Eight days in the past, the Spurs went into the house of the inferior Portland Path Blazers, and it was almost a catastrophe. Already down 4 gamers to damage and shedding Chris Paul early to ejection, a horrible third quarter noticed the Spurs in dire straights earlier than they pulled off a miraculous 17-point comeback within the fourth quarter. Then, two nights in the past, they received an emotional, intense OT recreation towards the Hawks that was thrilling but in addition irritating at occasions resulting from an absence of focus. Tonight, they weren’t going to fall into the identical traps.
The Spurs continued their aim of getting out to stronger begins with their new and most popular beginning lineup, and partly due to a few threes from Harrison Barnes and stellar rim protection from Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs discovered themselves up 19-11 with 3:28 left within the first quarter when the bench models got here in. In a pleasant change from previous video games, the second unit largely held their very own, and the Spurs nonetheless led 25-20 heading into the second quarter.
After a quiet first quarter from Portland’s huge names, Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe hit just a few threes to tie issues again up at 33 apiece. Each groups would then undergo an offensive lull, with the rating sitting at simply 41-39 Spurs with 4:10 left, however it could be all Spurs from there. They closed the half on a 19-5 run, spearheading by some heads-up play from on each ends from Stephon Fortress and capped by a few Wemby threes after what had not been his biggest offensive half to match his protection, having shot simply 2-9 up till that time.
Whereas the Spurs have been an excellent third quarter crew this season, the hope is they’d keep away from considered one of their notorious turd quarters like that they had in Portland final week earlier than making the miraculous comeback. Whereas it wasn’t a very spectacular quarter for the Spurs, they treaded water more often than not earlier than Wemby returned to spark one other sturdy end to 1 / 4 along with his pictures now falling — together with the two hundredth three of his profession — and the Spurs have been up 85-68 heading into the ultimate body.
They lastly inserted their will for good early within the fourth, getting the lead previous the 20-point threshold. All of the starters have been performed with the Spurs up 101-78 with 6:45 left, and the third string entered three minutes later to shut issues out. After the gradual offensive first half, Wemby was on hearth within the second, ending with 30 factors on 8-16 from the sphere (4-8 from three). Their win mixed with losses for the Timberwolves and Suns transfer the Spurs right into a play-in place at ninth place (nevertheless briefly). With groups 2-11 within the West all inside 4 video games within the loss column of one another, it’s going to be the wild wild West from right here on out, so buckle up.
Recreation Notes
If anybody remains to be hating on Sochan, I don’t know what else to say. He had one other spectacular recreation attacking the paint, rebounding, and simply being an general menace on the court docket. His stat line of 10 factors, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal and block doesn’t leap off the web page, nevertheless it additionally doesn’t absolutely seize all the things he brings to the court docket. He’s additionally doing an excellent job of serving to put to mattress the notion that he can’t share the court docket with Wemby. With Wemby taking pictures threes, he doesn’t must, and the 2 of them have discovered good chemistry on cuts, particularly with Wemby discovering Sochan on performs like this.
As soon as once more, Charles Bassey bought the nod at backup middle, and in contrast to the Atlanta recreation, he performed effectively sufficient to maintain that spot within the second half with a double-double of 16 environment friendly factors and a team-high 12 rebounds. Maybe extra noteworthy is Zach Collins, who didn’t play towards the Hawks when Bassey struggled (as a substitute, Mitch Johnson went with Sochan at backup middle within the second half) and was the one DNP tonight regardless of the Spurs emptying the bench with over three minutes left. Are they only taking their time along with his again after a nasty fall pressured him to overlook just a few video games, or is there extra going behind the scenes (similar to commerce speak)? Will probably be an fascinating scenario to proceed monitoring.
Together with his first block of the sport, Wemby handed David Robinson for a franchise-record 62 straight video games with a block, and it’s exhausting to think about that streak ending any time quickly. He presently leads the league with 3.5 blocks per recreation, and he in all probability upped that quantity a tic tonight with 10 extra blocks to grow to be simply the sixth participant in NBA historical past to have a 30-point, 10-block recreation. (Sadly, there was no triple-double since he “solely” grabbed 7 rebounds.) And only for good measure, he added an offensive milestone as effectively, changing into the fifteenth quickest participant to succeed in 200 profession three-pointers. Of, be aware he bought there sooner than Steph Curry, James Harden, and Ray Allen. Thoughts blowing.
Play of the Recreation
Talking of Wemby threes, for this reason he added them to his arsenal. As soon as gamers must respect it, then driving lanes like this open up:
Up subsequent: Monday at Philadelphia 76ers
The Spurs are headed out East for his or her first prolonged street journey of the season, starting with the struggling 76ers. Will Wemby be able to get revenge on a banged up Joel Embiid after he dropped 70 on them final season? Tune in to search out out!
