For the majority of the 2025-26 campaign, it seemed almost certain that OKC Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would become the 14 player in history to win back-to-back league MVPs.
However, during this final stretch run of the regular season, the race has tightened up significantly, with Spurs wunderkind Victor Wembanyama steamrolling his way up the leaderboard. In his eyes, his domination over Oklahoma City this season has played a major role in his ascension as a legitimate candidate.
After posting a ridiculous 26-point, 15-rebound double-double on Monday night, Wemby laid out three specific bullet points for why he feels he's deserving of taking home the illustrious Michael Jordan Trophy this season.
Unsurprisingly, one leaned heavily on his dominant efforts on the less glamorous side of the ball, saying that "defense is 50 percent of the game." Another hit on the fact that while he may trail behind other MVP contenders like Shai, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Jokic in the scoring department, "offense impact is not just points."
Of course, the primary argument he made that's bound to draw significant attention from Thunder fans is that he has led San Antonio to a commanding 4-1 record against the defending champions this season.
"We almost swept OKC in the season. We dominated them," Wembanyama said.
Thunder have been far from full strength here in 2025-26
Though Wembanyama acknowledged that his Spurs didn't always face a full-strength Thunder team in their season series, it barely scratches the surface of just how unhealthy they've been here in 2025-26.
After enduring a 2024-25 campaign where, as GM Sam Presti put it, their roster played just 8.5 percent of the season together, with only 10 games remaining on the docket, Oklahoma City now finds itself near the top of the association when it comes to games lost to injury.
The Spurs saw these struggles firsthand as they squared off against a Thunder team so hobbled that it had only five standard and three two-way contract players available for their February 4 bout.
It's worth noting here that it took Wemby and company all four quarters to put away a rotation that was without Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain), Jalen Williams (hamstring strain), Chet Holmgren (back spasms), Ajay Mitchell (abdominal strain), Lu Dort (right patellofemoral joint inflammation), Isaiah Hartenstein (cornealabrasion), and Alex Caruso (right adductor management).
Heck, even during the games where OKC did have their regular starting five available, they were still far from full strength, as J-Dub had been continuing to rehab from offeseason reconstructive surgery on a torn scapholunate ligament that, as the All-Star put it, made his wrist feel as though it was Laffy Taffy put in the freezer, "and then trying to bend it."
Fortunately, the cornerstone forward just recently declared that his wrist "has felt better than it ever has," so if these two clubs end up facing each other at some point in the playoffs, perhaps Wembanyama will find out the real reason why his Spurs "dominated" the Thunder so handily.