The Spurs received one other useful win with out Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Fortress. Of their final dwelling sport shortly, they traded blows with the Grizzlies earlier than closing robust and securing a 126-119 victory. Harrison Barnes led all scorers with 31 factors.
It wasn’t the prettiest begin to the sport, as each groups struggled to get happening offense. Memphis hit some photographs to get an early lead, however couldn’t draw back whereas the Spurs had been ice chilly and bothered by aggressive protection. Sadly for them, an absolute onslaught of San Antonio threes finally hit to provide the house staff the firepower it wanted to make up for an absence of nice execution. The Grizzlies remained shut via shot-making, however the physicality that helped them within the preliminary minutes labored towards them, as each Zach Edey and Jaren Jackson Jr. accrued fouls. The second unit, led by Dylan Harper, finally started driving to the paint to stability out the assault. After a hard-fought 12 preliminary minutes, the Silver and Black led by 4.
The Spurs’ taking pictures got here again to earth after a scorching scorching begin, and the problems with execution and shot choice that plagued them early within the sport returned. The principle motive why it didn’t put them in a gap was that the Grizzlies had been coping with problems with their very own. As soon as they established Zach Edey within the posts, they received some regular scoring, however the specter of foul bother for the massive man saved the Spurs, as he was pulled after nearly getting his fourth on a Harper drive. Mitch Johnson took benefit of the guests’ lack of dimension to go along with a smaller unit with Jeremy Sochan at middle that was dynamic and prompted some turnovers, however points with transition protection prevented the Silver and Black from carving out a large lead. On the half, they nonetheless led by solely 4.
The problems with the offense continued early within the second half. If not for a incredible efficiency by Harrison Barnes, who made well timed buckets time and again, the Spurs may have been in deep trouble in a 3rd quarter that featured good moments however was ugly in a number of methods within the mixture. Harper, who had accomplished loads of harm earlier, was relegated to an off-ball position at occasions and wasn’t as impactful. Your entire staff, even those that usually thrive within the paint like Keldon Johnson, missed shut photographs. The small unit that created chaos within the first half began to get misplaced after the second rotation and leaving opponents open on cuts or from past the arc. It wasn’t as dangerous as a few of the different poor third quarters San Antonio has had this season, but it surely felt stunning to see them solely path by one heading into the ultimate interval.
Fortunately, an odd sport distorted by foul bother for the Grizzlies’ bigs and that includes standout performances from unlikely gamers ended up going the Spurs’ approach. The win may have simply slipped away had Edey and Jackson Jr. been capable of play extra, particularly with how a lot assist Memphis received from its second unit, however the bigs needed to sit with 5 fouls every. A six-point lead rapidly disappeared due to Johnson and Harper. As soon as Tuomas Lisalo despatched his beginning frontcourt again to the court docket, they helped them regain the lead, however the Silver and Black had been prepared to shut robust. Good protection, particularly by Luke Kornet inside, and a few clutch buckets by De’Aaron Fox helped San Antonio escape with a useful victory earlier than heading out on a protracted street journey that may hopefully see a minimum of one in every of Stephon Fortress or Victor Wembanyama return to motion.
Subsequent sport: at Orlando Magic on Wednesday
The Spurs hit the street, and their first cease is Orlando on a SEGABABA. They are going to possible want their deep bench gamers to step up, as a few of the starters performed heavy minutes on Tuesday.
