LAS VEGAS — By the time a sweat-drenched Victor Wembanyama took his seat on the Spurs bench, having played the first three and a half minutes of action in a month, a meeting with the champions that previously seemed out of reach suddenly wasn’t.

If the first quarter of Saturday night’s semifinal was a reminder of the reign of terror the 24-1 Oklahoma City Thunder have enjoyed for months, the second was a reminder of the French force that refuses to bend the knee.

His introduction to the game — coming off the bench for the first time in his career — changed everything. The friendly skies that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had coasted in since October were now met with 7 '5 turbulence. Missed Spurs shots became simple second-chance opportunities for the gangly center. Halfcourt sequences that Oklahoma City would typically carry out in their sleep were now being second-guessed — with Wembanyama altering, deterring and erasing shots.

His early presence was felt in the box score, too. An 11-point lead was reduced to four. A 16-point lead was reduced to three, both in the span of a few minutes. When the halftime buzzer sounded, Wembanyama, despite only playing seven minutes, was already the leader in plus-minus (+20) by an overwhelming margin.

“I wasn't really sure what to expect,” Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said of Wembanyama’s first-half performance. “I thought he did a phenomenal job of impacting the game without having to score. He was aggressive, he wanted to play with the basketball in his hand, but I thought he did a good job of impacting the game without having to score, especially in that second quarter that you referred to.”

And when the final five minutes of regulation rolled around, behind an emotionally-invested crowd at T-Mobile Arena, the Spurs, those feisty, pesky Spurs that weren’t supposed to even be here, understood the assignment. As long as Wembanyama was on the floor, belief and confidence would germinate. His previous 12-game absence had thrust the team into unknown waters, forcing them to survive — and they responded by commanding the waves, winning nine of them.

So despite the fact that Wembanyama’s impact was contained within the confines of a minutes restriction — a combination of calf strain management and the reality of the new 65-game rule for NBA awards — his teammates were ready to fill in the gaps when he couldn’t. 67 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists from the trio of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell was more than enough to shoulder the load. And when it came time for Wembanyama to send the Thunder off into the night, he did so with aplomb; a 15-point fourth quarter against the reigning champs. 22 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal in 21 minutes. A 16-game winning streak snapped. A hero returned. A statement made.

“​​It's just incredible,” Wembanyama said. “I keep asking these guys for the last 12 games, just get better, do some beautiful things. And I just wanted to be a part of it. I'm glad that we can still do it when I'm here, I'm happy with that, of course. But I'm just glad to be a part of something that's growing to be so beautiful. Pure and ethical basketball.”

For one glorious evening, the Thunder looked less like the most devastating team in the sport and more like a group that forgot just how impactful Wembanyama truly is. So as important as it is for the Spurs to advance to the NBA Cup Final, it’s just as critical to understand what San Antonio can actually do with a fully healthy group. Saturday night was the first time all season that the Spurs had all of their rotational contributors available, which, given what they were able to accomplish on a national stage, should terrify the rest of the NBA.

Johnson’s ability to navigate the Wembanyama-less terrain was admirable, an ode to the depth and roster building that general manager Brian Wright oversaw this past summer. But despite guiding the Spurs with the NBA’s No. 9 offense since mid-November, any hopes of sustained success were grim with a defense that ranked fifth-worst in the league, allowing 122.6 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass.

With Wembanyama back manning the middle, San Antonio’s defensive identity established months ago can recalibrate itself. The Spurs allow a stingy 106.5 points per 100 possessions in Wembanyama’s minutes, a mark that would rank second in the NBA behind, ironically, the Thunder. But it’s not just what the Spurs do while Wemby is on the floor, it’s how they do it. Opponents take nearly nine percent less shots at the rim and five percent less shots underneath the free-throw line, an impact of the 99th and 98th percentile, respectively, according to Cleaning the Glass. Those same opponents see their conversion rates from those areas drop by over ten percent, again in the 98th and 99th percentile. A seismic, stylistic shift like that can’t be understated, not in a vaunted Western Conference or in the entire league for that matter. In other words, welcome back, Wemby.

“I think we're on the right path,” Wembanyama said. “And for the first time in my career, we're winning much more than we're losing. So it's a lot of pleasure, because — it doesn't feel normal when we lose, but unfortunately it's things we have to go through. And we go through it again in the future if we need to, but we're winning much more than we're losing right now, so we are all where we like to be, we're all where we want to be.”

The Spurs (18-7) now sit in fourth place, just 0.5 games behind the second-seeded Denver Nuggets. According to Tankathon, San Antonio possesses the third-toughest remaining schedule, especially with two more meetings with Oklahoma City this month and dates with Cleveland and New York. But there’s an infectious confidence in this group from top to bottom, a youthful ignorance, if you will, that gives them an edge. Wembanyama will surely have increased confidence in his teammates having been able to witness their production from the best seat in the house. Fox, Vassell and Castle have shown they can keep an offense afloat, with the Spurs registering an impressive 117.3 points per 100 possessions when those three share the floor, per NBA.com tracking data — as well as a 105.7 pace rating that would rank tops in the league.

“I think we are very comfortable in recognizing Victor as the face of our franchise and the biggest piece of our puzzle,” Johnson said. “But he's not the puzzle by himself, and he doesn't want to be, and we are a team and we're a group.”

“It's just experience,” Wembanyama added. “We're just figuring it out. Because this OKC team, they're not just first in the league, they're way ahead of everybody. They're enjoying the little things that make them win, and this is the next step we have to pass.”