Victor Wembanyama ran away with the NBA Rookie of the Year award last season.

His closest rival for that honor, Chet Holmgren, spent last season helping his team to the best record and playoff series victory in the Western Conference.

Two of the league’s best young big men will face off for the first time this season between Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs and Holmgren’s Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.

“There are two big guys in this,” Spurs backup center Zach Collins told the San Antonio Express-News. “You don’t see that a lot anymore, so it’s fun to watch. It’s got a little bit of an old-school feel to it, two greats, two heavyweights going at each other, and both of these guys look like they’re matching up, and they make it personal.”

Last season, the Thunder won three of four games against the Spurs.

Wembanyama played with averages of 20 points, 13 rebounds and 4.3 assists in three of the four games. This included his 28 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists in late February; A key performance that helped Wembanyama win the award unanimously.

Holmgren averaged 14.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists in four games against the Spurs last season.

So far this season, Wembanyama has shown some effects of a busy offseason that included playing for France in the Olympics.

He’s averaging 20 points, 12 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.7 blocks in San Antonio’s 1-2 start, but he’s shooting just 22.2 percent from beyond the arc. This is below last season’s average of 32.5 percent.

“I’m in shape,” Wembanyama said. “But my teammates are now starting to get used to playing again, the different ways teams defend us, different strategies. As the season progresses, everyone will get better.”

Holmgren is averaging 23.7 points, 13 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 4.0 blocks so far, helping the Thunder start 3-0 for the first time since 2016.

Even with a three-game stretch at the start of the season for the second time in four days, Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault recently said he would not impose minutes limits on either Holmgren or the rest of the Thunder’s young core.

“I’m trying to be aware of the program with all of this guy’s minutes, I’m trying to be aware of the context of the game,” Daigneault said. “These guys are young players and one of the advantages of having young players is they can go. They don’t need to be packaged in a bubble.”

Oklahoma City won all three of its games by 15 or more points despite its offense being inconsistent.

The Thunder have the best defensive rating in the league so far, allowing just 90.8 points per 100 possessions.

“Our competitive level was really high,” Daigneault said. “I understand the numbers are really good in a very small sample, but none of this is holding up.

“You’re at the level you play at every night, so we’ve got to play at that level again (Wednesday).”

The Thunder’s figure will again be limited to Isaiah Hartenstein (hand), Jaylin Williams (hamstring) and Kenrich Williams (knee) in the frontcourt outside of Holmgren.

The Spurs will be without Tre Jones for the third straight game after suffering a right ankle sprain in the opener.