- Oklahoma City Thunder (0-0) vs. San Antonio Spurs (0-0)
- When: Tuesday, 20 October 2026 at 8:30pm CST
- Where: Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, TX
- TV: NBC
The Tip-Off
Y’all ready for Game 8 of the Western Conference Finals? As soon as that series was over in last year’s playoffs, the NBA already knew they had a tailor-made game to position either on opening night or Christmas day. They chose Opening Night. And I, honestly, can’t blame them. The first two games of the night are just filled with Eastern Conference intrigue. How will Jayson Tatum-led Boston Celtics look like without Jaylen Brown on the team? What do the newly built Philadelphia 76ers look like on ring night against the defending champion New York Knicks? But that last game of the evening…you already know what you are getting. We witnessed seven games of that last May and have been clamoring for more ever since.
Last season, the Thunder and Spurs matched up 12 times. 12 TIMES! San Antonio won 8 of those match-ups, including the ever-important Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio was the only team that gave OKC fits last season, but OKC seemed to be solving the rubrics cube named Victor Wembanyama in the WCFs, before the weight of injuries to key players prevented the Thunder from moving forward.
Betting Info, presented by FanDuel
- Line: OKC +1.5
- O/U: 231.5
Injury Report
OKC
- Otega Oweh – OFS (Achilles)
- Thomas Sorber – OUT (knee)
- Nikola Topic – OUT (back)
SAS
- Tobias Harris – OUT (calf)
- Jayden Quaintance – OUT (knee)
Three Big Things
- The Chet of it all – Listen, for as much as eyes will be watching Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the microscopes will be laser-focused on Chet Holmgren. After a disappointing performance in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, where Holmgren scored only 4 points on 1/2 shooting from the field in a moment when the team needed him the most with Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell out with injury, every eye will be watching to see how Chet reacts to this moment. Will he rise to the occasion or will he do some cardio and hope that others will shoot the ball and assume the responsibility of scoring and putting pressure on the Spurs’ defense? The irony is that many people look at this as a Chet vs. Wemby issue, when in reality, those two rarely guard each other nowadays.
- Health is wealth – It feels so good to have this team as rotationally healthy as possible to start the season. You saw last season how much the inconsistencies of the rotation weighed on players like SGA and Chet. And with all that said, this team still won 64 games and found a way to make it to the 7th game of the Western Conference Finals. In the championship season, Chet missed 50 games with a broken hip, Jaylin Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein started the season injured, and Dub had to be the center for a couple of games. We still won 68 games. Can you imagine what a completely healthy season may look like? Here’s to health.
- Unleash the Mara – Aday Mara was never drafted under the auspice of being a Wemby-stopper. Those don’t currently exist in the world in the year of our Lord, 2026. The hope was always that the big-bodied center could physically contend with Wemby…in the future. But with his play this preseason, Mara has vaulted himself to possibly being a factor this season…and maybe even in this game. There is a high possibility that Mara gets his “welcome to the NBA” moment in this game. But there’s also the possibility that Mara goes out and drops a stat line of 10 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks and looks perfectly at home out there on the NBA stage. Whatever happens, I’m just glad NBA basketball is back!