Welcome to the Week in Review: a Monday feature that looks back at the week that was for the San Antonio Spurs, takes a look at the week ahead, and more. Enjoy!
Week 2: The Spurs extended their start to
a franchise-best 5-0 with home wins over the Raptors and Heat but came back down to earth with a road trashing from the Suns, who provided a blue print on how to take Victor Wembaynama out of the game offensively and make everyone else beat them, and in this case, his teammates failed. Although perhaps the biggest takeaways was losing Dylan Harper to a calf strain, exposing their need to get healthy and fast.
Week 3: 2-1 (7-2 overall, 2nd in West)
116-118 loss at Los Angeles Lakers
Recap: In a game that was nationally ridiculed not because of the teams playing on the court but the way it was officiated — it took almost 3 hours amidst 66 foul calls, 84 free throws, and video reviews taking too long — neither team could get into a sustained rhythm, making for a lousy late-night viewing experience. To make matters worse, the Spurs came out with their second straight loss mostly by carrying over bad habits from the Suns game and shooting themselves in the foot time and again.
121-110 win vs. Houston Rockets (In-season Tournament)
Recap: The Spurs returned home to get a much needed, confidence-boosting win against their IH-10 Rivals by matching their physicality and other players stepping up while Wemby continued to find his way through his offensive slump. He finally busted out in the second half against a questionable zone defense deployed by Ime Udoka, and Harrison Barnes and Julian Champagnie both hit six threes to help with the extremely satisfying win that also put the Spurs at 1-0 in the In-Season Tournament.
126-119 win vs. New Orleans Pelicans
Recap: After the emotional high of the Rockets win, the Spurs were staring at the ultimate trap game the very next night against a shorthanded New Orleans Pelicans squad that was down three starters but had still won two straight. Sparked by the season debut De’Aaron Fox, it wasn’t always pretty, but the Spurs led wire-to-wire and used a strong second quarter to keep the Pelicans at arm’s length most of the time, and Fox reminded everyone why he is a former Clutch Player of the year.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 7 (last week: 9)
OffRtg: 118.1 (6) DefRtg: 110.8 (4) NetRtg: +7.3 (5) Pace: 99.2 (26)
Victor Wembanyama has cooled off a bit, but the Spurs got a big win over the Rockets on Friday and De’Aaron Fox scored 24 points in his season debut the following night.
Three takeaways
1. Fox replaced Julian Champagnie in the Spurs’ starting lineup and played more than 30 minutes in his return. The time of possession was split pretty evenly between him and Stephon Castle, who tied his career high with 14 assists in the win over the Pelicans. The Spurs lost almost all of a 19-point lead, but never trailed and scored 126 points on 100 possessions, their most efficient offensive performance of the season.
2. The Spurs have actually seen the league’s biggest drop in the percentage of their baskets that have been assisted, from 68.5% (third) last season to 60.0% (25th) this season. The percentage of Wembanyama’s buckets that have been assisted has dropped from 76% to 61%.
3. It seemingly defies logic, but with Wembanyama being defended by some forwards (Royce O’Neale, Rui Hachimura, Saddiq Bey) of late, he’s been more of a jump shooter over the last four games (44% of his shots coming in the paint) than he was prior (61%). He didn’t attempt a single free throw in the Spurs’ loss in Phoenix eight days ago or against the Pelicans on Saturday. The Spurs’ offense has been much better with Wembanyama off the floor, though the on-off differential on defense has been almost twice as big.
Coming up: The Spurs will visit Chicago before returning to San Antonio for five straight games. The first game of the homestand (Wednesday vs. the Warriors) is also their first rest-advantage game of the season.
Law Murray, The Athletic — 3 (last week: 6)
De’Aaron Fox picked a good time to assert his position.
Fox’s return came during rookie Dylan Harper’s calf injury and after Stephon Castle had his sixth game of the season with at least five turnovers; last year, Castle had only four five-turnover games all of his rookie season. But no matter, Fox is here to make it easier on Castle and everyone else. He got buckets against the Pelicans, while Castle came up with a career-best 14 assists to go with – surprise! – a season-low two turnovers.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 3 (last week: 2)
Although Victor Wembanyama has come back down from his early-season high, and despite losing to the Lakers at the start of this past week, the San Antonio Spurs bounced back in a big way with a statement win against Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets.
De’Aaron Fox and Jeremy Sochan have returned from injury for this group, and they currently have eight different players averaging at least 10 points per game. This included Julian Champagnie, who has been a terrific role player for the Spurs, shooting 37.5 percent from the perimeter and helping make an impact on defense.
The Spurs are only allowing teams to average 110.7 points per game against them and score an average of 42.4 points per game in the paint; both rank fourth in the NBA.
Coming up: Mon. 11/10 at Chicago Bulls (6-3); Wed. 11/12 vs. Golden State Warriors (5-5); Fri. 11/14 vs. Golden State Warriors* (5-5), Sun. 11/16 vs. Sacramento Kings (3-6)
* In-season Tournament game
Prediction: 3-1 — Hopefully the return of Fox will help the Spurs perform better on the road against the surprising Chicago Bulls. Then, the Spurs kick off a five-game home stand with consecutive games against the Warriors, the second of which will count towards the tournament. Steph Curry has been day-to-day with illness, but it’s always hard to win consecutive games against the same team. Finally, the Spurs end the week with the awkwardly built and struggling Kings.
