Wembanyama Goes 1-for-13! What Went Wrong for the San Antonio Spurs?

San Antonio Spurs season got off to a rough start with a 116-104 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Star big man Victor Wembanyama only made one bucket in the contest. To break down the game, I sat down with Carolina Teague of Spurfect. Here's a look at our conversation. All right, Carolina, let's start off on a positive note. Frost Bank Center debut to the 2026-2027 season. What was the energy like from the crowd? It was really great. I don't know if you can see it, but right now I'm wearing my Spurs shirt. uh fans got a free shirt for the opening night it was really good they have the arena in dark theme mode now so it looks really cinematic it's so much cooler i've been covering the team for about six years and i love this new dark mode theme that production has going on they have brand new lights the arena was changing colors at multiple times total upgrade from the previous years the jackals have doubled in size and the silver dancers are back and everybody's been wanting them back for over a decade now so it's a it was a really great environment crowd wise it's a good thing that they were able to give a good environment considering the game didn't exactly go the way that many of us here in central south texas probably hoped it would have went okay so they lose this game to the oklahoma city thunder you had to know that the thunder were and come in with a bit of a chip on their shoulder what was the biggest reason you think that the game went the way it did Wemby scoring he went one for 13 in the field and he just couldn't seem to get in his rhythm even coach mitch johnson said that the team uh they didn't look as connected i don't know his exact words we basically said they didn't look as connected as the Thunder did on the court so it looked like there was like some uh chemistry issues but it could be because of that new three guard uh rotation that they have for the starting lineup but you know you got to work out those kinks kind of early but i definitely think Wemby's uh shooting tonight was the biggest issue for the Spurs this evening for sure what do you think it was about Wemby's shooting night do you think it was a poor shot selection from him or do you think that it was just he was not finishing strong enough he was just too indecisive it was uh taking him too long to make decisions on the court and that would allow uh the defense to kind of stack up on him and when you're you have the three guard rotation that kind of causes issues because they're they're supposed to be quick the starting lineup is supposed to move fast efficiently and things like that so when he's making those indecisive decisions it just kind of is like a steamroll effect for the rest of the team it's hard to diagnose given you know it's game one right so we don't know fully the full context of the season quite yet but do you think there was a notable difference in his game from the last game of the NBA Finals to game one uh Tuesday night there's a huge difference i think during the playoffs he was making quick decisions he was really in his flow in his rhythm uh maybe there's a little bit rustiness there you know the beginning of the NBA season and he even said it himself he's thinking too much in his head right now and when Wemby is thinking too much in his head you get results like this during the regular season last year he would take deep breaths he would slow down at the free throw line but he was also really quick and efficient during the game so there's a huge difference on how he played today with how he played last season for sure but he just needs to find his rhythm and i think we'll start seeing oh when Wemby come back into the picture all right let's talk that three guard lineup that three guards starting lineup what's your overall grade on it after game one well it's too soon to kind of grade on it i do think it's a great overall addition i love you know i would give it like an a uh well i i would say it's an a because i think that uh you know Steph Castle Dylan Harper De'Aaron and Fox you gotta get Dylan Harper some more minutes because you saw how he emerged in the playoff so i think it was a very smart move of the spurs team to kind of go in this direction it obviously is going to take time and i think dylan harper was saying that even though it wasn't their best game together starting that it's going to get much greater soon so he's very confident that it's going to be a positive upward tick for the team so i like the idea of it and i'm looking forward to see how kind of how it pans out as the season progresses what about De'Aaron Fox what did you think of him on opening night i think he did really good um i think a lot of spurs fans really appreciated his body slam uh on Chet Holmgren Holmgren that was a really bright spot for spurs fans and he just played with a lot of aggression was making quick decisions and I think De'Aaron Fox is one of the bright spots. Yesterday had the season opener. Okay, and Chet, you gotta hit the weight room, man, because if you have a six-foot guard bodying you like that, then you got some problems there. I did want to talk