The San Antonio Spurs had an opportunity to safe their third-straight win, in opposition to the Washington Wizards. Uneven play for the whole lot of the sport finally caught up with them within the fourth quarter, when Washington secured a 118-113 win.
Much like their final recreation agains the Wizards, it was a sloppy affair the place each groups turned the ball over 15 or extra occasions. The Wizards outscored the Spurs 66-50 within the paint, and out-rebounded them 45-36. Daniel Gafford owned the inside, placing up 16 factors and 13 rebounds (8 of them offensive.)
San Antonio was led by Devin Vassell, who carried the offense in stretches. Vassell ended the sport with 24 factors and 4 assists on 9-19 taking pictures from the sphere.
The 2-man recreation with Vassell and Victor Wembanyama discovered success early. The decide and roll with these two gamers has turn into one of many Spurs go-to performs.
Vassell has gotten significantly better as a rim finisher this 12 months. He’s changing on 69% of his makes an attempt on the rim this season. Right here he powers by two defenders for the robust and-1 end.
Vassell has gotten significantly better as a cutter, too. These backdoor cuts will turn into simple buckets for him as he continues to achieve the popularity of a high-level shooter. This season the wing is scoring 1.65 factors per possession on cuts, ok for the ninety fifth percentile within the NBA. He’s scored 58 factors on cuts this season.
Blake Wesley offered a set off the bench for San Antonio. He completed the sport with 7 factors and three steals. This steal within the again courtroom resulting in the nook three was electrical. The sort of effort makes a younger participant arduous to go away on the bench.
Wesley was pestering ball-handlers all evening. A pair extra performs like this from the whole workforce and the Spurs may need discovered themselves on the winning-end of this one.
It wasn’t one among Wembanyama’s finest video games, however he nonetheless completed with 22 factors, 11 rebounds and three blocks. Gafford did job of getting bodily with the rookie and never permitting simple appears to be like inside. Right here we see Wemby undergo Marvin Bagley III. Even in robust video games, Wemby nonetheless makes his method into the spotlight tape.
What’s the saying? “One or two issues a recreation that you simply’ve by no means seen earlier than.” Snatching a ball out of mid air with two arms would definitely qualify.
Pushing the ball forward to Wembanyama is an effective strategy to make issues occur offensively. We’ve seen this just a few occasions this season. Even when he doesn’t get the dunk, he’ll draw defenses in, and open up appears to be like for his teammates. That is an excessive instance of that kind of play.
His efforts aren’t more likely to present up within the spotlight reel, however Cedi Osman had his finest recreation of the season, main the Spurs bench unit. The veteran had 20 factors and a pair of steals within the loss. He went 4-6 from three, after struggling from deep over the previous few video games.
San Antonio will look to bounce again when the Orlando Magic come to city on Wednesday.
Try full recreation highlights beneath.
