It wasn’t pretty at times, but it was a historic night as the home team held off the Heat for a win to earn the first 5-0 start for the San Antonio Spurs in the existence of the franchise. The game was a series of runs and the Heat’s offensive strategy of quick offense had the young Spurs off balance for much of the game. The Spur took a 15 point lead into the fourth quarter, a lead the Heat erased with a 17-1 lead to take a Heat lead into the final few minutes. The Spurs showed the same resilience
that has become their trademark this season so far, and cranked up the defense and forced turnovers and empty possessions, and even when they made mistakes, they were still able to get stops with superior efforts from the entire roster. This Wembanyama’s team, but he’s surrounded by complementary players this year, and the team is looking really hard to beat. The Spurs are 5-0, tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the best record in the league, and will be looking for 6-0 on Monday when they play the Suns in Phoenix.
Observations
- The pregame interview with Carter Bryant was pretty impressive. He’s pretty focused and level-headed for a 19-year-old. He’s going to be a really good player, even though he didn’t get into tonight’s game.
- The Spurs faced the Heat two consecutive years, 11 and 12 seasons ago. With Pop no longer coaching, it’s a completely new era, and time for both teams to create a new history. But I’ll always remember 2014, when the Spurs overcame their biggest disappointment and won an unlikely championship the next year.
- The pace of the Heat was relentless to begin the game. Is Erik Spoelstra turning into Mike D’Antoni? Bam Adebayo taking catch and shoot threes is a new dimension to his game.
- Spoelstra used his challenge early to try to overturn a blocking foul on Davion Mitchell. Castle pushed off, but on replay, the refs ruled that the pushoff was after the blocking foul from Mitchell. Whew!
- Castle has a lot of turnovers, but he also creates a lot of turnovers. He’s chaos in basketball shoes. A backcourt steal leading to a breakaway dunk is becoming his trademark.
- Spur led 33-31 after one quarter where both teams traded runs, with the Spurs getting some nice plays from Jordan McLaughlin off the bench. Jordan always seems to make the right plays and always knows where to be. He’s a true point guard, and a great guy to have coming off the bench. I think there was another guy the Spurs got in that trade, but he hasn’t played yet this year.
- The Heat went on a surge late in the second quarter to take a 7 point lead with just over two minutes left before halftime. The Spurs finished strong, scoring the final 8 and taking a 59-58 lead as the half ended.
- I have decided to renew my membership in the Dylan Harper appreciation society.
- Devin Vassell has always been a good player for the Spurs, but now that he’s not the focus of the offense, he’s playing with a lot more freedom and confidence. And he’s playing better team defense, and making some impressive blocks.
- The Spurs are doing a good job of drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line. I think that’s an effective way to slow down a team that wants to play fast, because it’s hard to fast break off of a made free throw. It can be done, but it’s not easy.
- The Spurs started the third quarter on a 10-2 run to take an early 9 point lead which led to an early Spoelstra timeout.
- After not attempting a triple in the Raptors gamer Wembanyama had 5 attempts tonight, only making one, although that one was pretty impactful, just about icing the game. I still think that’s not a bad number for Victor, he definitely should take the three if it’s open and keep the defenders honest.
- It seems like Andrew Wiggins has been in the league forever. But he’s never played better that he’s playing right now. He’s gone from an underperforming first overall pick to being a really solid player who you want on your team.
- The insanely hot shooting of the Heat cooled off in the third quarter, possibly because the Spurs defense seemed a little tighter, while the Spurs got their first double digit lead late in the quarter, feeding off a 13-0 run to finish the quarter and leading 87-72 going into the final 12 minutes.
- Simone Fontecchio is a nice third or fourth option for the Heat, he really fits with their seven seconds or less offensive scheme with his shooting ability and clever movement on offense.
- The Heat got hot hot hot to start the fourth with a 17-1 run and retook the lead 89-88 with just over 7 minutes left, leading to a Mitch Johnson timeout. The Spurs would need to punch back to pull out a win tonight.
- Once again, Harrison Barnes showed up late in the game to steady the Spurs as they retook the lead and turned up the defense. Steph Castle hit a deep triple and broke up a two on one break as the Spurs defense took over the game.
The Spurs are going back out on the road after tonight for a Monday night game against the Suns, who are … interesting this year. They have made some odd roster moves, but they are always dangerous with Devin Booker taking shots late in the game. The Spurs will be looking to keep the streak going, and reinforcement should be coming soon as Fox, Sochan and Olynyk eventually are going to return.
