The OKC Thunder fanbase was upset on social media, which might sound strange, but they had a good reason. No, they were not picking apart a blowout win; they were mad at the fact that the OKC Thunder dominated the Spurs in such a fashion.
This game marks just the second Nationally Televised game in the Paycom Center since the 2019-20 season. The first meeting between two generational big men in Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama, and an in-season tournament tilt that the NBA heavily markets.
The Oklahoma City Thunder wrestled away control of this game midway through the third quarter. In a game that saw six lead changes and ten times, the OKC Thunder eventually swelled their lead to 40 points and emptied the benches.
In the In-Season Tournament, TNT pulled the plug on the OKC Thunder blowout of the San Antonio Spurs.
With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 28 points, six rebounds, five assists, and a career-high seven steals in this contest to go along with a huge bounce-back game from Josh Giddey, getting back on track with an 18 points, seven rebounds, and seven assist performance. The OKC Thunder fanbase was obviously riding high.
On what should have been a banner night to display the young core, the OKC Thunder faithful saw the TNT exclusive broadcast get pulled from Bricktown and shifted to the city of Brotherly Love. Much like a Sunday in the fall, the Broadcast partner was not happy showing a blowout of this proportion to their National audience.
Giddey pass-fake ➡️ Chet SLAM 💥
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) November 15, 2023
🏆 NBA In-Season Tournament pic.twitter.com/d79OKb50Un
In order to hold viewers until their late game started, TNT elected to go to a more competitive Eastern Conference matchup where the 76ers fell 132-126 against the Indiana Pacers.
The only problem is since it was an exclusive rights broadcast, neither local feed was up and running. Thus making the second half of the fourth frame lost in space forever. Rarely in the NBA do you see a network pull the plug.
Arguably, it was a historic feat by the OKC Thunder to beat down the San Antonio Spurs 123-87. This not only embarrasses the Spurs, but if the Thunder are able to claw into a tie to advance to the knockout stage, this does wonders in the point differential tiebreaker in pool play.