I’ve seen enough: Give the San Antonio Spurs the keys to Santa Claus’ workshop. Put Stephon Castle in charge of toy assembly. Let De’Aaron Fox toss presents into chimneys, from whatever range he’d like. Devin Vassell can customize the Christmas cookies. Harrison Barnes has the army of elves covered. And, of course, Santa Claus’s sleigh must immediately be resized for a taller, thinner pilot so that the towering Victor Wembanyama can drive it comfortably. The sensational Spurs have felled the Oklahoma City Thunder three times in two weeks, and in doing so revitalized this NBA season. I now have more faith in the Spurs’ ability to grant joy to the masses than any holiday legends of old.

It looked dire for a while there. The Thunder might have won the Larry O’Brien trophy in June, but began this season in even more ominous form. They reeled off 24 wins in their first 25 games (the lone loss was a fluky 20-point comeback). In most of them, Jalen Williams, their second-best player, was on the sidelines recovering from wrist surgery. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, their best, seldom had to play in fourth quarters. The Thunder beat the Sacramento Kings by 31. The Los Angeles Lakers, who some expected to be a plausible rival, lost by 29; their basketball savant Luka Doncic looked like he was playing against ten men. The Phoenix Suns’ valiant first earned them a close loss, by just four points. When they met again 12 days later, the Thunder won by 49. This game knocked all the remaining leaves off the trees and started winter 10 days ahead of schedule. Oklahoma City looked capable of shredding anything in its path, even the 2016 Golden State Warriors’ legendary regular season record of 73-9.

The Thunder do not play a particularly appealing style of basketball. They skillfully exploit the referees’ dilemma over which fouls to call (a consistent whistle interrupts the flow of the game, an absent one lets players get away with blatant violations), often resulting in Gilgeous-Alexander shooting free throws after whistles that would be better swallowed, while personified mosquito swarm Alex Caruso seems to have free rein to do whatever he likes on defense. Some profess to enjoy, or admire, Gilgeous-Alexander contorting his body to draw slight bumps from defenders; I can only assume those same people also like being kicked hard between the legs. That’s not to mention man-mountain Luguentz Dort flying off his feet and into opponents after plenty of suspiciously light touches. This chicanery enables haters to harbor the fantasy that in a world with ideal officiating, the Thunder would be a mediocre team. True basketball heads know it’s far more exasperating than integral to the Thunder’s success, but the general irritation is sufficient to nudge some fans who might otherwise be neutral into rooting for Oklahoma City’s downfall.

Dominance can be coldly thrilling to watch, but a historically great performance tends to evoke less awe the more times it repeats. How many times does anybody really want to watch one team beat another by 35? Eventually you remember that the drama is the point. The Thunder were draining the season of suspense, running up leads on other teams in the table as well as on the floor.

Through 21 minutes of the first Spurs-Thunder game this season, San Antonio trailed by 16 and looked likely to go the same way as every other team. Instead, they have wrought hell upon the Thunder ever since.

Against the Spurs, the Thunder look mortal. Each member of their core deserves immense credit for that, but this is Victor Wembanyama’s team, and the Thunder know it. “There’s this guy on their team that’s seven-foot-five and takes up a lot of space on the court,” Jalen Williams said, with some exasperation, when asked what made the Spurs such a tough out. The Thunder’s professional beanpole, 7ft 1in Chet Holmgren, is the tallest player on the floor in most games, free to grab rebounds and swat down opposing shots. Next to Wemby, he’s short, crude, and even timid. Wembanyama’s contempt for Holmgren is evident in how he celebrates each time Chet misses a free throw, as though he’s won the lottery; the way he fouls him with a bit of extra venom; the way he told reporters he doesn’t consider Holmgren a rival. (There is indeed no debate over which player is better.) At this rate Holmgren must expect Wemby to burst out of the cupboard, talking smack, when he reaches up for a snack.

Wembanyama and the Spurs made their most definitive statement yet on Christmas, thumping the Thunder by 15 on their home floor. San Antonio took the inevitable early punch well yet again, recovering to pile 41 points on the league’s best defense in the first quarter. Fox effortlessly found the miniscule holes in that defense to the tune of 29 points. The Spurs even held Gilgeous-Alexander to a season-low 22. He tried to make up for it by zipping passes to open teammates behind the arc, but they let him down by bricking almost every single attempt.

A Thunder optimist would say that enough of those threes will go in next time to produce a win or a tighter loss, but I found the misses symptomatic of a flaw. Off the strength of his silky-smooth stepback jumper, Gilgeous-Alexander is the steadiest scoring engine in the league. He is difficult to guard and impossible to stop. (LeBron James recently offered some advice on how to slow him down: “you gotta keep him off the free throw line. Which is hard.”) But even he can’t carry an offense entirely on his own. The Spurs put Gilgeous-Alexander under enough pressure that he had to delegate more than usual, and his supporting parts broke down under the heavier burden. Caruso and Dort are good for the occasional three-pointer, but relying on them to hit the long shot is the last place the Thunder want to be.

The Spurs’ surge couldn’t have come at a better time. Not only have they emphatically established themselves as title contenders – some say they’re too young, and inexperience has indeed undone plenty of fabulous teams in the playoffs, but the 23-7 Spurs aren’t contenders, hardly anyone is – but they’ve allowed fans to see the Thunder in higher definition other teams couldn’t come close to revealing. Oklahoma City, potentially the best team in history two weeks ago, is merely exceptional. If you take Gilgeous-Alexander’s word for it, the Spurs are better right now. 74-8 is off the table. With the Spurs just two and a half games behind, OKC has its hands full just holding onto its lead in the Western Conference. Even if only against one team, the Thunder have assumed the unfamiliar role of chaser, trying to solve a squad who torments them the way they torment so many others. In their newfound vulnerability, the Thunder are a little easier to enjoy and a little harder to hate. And any future wins against the Spurs will be a lot more meaningful.

They’ll get a few, maybe (or probably, but it’s thanks to the Spurs that choosing a word is difficult) as soon as this season. The Thunder are too good to stay down for long. When they rise the Spurs will eventually have to make their own adjustments. How’s this for terrifying: Wemby’s probably still a few years out from his peak. Christmases and NBA seasons can blend together, with only the most meaningful sticking out in the memory years later. Whatever happens next, the Spurs have given me enough reason to look back on these ones and smile.