We acquired our first take a look at the San Antonio Spurs full staff (minus a couple of bigs and Devin Vassell) on Wednesday night time. The staff was heavy on ball motion, dunks, and bodily play, resulting in a 107-97 win over the Orlando Magic. There have been loads of highlights from the Spur’s second preseason contest.
The Spurs ball motion was on level towards Orlando. San Antonio completed the sport with 27 assists, which is definitely a low mark for the staff in comparison with final 12 months. When the offense was working, there was fixed motion, screening and drives to the basket that created lanes for cutters. Jeremy Sochan and Julian Champagnie each benefitted from this type of play. Right here we see Sochan, who completed with 12 factors on 5-6 taking pictures, get the dunk after Champagnie blows by Franz Wagner.
Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul made their preseason debuts, and boy was it superb. There have been a number of probabilities for the veteran level guard to hit Wemby on a lob. It was electrical after they related on a lob on the finish of the primary quarter. The choose and roll between these two goes to unlock a lot for the Spurs offense.
Wembanyama regarded explosive in his first motion of the 2024-25 season. He completed the sport with 11 factors, 9 rebounds and three blocks in 23 minutes. He oozed confidence, possibly an excessive amount of as he threw the ball away 4 instances and shot simply 4-15 from the sector. As he shakes the rust off within the preseason, there’s a lot to be enthusiastic about in 12 months two. Right here we see him pump pretend his man on the perimeter and end with drive on the rim.
Wemby goes to get plenty of open appears to be like if the Spurs transfer the ball like this all 12 months. Spurs head coach, Gregg Popovich performed plenty of lineups with three guards on the market. With guys like Blake Wesley and Stephon Citadel who can flex to play off the ball and on the wing, they’ll afford to do it defensively. That led to extra downhill attacking that bends the protection and creates pictures for bigs within the paint, as we see on the dump off to Wembanyama.
Champagnie has seized his alternative to begin within the place of the injured Vassell. After main the Spurs in scoring of their preseason opener, he had one other good taking pictures sport towards Orlando. Champagnie completed with 12 factors on 3-6 taking pictures from three. He was a favourite goal of Paul, who discovered him for open pictures from deep numerous instances.
It’s unclear what Sandro Mamukelashvili’s function will probably be this upcoming season, however he’s been regular within the preseason. Mamu gives a spark and a few flooring spacing off the bench and opens up the offense for the second unit. He completed Wednesday’s sport with 9 factors and 4 rebounds, flattening three deep pictures.
After an up-and-down preseason debut, Citadel was glorious in sport two. The rookie led the Spurs in scoring with 17 factors and added 4 assists and a pair of steals. He was relentless driving to the basket, attending to the free throw line 10 instances the place he transformed for 7 factors. Citadel has proven the motor, craft and aggressiveness that made him a top-5 choose.
The swing ability for Citadel is his jumper. If he can knock down open threes, he turns into an much more harmful offensive weapon. The rookie went 2-5 from downtown towards the Magic.
Wesley has been nice by two preseason video games. His pace and defensive aggression convey a disruptive high quality to the second unit. Greater than something, he’s making smarter selections and caring for the basketball. Via two video games, Wesley has 12 assists and only one turnover. In opposition to Orlando he had 3 factors, 7 assists and a pair of steals.
The Spurs will host the Jazz on Saturday of their subsequent contest. See full highlights from their preseason win over the Magic beneath.
