Buckle up for Part 3 of the Victor Wemebanyama-Chet Holmgren battle, a probably rivalry for years to come. Can Wemby finally get a win?

Catch the game tomorrow at 9:30 AM, Manila time.

AWAY: Oklahoma City Thunder (41-17, AWAY)

Projected starting five:

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
• Josh Giddey
• Lu Dort
• Jalen Williams
• Chet Holmgren

The Thunder are on a warpath. They are winners of six in a row while exploding for 127.3 points per game with an average winning margin of 20 points. Also, they’ve beaten the Spurs by 36 and 26 in their two meetings this season.

As per usual, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the guy to watch out for. His remarkable season, one that features him as a top 3 MVP candidate, is reflecting well in their head-to-head with the Spurs. He’s at 30.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists, and a whopping 4.5 steals on a smooth 61.3% shooting from the field.

Big man Chet Holmgren will have a spotlight as well as he is in a marquee matchup with fellow top Rookie of the Year candidate Victor Wmebanyama. While he has a modest-at-best stat line in the two battles (13 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.5 SPG, 2.0), it’s pretty all-around and helpful to his team, as evident in the blowout victories.

Jalen Williams and Josh Giddey will be there to contribute well too. The latter has slowed down due to the emergence of the former and the arrival of Holmgren, but he is netting 15.0 points, 7.5 boards, and 5.5 dimes with a 54.2% clip vs. SAS this season. 

HOME: San Antonio Spurs (11-48, 6-27 HOME)

Projected starting five:

• Tre Jones
• Devin Vassell
• Keldon Johnson
• Jeremy Sochan
• Victor Wembanyama

The Spurs’ deep rebuilding phase continues. They enter tomorrow having lost 12 of their last 13 games, averaging 108.6 PPG while giving up 117.7 on the other end across that span.

Still, the team has a couple of lights on their side courtesy of their rookie phenom, Victor Wembanyama. The 20-year-old is neck and neck with Holmgren in the ROY race, and though the win-loss card is on his counterpart’s side, he has fully grabbed the stats department. Wemby has 20.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals, and a league-leading 3.3 blocks on the season, and actually just recorded an impressive 5×5 line (recording at least five pts, rebs, ast, stls, and blks) just days ago.

Do note that he’s only scoring 16.0 points on 39.4% shooting in two meetings with OKC thus far. No Spur is also averaging more than 17 points, as other scorers such as Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, and Zach Collins aren’t seeing much success opposite the Thunder defense.

PREDICTIONS:

Handicap: The Thunder (-11) cover the spread.

Over/Under: The total goes over 236.5