Thunder lead in Q3! pic.twitter.com/YJpmoBAm8J— NBA (@NBA) October 21, 2026 Wembanyama finally got his first bucket of the night to fall right at the buzzer of the third quarter on a reverse slam. He had missed his first 12 shots of the night, which is the worst shooting start in any game of his career. But the dunk cut the deficit to 13 points and kept the Spurs within striking distance. In the end, though, the Spurs just couldn't recover from their first-half struggles. The Thunder expertly survived one last push in the fourth to cruise to the 12-point win.Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 24 points and seven rebounds. Dylan Harper added 18 points, and Fox finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.Jared McCain added 20 points off the bench for the Thunder to go with Gilgeous-Alexander's night. McCain made a career-high six 3-pointers, too. Holmgren finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.While it's only the first night of the regular season, and these two teams will meet again plenty of times over the next several months, the Thunder clearly were itching for revenge after last season's loss in the Western Conference finals. This rivalry is, clearly, alive and well.