Former OKC Thunder, NBA Legend Dishes Thoughts on Thunder-Spurs Talent Gap

In over the course of the last month, the mainstream NBA audience and many more saw the San Antonio Spurs show its ability to beat the reigning NBA champions Oklahoma City Thunder, not just one or two times, but on three separate instances.

Those were the first three games to start the season series against San Antonio for Oklahoma City, leaving them as the only team to have this amount of wins against the now 33-7 Thunder. It was an eye opener for Oklahoma City who was steamrolling virtually every team it faced upon its first meeting with the Spurs, and it also was to those who watched it.

Former Thunder and retired NBA legend Carmelo Anthony recently had some words about those two teams' dynamic, about what separates the two top teams in the West on his podcast, "7PM in Brooklyn."

Take the stars out. The ‘others’ on San Antonio is better than the ‘others’ on OKC.," said Anthony on one of the main reasons as to why the Thunder can't seem to crack the code against the Spurs. "That’s where the game is always won at between OKC and San Antonio."

Their setback is coming now," Anthony prefaced before his last statement.

He's not being untruthful. Ever since then, it's kind of set the guys in Bricktown off course. The Spurs offered the Thunder its second loss on the year when they first played on Dec.13—now just at a month ago, Oklahoma City has now gathered five more losses to its resume.

The team is still has the NBA-leading record and still sits comfortably in the top spot in the west, but it provided some questions surrounding the fortitude of this team.

If they cannot beat the Spurs on the road or even in the Paycom Center throughout the regular season, what could that mean for if these two teams somehow meet in the postseason? It's not an invalid question when you get beaten by a team three times in a row.

Oklahoma City isn't impenetrable, but they also don't necessarily claim to be. The Thunder knows it needs to improve, and it's still shown its ability to grind out a victory when it needs. Though this team's identity and effort has sort of been stripped away it seems, its still the best team in the league in the association in terms of record.

Anthony isn't wrong in speaking that the Spurs' players are better—but it depends if he's speaking of talent or performance. Talent, not necessarily. Performance, definitely.

We'll get to see these two rosters pinned against each other on Tuesday night though, as the Thunder look to get its first win against the Spurs in four contests on the season.