The San Antonio Spurs managed to beat the defending champions, the OKC Thunder, three times in as many meetings over the last two weeks. Victor Wembanyama, despite being on a minutes restriction, was extremely impactful in pushing the Spurs’ winning streak to eight games.
He finished the Spurs’ 117-102 win tonight with 19 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block while shooting 50.0% from the field (6-of-12) and 66.6% from beyond the arc (2-of-3).
Naturally, due to his stature, Wembanyama garners the most attention defensively. Therefore, on several plays, the Thunder seemingly had their most physical defender, Lu Dort, target the French forward. One such play came under the scrutiny of NBA fans when Dort seemingly shoved Wembanyama to the ground after intentionally crashing into him during a rebound.
He was clearly going for his knee https://t.co/VK32QgxZzc pic.twitter.com/U6yPum02eS
— 👽⭐️🇸🇳 (@BiggySpurs) December 25, 2025
While the intention may not be clear, NBA fans did point out that the Canadian swingman has a pattern of intentionally hurting players with his reckless decisions on the court. They took to social media and called out the 26-year-old Thunder player for his actions.
“The League will be safe without him.”
“Dort not slick at all with this one.”
“Oh hell nah get dort out of the game.”
“Nah, Dort might be a dirtier player than Draymond Green.”
“He’s been like this. Did the same to Ja when the Grizzlies were blowing out the OKC Thunder by 20.”
“He was doing the same with Luka every game.”
“Spurs send this to the league. You can’t have someone playing who wants to injure your guy intentionally. Lu Dort is the most overrated defender. The OKC Thunder is not beating the unethical hooper allegations!”
Several such reactions flooded the internet as the French wonderkid went down, grabbing his left leg in a concerning sight. Considering that Wembanyama is recovering from a left calf strain, this incident raised additional concerns about the potential danger of Dort’s style of play.
Not just in this game, but the last time these two sides faced off, leading to a 130-110 win for the Spurs a day before yesterday, Dort was also scrutinized for seemingly intentionally sticking out his legs to injure his defender on jump shots. Last game, both Wembanyama and his teammate De’Aaron Fox nearly fell victim to his recklessness.
This should be a multi-game suspension. pic.twitter.com/16CRgrx0cj
— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) December 25, 2025
However, it’s not as if Wembanyama didn’t bring physicality to the Thunder on the other end of the floor. He was also grabbing players on defense. But in-game physicality and targeted physicality with the potential to seriously injure an NBA player are different from one another.
Therefore, while fans are enjoying this newly brewing rivalry between the two franchises, they also urged the league to intervene and penalize Dort for his actions.
The Spurs have now improved to 23-7 with an eight-game winning streak as the second seed in the West. They are only behind the Thunder, who have now fallen to 26-5 as a result of these consecutive losses to the Spurs.
Wembanyama and his team move on to face the Jazz on Saturday night in San Antonio. Meanwhile, the defending champions will face the 76ers at home on Sunday night.
