The Thunder are learning to defend against Victor Wembanyama

After three losses in a row against the Spurs, the Thunder passed a real test against teammate Victor Wembanyama, and the NBA champions reminded that they remain the best team in the league.

A a clear victoryfor 21 points, with stifling defense, but also aggressiveness in attack. It was a great Thunder, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander assures that there was no particular over-motivation.

“Tonight’s result shows us that when we play a certain way, with a certain sense of urgency, strength, aggression and attention to detail, it doesn’t matter who it is against…”explains the ruling MFA. “There is nothing surprising to me. I knew if we played the right way we could beat anyone in the world.”

Real rivalry or not?

If the OKC players were not particularly overmotivated, the public was for them, and the fans did not stop whistling. Victor Vembanyama. In contrast were the Spurs, and several times players from both camps mentioned the beginning of the rivalry.

“Every game ends up being a rivalry at some point because we are the defending champions and teams give their all against us in every game”explains Jalen Williams. “But I would say this team forces us to play the full 48 minutes, stay extremely focused, and it’s really fun to play against them as the season goes on. We feel like we’re making them better and they’re making us better. After all that rivalry involves, I don’t pay too much attention to that.”

In this meeting, the Thunder were particularly effective in attacking the circle, despite the presence of Victor Wembanyama. So OKC scored 56 points in the paint, and shot 71% against the big hands of Wemby. According to GeniusIKthis is the highest percentage of success received by Victor Vembanjama in contested shots this season. However, Mark Daigneault assures that there was no specific plan.

A big address against Victor Vembanyama

“Honestly, I think our process tonight was pretty similar to the Christmas game. I was pretty happy with the step forward we took that day.” he reminds. “We continued to make progress tonight in understanding this team. They’re a very, very good team, one of the best in the NBA, and the margin for error against them is very small. I thought we took another step forward offensively tonight as we continue to prepare to face them.”

On the other side of the field, Chet Holmgren and then Kenrich Williams greatly hindered the Frenchman. Was there a plan against Vembanyama?

“We haven’t played him a lot, so part of learning the league is learning how to defend against really big players. He’s obviously a part of that.” answers Marc Daigneault. “In the last matches against him, we were a little too enthusiastic: we tried to intercept in the post-up, to force actions, instead of trusting our fundamentals and our collective defense. Tonight we respected it better. Even against the best players it is not complicated: we always go back to the basics. There is no secret recipe. In the game Jockey, Edward always the same, we played in a row with Jockey, Edward, it was always the same. You just have to learn to apply these principles against of this team. And I think we took a step forward tonight.