a little bit about the Thunder, though, because their rookie, Mara, seemed to be a bit of a difference maker. He only played 10 minutes, but they got him specifically to stop Wemby and through at least one game look at Wemby's stat line, seems like it did the job. Yeah, he did. He was an impressive standout rookie of tonight's game i think he did incredible uh being able to stop Wemby he had some moments where he was able to stop him right at the rim so i think he had an incredible performance for a rookie and that's something that the spurs have to look out out to they have a tough rivalry with them the thunder and spurs they're gonna be a rivalry for years to come so that's something you definitely have to consider now into the equation on what to expect when it comes to mara i think he had a great game last night so the spurs biggest offseason acquisition aside from the draft picks was Tobias Harris and he was out with a calf injury what do we know about that so far so coach Mitch Johnson said that he uh he kind of gave remnants of what we can expect he didn't give a timetable they never give a timeline of when they're going to come back but based off of the words of mitch johnson said it may be quite some time because they need to make sure that he's completely good to go and to me that signals a week two weeks you know minimum um that's just my guesstimate based on how the spurs cookie crumbles so it might be a minute until we see him but of course you want to make sure that he's totally healthy before you get him on the court anyway so the spurs are proven to be able to win without him already it's just a matter of time to you know get him acclimated into the team and see what he can do and what positives he brings to the team now there has to be some level of concern given the thunder took the spurs to seven games last year and the thunder at least again it's one game but they look like they're a better team than they were in the western conference finals the spurs meanwhile again Tobias Harris the big offseason acquisition felt like they kind of stayed the same what do you think do you think the spurs and the thunder the thunder got better the spurs maybe got a little worse i think it's a little bit too soon uh to make that decision this is opening night and Wemby has been his pattern with the exception of last year when they started on a hot streak uh his pattern is that he kind of gets a little has a little bit of a slow start nothing too crazy but it takes him some time to get acclimated into who he really is as a player and i think obviously he's the x factor of what uh contributed to their win of the western conference finals he had a huge uh western conference finals um he he just stood out right so i feel like for them i don't think that it's too i think it's too early for us to assess whether you know they are a better team uh the spurs were the only team last season in the western conference to have a winning record over the thunder so i think it'll take time we'll see what happens uh just but this is not a good start for them i'll say that uh did anyone ask about rookie playing time to mitch last night or is where are we at because i read didn't really see many minutes none of the rookies got a chance to really get in a lot of Blue Cornet out there uh so again similar team to the team we saw in the playoffs last year yeah there's no they only had one minute so you really can't see much in one minute so uh mitch didn't mention anything about the rookies and their playing time but knowing the spurs and how their their their way is it may take a couple of weeks before we see them get some like really good minutes on the court um last year Dylan Harper got minutes pretty quickly so we'll see how everybody pans out throughout the rest of the season I think a lot of people are making really early assumptions uh it's just one game I saw a lot of people say that throw the whole season away they're really upset at the loss of the spurs fans were but i think uh there's 81 more games left i think there's a long way to go and speaking of the next game you got the Houston Rockets actually taking place in Austin uh what do we think of the rockets this year Fred VanVleet getting him back from injury i know a lot of Rockets fans are saying that could be a big difference to their season definitely a big difference every time he's on the court with the Rockets he's a big difference maker and uh that's also another good rivalries first of a lot of rivalries that they have to get past this season and I think it's gonna be a really exciting game uh anybody in Texas loves a good matchup so an I-10 rivalry with the Spurs and the Rockets I know that there's going to be a lot of fans traveling to Austin and ready to have a good time so it'll be fun to see if the Spurs can bounce back uh from the loss against the Thunder thank you again to Caroline Teague for joining us on the Sports Office you can catch her content on spurfect.substack.com for more Sports Office be sure to tune in right here on Fox Local 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday live I'm Julian Martinez saying stay safe happy and healthy and we'll see you on the next one