My post: "Victor Wembanyama will come off the bench tonight and be on a minutes restriction." Twitter response: Inexplicably calls me the r-word. Bluesky response: "Why do you support genocide?"

I honestly feel like I'm being punked. #AshtonKutcher

Man, I'm just a newspaper beat reporter posting news related to my beat. That's the way this stuff works. Feel free to block me. Or else throw your phone in the ocean and never leave your house. Also a good way to avoid overhearing conversations you don't want to.

Honestly, the number of people who don't understand how to use this website are going to chase the rest of us back to the Bad Place.

Honestly, I've been waiting for two weeks for OKC to come in and put the belt to the Spurs and it just hasn't happened.

It's going to have to wait until Tuesday, but we'll be there!

Fox becames the Spurs' first repeat leading scorer during their winning streak

You guys, I don't know. I think the reason the Spurs keep beating the pants off the defending champions is they themselves might be a good basketball team.

Holy Dylan Harper.

Victor Wembanyama has now blocked a shot in one game in a row. #newstreakincoming

This is where I am right now, more or less

Victor Wembanyama still isn't ready to call whatever it is the Spurs have going with OKC a bona fide rivalry. After the Spurs toppled the champs for the second time in 10 days, that label might not be far off. "We're definitely getting closer," Wembanyama said. www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

The (still budding rivalry) triple take: Spurs 130, Thunder 110 1. Spurs see this row of games vs. the champs as a plus 2. One remarkable streak survives, one goes down 3. Keldon Johnson becomes the Spurs' seventh leading scorer in the past seven wins www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

Victor Wembanyama still isn't ready to call whatever it is the Spurs have going with OKC a bona fide rivalry. After the Spurs toppled the champs for the second time in 10 days, that label might not be far off. "We're definitely getting closer," Wembanyama said. www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

The (still budding rivalry) triple take: Spurs 130, Thunder 110 1. Spurs see this row of games vs. the champs as a plus 2. One remarkable streak survives, one goes down 3. Keldon Johnson becomes the Spurs' seventh leading scorer in the past seven wins www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

That one really might be unw --- nah, not gonna do it.

As far as the NBA is concerned, the Spurs are on a seven-game winning streak (Cup final loss doesn't count). They have had seven different leading scorers in those games. Tonight, it was Keldon Johnson's turn (25 points).

A week and a half ago the Thunder were on pace for the best season in NBA history and now the Spurs are three games behind them in the loss column.

From our @jmcdonaldsa.bsky.social: Spurs have set their postseason sights higher after their strong start and NBA Cup success. “Guys realized they didn't just want to be a playoff team,” De’Aaron Fox said. “We want to go in and we want to make a statement.” www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

The thing is, that didn't happen.

A truly enjoyable thing about Victor Wembanyama is that he almost never dodges a question with clichéd coachspeak, but is honest enough to admit when he does it. The end of this answer about whether he’s starting tomorrow was too good.

I get you. Fair play should be a consideration too, though.

Hey, if entertainment is all that matters, let's have 4-pointers in the final two minutes. If a player can score with his feet, it's worth 10. Or maybe just last shot wins no matter the score. Change all the rules we've been using for the previous 46 minutes.

I wouldn't neccesarily mind this, but I'm not sure it's entirely fair. The team behind by 3 can intentionally foul to try and catch up, but the team ahead by 3 can't foul to try to maintain the lead? You're kind of punishing a team for playing well enough to be ahead.

Per the NBA's L2M report, a correct no call on the Alex Caruso-Devin Vassell rebound at the end of last night's game: "Vassell (SAS) and Caruso (OKC) make an attempt to secure the rebound, and Vassell makes legal contact to Caruso's hand while it is in contact with the ball."

Exactly!

The Silver & Black are back in a championship game triple take: Spurs 111, Thunder 109 1, The Spurs are whole again – let the tinkering begin. 2, Mitch Johnson got the last laugh Wemby strategy-wise. 3, Fox’s 19 points through three quarters were big. www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

Pop tried this one time -- and only one time -- with Tim Duncan coming off injury. It didn't work out nearly as well. Lost at Charlotte, IIRC.

If these Spurs really have arrived, national broadcasters are finally going to have to learn: Vassell does not rhyme with Castle.

To my recollection, the Spurs never, ever, ever took a foul up 3 under Pop. The Mitch Johnson era is officially on.

Siri, wipe my phone, fake my death and enroll me in the witness protection program.

Hey Siri, delete my account

He's on a minutes restriction. They made a decision to save those minutes for the final three quarters

Hey Siri, delete this post

Spurs are plus-20 in Vic's seven minutes, minus-23 in the others. Seems like he's pretty impactful!

So the super tall guy the Spurs brought off the bench really seemed to turn the game around in the second quarter. Have the Spurs ever considered starting him?

If there's one thing you hope Steph Castle learns from this game, it's that those cross-court passes that work against, say, New Orleans aren't going to be therr against OKC.

Hot take: If the Spurs go 0 for the game from 3, they're going to get routed.

Victor Wembanyama will not start tonight. Coming off the bench for the first time in his NBA career.

Never heard of him.

Agree. I just think the games on the 23rd and 25th will by far provide a better barometer than this one tonight.

Yep, just think everyone needs to keep expectations realistic for this one. I don't think we're going to see Vic at the height of his powers, and certainly not for 35 minutes. Which is what the Spurs are going to eventually need to have a chance of competing with OKC. Just my two cents.

This is a better way of saying what I meant.

I get the hype around Victor Wembanyama's return to face OKC tonight in a national NBA Cup semifinal game. I just have my doubts the game can live up to it.

The oldest trick here on the Las Vegas Strip is to tell people a lie they want to believe. How the Spurs can make the one about the importance of the NBA Cup come true: www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

Wemby said he "would've come back earlier" from the injury that sidelined him the last 12 games. But the OK from what he called the "best staff in the world" didn't come until Friday. "It is more reasonable to listen to them and do as they said," he said. www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

There ya go.

Speaks a lot to the depth around Wembanyama. Since he went down Nov. 14, four different Spurs have produced 30-point games: Steph Castle Devin Vassell Harrison Barnes De'Aaron Fox (twice)

3 games vs the Thunder in 13 days gonna be roooooough

Before any of you ask ... I have no new info on this, but if it were me I'd have reservations about letting Vic play his first game in a month against those bunch of monsters from OKC. I'd rather ease him into his return at home against Wiz. But that's just me, and I'm a notorious party pooper.