The Spurs put together two of their finest wins during SEGABAGA road victories over Sacramento and Portland. When the NBA schedule came out, my sister and I reviewed which game that we’d want to go to, saw the airfare prices to and from Austin and San Antonio…. and concluded Sacramento made the most sense for both of us.
Some observations from anexcellent night in the Golden Center:
Kings’ rookie guard Darius Acuff
The best comp that I could come up with was slightly slower and less athletic Allen Iverson
with Jamal Murray’s shooting range on offense. However, he and the rest of his teammates seemed lost on most defensive possessions, which resulted in quite a few paint points for San Antonio.
(Lack of) Crowd Control
Not only were there wide swaths of the lower bowl that had empty seats, but there was entire rows in the second level that lacked humans, too. Though the Kings did themselves no favors by falling and staying behind by nearly 20 points most of the game, the ambience itself lacked the fervor of past seasons.
Things I saw in-person that I haven’t noticed on the good ole television:
- Luke Kornet seems 15-20 pounds heavier than last season.
- Domantas Sabonis tried a lot of his bull-in-a-china-shop physicality on Wembanyama in the paint – something that worked well in earlier seasons – but found it no longer works for him beyond occasionally.
- Dylan Harper (see highlights below) looked like the best guard out there.
- Wembanyama suffered his infamous face-plant during game 2 of the first-round series and turned his ankle rather gruesomely on Sabonis’ closeout tonight – so maybe I shouldn’t be going to these games in-person anymore.
- I’m sad I didn’t get video evidence of Jordan McLaughlin’s dunk attempt in the second half. It was impressive!
- Chik-Fil-A rewarded its fans with a free appetizer if a Spur missed two free throws in a row, and this might have been the biggest win tonight in Sacramento…. with the exception that fans had to claim their victory a) in the app and b) before 10 AM the next morning. I’ll take breakfast tacos anytime.
- What started as a bad omen but ultimately was a big nothing-burger: the Spurs’ rim was being repaired for over 20 minutes right after Wembanyama finished his pre-game prep, affecting the tip-off by roughly 15 minutes or so. Right before the repairs took place, I was impressed with Wembanyama’s (mostly) in-motion routine instead of just practicing stand-still jumpers:
Highlights:
The audacity AND accuracy of Stephon Castle’s re-direction here to Vassell in the first period will likely put this in the season-ending highglight rankings:
Speaking of Devin, this literally was a logo jumper late in the first quarter:
There were shades of young Tony Parker on this and-1 by Harper.
About $90 million of salary failed to box out Wembanyama on this follow slam.
Castle – for my more mature audience – is like a latter generation Dominique Wilkins with these two-footed lob jams on anybody and everybody
These simple two-man motions with Victor and a guard and shooters on the other side are good enough to win a lot of regular season games while keeping both the big man and his teammates happy. Devin’s shotmaking ability late in the shotclock is exquisite.
On a personal note, this was the first chance to watch the Spurs in-person with my sister and her two kids since my dad passed. During the last Spurs game here in Sacramento on March 17, my dad suffered his last major fall hurriedly trying to get into his TV room to watch the game. My Kings rep Gavin was kind enough to gift us post-game free throws, and Shirley credited my dad for willing her free throw into the net.
My attempt felt like a ham-fisted Shaq free throw coming out of my hands, but it also founds its way home:
Closure.
