San Antonio Spurs vs. Oklahoma City Thunder: Player props, injury report and prediction | NBA

The 2026 Western Conference champions conscionable the squad they knocked retired of the play-offs to get determination erstwhile San Antonio Spurs big Oklahoma City Thunder astatine Frost Bank Center connected Tuesday nighttime successful some sides' opener for the 2026-27 NBA schedule.

San Antonio eliminated the defending champions successful a seven-game Western Conference finals past May, past fell 1 circular abbreviated of the rubric themselves, losing the NBA Finals to New York Knicks successful 5 games.

Form and outlook

Both sets of figures supra are from the completed 2025-26 run since neither broadside has played a 2026-27 regular-season crippled yet.

Oklahoma City topped the West with 64 wins and owned location and roadworthy splits that fewer teams could match, but the summertime brought a genuine shake-up.

General manager Sam Presti traded Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins distant successful a cost-cutting cognition that dropped the Thunder beneath the luxury-tax 2nd apron, costing the roster an All-Defensive helping and adjacent to 30 points a crippled of combined production.

San Antonio's ain adjacent play was calmer by comparison, built astir keeping the Victor Wembanyama-led halfway unneurotic and adding Tobias Harris arsenic a seasoned guardant disconnected the Detroit Pistons.

San Antonio owned the sharper offence of the 2 sides past season, arsenic the communicative of the portion supra shows, and out-rebounded the Thunder arsenic a team, 2 traits that should transportation implicit adjacent with truthful galore caller faces astir the league this autumn.

Where Oklahoma City held an borderline was defensively, a spread the trimmed-down roster volition request to support without Dort's size connected the wing.

San Antonio's champion five-game run, taken from their Finals nonaccomplishment alternatively than the regular season, shows a squad susceptible of winning connected the roadworthy astatine Madison Square Garden but inactive prone to blowing fourth-quarter leads, precisely the illustration a assured Thunder broadside volition look to exploit.

Team quality and rotations

Spurs manager Mitch Johnson has already settled his starting five, confirming the unconventional three-guard look of De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper alongside Devin Vassell and Wembanyama that San Antonio trialled done the preseason.

That trio played conscionable 69 minutes unneurotic during the full of past season, but Johnson wants his 5 champion players connected the level from the opening extremity alternatively than staggering 1 disconnected the bench.

Harris remains the 1 wounded cloud, with his calf strain leaving him questionable aft a preseason spent wholly connected the sidelines, which should mean much early-season minutes for Julian Champagnie and Harrison Barnes astatine forward.

Oklahoma City's representation is murkier since fractional of the team's projected starting 5 carried a day-to-day tag into the last preseason reports, with Holmgren's quad sound the 1 astir apt to signifier caput manager Mark Daigneault's opening-night lineup.

If Holmgren oregon Wallace are held out, Jared McCain and a small-ball look featuring Alex Caruso oregon Jaylin Williams are the astir apt replacements, though neither has had the reps to marque that modulation seamless connected nighttime one.

Key matchups

Player props

Head-to-head

San Antonio won past season's seven-game Western Conference finals 4-3, a bid that swung arsenic precocious arsenic a Game 7 fought retired successful Oklahoma City.

The 2 sides besides met 5 times successful the regular season, with the Spurs taking 4 of those nether the NBA's accustomed season format, their lone decision coming by 21 points erstwhile the Thunder were astatine afloat spot astatine location successful January.

That measurement of recent, high-stakes past gives this opener an borderline astir season-opening fixtures lack, with some coaching staffs having a genuine publication connected the other's sets from hardly 4 months ago.

Tips and prediction

San Antonio's continuity, location level and a settled starting 5 should beryllium capable to spot disconnected an Oklahoma City broadside that enters with genuine uncertainty astir Holmgren's wellness and a thinner seat than the 1 that won 64 games past season.

A choky decorativeness feels close fixed however competitory past year's meetings were, but the Spurs' other mentation clip with their new-look lineup should conscionable extremity the equilibrium successful a high-scoring opener.