The 2026 Western Conference champions meet the team they knocked out of the play-offs to get there when San Antonio Spurs host Oklahoma City Thunder at Frost Bank Center on Tuesday night in both sides' opener for the 2026-27 NBA schedule.

San Antonio eliminated the defending champions in a seven-game Western Conference finals last May, then fell one round short of the title themselves, losing the NBA Finals to New York Knicks in five games.

Form and outlook

Both sets of figures above are from the completed 2025-26 campaign since neither side has played a 2026-27 regular-season game yet.

Oklahoma City topped the West with 64 wins and owned home and road splits that few teams could match, but the summer brought a genuine shake-up.

General manager Sam Presti traded Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins away in a cost-cutting operation that dropped the Thunder below the luxury-tax second apron, costing the roster an All-Defensive wing and close to 30 points a game of combined production.

San Antonio's own close season was calmer by comparison, built around keeping the Victor Wembanyama-led core together and adding Tobias Harris as a veteran forward off the Detroit Pistons.

San Antonio owned the sharper offence of the two sides last season, as the tale of the tape above shows, and out-rebounded the Thunder as a team, two traits that should carry over even with so many new faces around the league this autumn.

Where Oklahoma City held an edge was defensively, a gap the trimmed-down roster will need to defend without Dort's size on the wing.

San Antonio's best five-game run, taken from their Finals loss rather than the regular season, shows a team capable of winning on the road at Madison Square Garden but still prone to blowing fourth-quarter leads, exactly the profile a confident Thunder side will look to exploit.

Team news and rotations

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson has already settled his starting five, confirming the unconventional three-guard look of De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper alongside Devin Vassell and Wembanyama that San Antonio trialled through the preseason.

That trio played just 69 minutes together during the whole of last season, but Johnson wants his five best players on the floor from the opening tip rather than staggering one off the bench.

Harris remains the one injury cloud, with his calf strain leaving him questionable after a preseason spent entirely on the sidelines, which should mean more early-season minutes for Julian Champagnie and Harrison Barnes at forward.

Oklahoma City's picture is murkier since half of the team's projected starting five carried a day-to-day tag into the final preseason reports, with Holmgren's quad knock the one most likely to shape head coach Mark Daigneault's opening-night lineup.

If Holmgren or Wallace are held out, Jared McCain and a small-ball look featuring Alex Caruso or Jaylin Williams are the most likely replacements, though neither has had the reps to make that transition seamless on night one.

Key matchups

Key Matchups

Redemption at the five

Chet Holmgren

OKC

VS

Victor Wembanyama

SAS

17.1PPG

25.0PPG

8.9RPG

11.5RPG

Holmgren managed only 10.7 points per game in last year's Western Conference finals as Wembanyama's length bothered him at both ends, and he carries a day-to-day quad issue into this rematch, making his health as big a storyline as the matchup itself.

Backcourt engines

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

OKC

VS

De'Aaron Fox

SAS

31.1PPG

18.6PPG

6.6APG

6.2APG

Gilgeous-Alexander is the league's reigning top scorer and will carry an even heavier offensive burden with Dort, Joe and Wiggins all gone, while Fox now leads a backcourt that shares the ball between three genuine creators rather than relying on him alone.

Player props

Player Props to Watch

Shai Gilgeous-AlexanderOKC

PointsOver 29.5

31.1Season PPG

16.3Pre-season (3 GP)

The preseason figure reflects limited minutes in low-stakes exhibitions, and with three of last year's rotation wings traded away, Gilgeous-Alexander's usage should only climb in a real opener.

Victor WembanyamaSAS

ReboundsOver 10.5

11.5Season RPG

6.3Pre-season (4 GP)

Wembanyama's preseason boards were capped by short minutes, but he led all playoff rebounders against this exact opponent last spring and should see a full workload from the opening tip.

Stephon CastleSAS

AssistsOver 6.5

7.4Season APG

4.0Pre-season (4 GP)

Castle is the clear table-setter of San Antonio's confirmed three-guard starting unit, and the preseason dip looks more like reduced minutes than reduced role.

De'Aaron FoxSAS

PointsOver 19.5

18.6Season PPG

12.5Pre-season (2 GP)

Fox played sparingly in a two-game preseason, but a healthy, full-strength opener against a Thunder defence breaking in new personnel sets up a bigger scoring night than his limited exhibition sample suggests.

Head-to-head

San Antonio won last season's seven-game Western Conference finals 4-3, a series that swung as late as a Game 7 fought out in Oklahoma City.

The two sides also met five times in the regular season, with the Spurs taking four of those under the NBA's usual season format, their only defeat coming by 21 points when the Thunder were at full strength at home in January.

That volume of recent, high-stakes history gives this opener an edge most season-opening fixtures lack, with both coaching staffs having a genuine book on the other's sets from barely four months ago.

Tips and prediction

San Antonio's continuity, home floor and a settled starting five should be enough to see off an Oklahoma City side that enters with genuine uncertainty around Holmgren's health and a thinner bench than the one that won 64 games last season.

A tight finish feels right given how competitive last year's meetings were, but the Spurs' extra preparation time with their new-look lineup should just tip the balance in a high-scoring opener.