A dejected Victor Wembanyama looks across the court as he watches LeBron James and Team USA celebrate their gold medal game victory against France. The French phenom is surrounded by his fellow countrymen, both on the court and in the stands of the Bercy Arena in Paris. His team has made it to the peak of the mountain, they’ve finished with a medal around their necks, yet the burden of being No. 2 weighs on him heavily.
Across the pond, another man gives No. 2 a new meaning.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Canadian basketball’s greatest export since Steve Nash, is now a 2x NBA MVP, 1x champion, and 1x Finals MVP winner. His chest may say otherwise, but he has been everything except No. 2. SGA has led his team in scoring every year since joining the Thunder, averaging 20 points or more since 2020, and 30 points or more since 2022.
Spurs Second to Thunder in the Regular Season Standings
In the 2025-26 NBA season, the Oklahoma City Thunder have been nothing short of dominant. They won 64 games, finishing with either a winning or tying record against all but one team.
The one team? The San Antonio Spurs. While only three of their wins came in the official league season, the Spurs finished 4-1 against OKC in the regular season this year, with an added win coming from their matchup in the In-Season Tournament. Conveniently, 4-1 wins a playoff series.
The Spurs just flipped a 60-loss team from two years ago into a 60-win team. This can be directly attributed to a combination of poor injury luck from Wembanyama’s rookie season and a well-timed improvement in play across the entire roster.
The additions of rookies Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant have been nothing but successful. Harper has had an impressive rookie season, finishing fourth in ROTY voting and leading all rookie guards in FG percentage, shooting 50.5%.
While 62 wins is always something to take pride in, this means that yet again, Wemby comes in second place.
Awards, Impact, and Value (Oh My!)
In year three, Victor Wembanyama finished the season as the NBA’s blocks leader, an All-Star, unanimous DPOY and an MVP-finalist. He’ll certainly be First Team All-NBA and First Team All-Defense based on this, but the NBA has not formally announced the awards as of writing.
What he wasn’t able to be this season is the league’s Most Valuable Player, an award he had to watch Gilgeous-Alexander receive on the court in front of him before Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Wemby was not exactly enthused, as he made clear in his post-game presser.
As Victor soaked in the moment on the sideline, his motivation grew once more. This comes months after he stated his intentions to win the award, maneuvering a topic many players wouldn’t dare to touch.
“My goal is to make sure that there is no debate at the end of the season…” he said. “I believe I’m the most impactful player defensively in the league. Second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season and we dominated them three times with their real team… My third argument would be that offensive impact is not just points.”
Once again, in a moment of dejection, Wemby used the opportunity to make a statement. Victor went OFF in Game 1, finishing with 41 points, 24 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks; a historic stat line only comparable to that of legendary players such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain.
It’s clear now that Wembanyama is taking matters of first and second place firmly into his own hands; he does not want to be No. 2 anymore.
OKC’s Plan of Attack Moving Forward
In Game 1, the Thunder used Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso and Lu Dort (all three are 6-foot-4 or 6-foot-5) to try and get under Wemby. In theory, this makes it harder for Wemby to move with the ball, but that doesn’t account for how dangerous of a lob threat he is.
Expect the Thunder to use a combination of Holmgren, Hartenstein and Dort to bring some physicality in Game 2, and possibly the series moving forward. In the first round, the Trail Blazers attempted to get under Wembanyama by using Jrue Holiday, which worked in some situations, but ultimately led to a gentlemen’s sweep. In round two, the Timberwolves used Naz Reid and Julius Randle, a pair of strong frontcourt pieces with the intent to get physical with Victor. The Timberwolves lost in 6.
In Game 1, Chet Holmgren finished the fourth quarter with a clutch block against Wemby, showing a glimpse of what he can do in that matchup.
This leaves us with one major question: Can Chet be the answer to OKC’s Wemby problem? Or is No. 1 too tall of a task for the Thunder to handle this year?
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