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 7: The travel-weary Spurs got a couple more clutch wins — one at home against the Grizzlies on the back of Harrison Barnes’ best game as a Spur, the other the next night in Orlando thanks to Luke Kornet blocking Franz Vagner at the buzzer — before the schedule finally caught up with them in Cleveland, where a good game at halftime turned
into a blowout loss during a disastrous third quarter.
Week 8: 3-0 (18-7, 5th in West)
135-132 win at New Orleans Pelicans
Recap: After leading by as much as 25 in the second quarter, it looked like the Spurs would cruise to victory against the then-worst team in the league (they have since gotten Zion Williamson back and won two straight), but for the second game in a row, the turd quarter bug bit, and the Spurs were outscored 45-23 by the upstart Pelicans and Derik Queen having a career night. Fortunately, in what became the battle of the rookies, the Spurs pulled it back together just in time to prevent the upset while riding Dylan Harper’s best game of his young career.
132-119 win at Los Angeles Lakers*
* NBA Cup Quarterfinals
Recap: Facing a fully healthy Lakers squad that unlike last time, also had LeBron James and Austin Reeves while the Spurs were still missing Victor Wembanyama, this looked like a tough matchup for the NBA Cup Quarterfinals. But, as it turned out, the Spurs were more than up to the challenge, using a red-hot start from three and outpacing the slower Lakers all night to overcome a typical 35-point performance from Luka Doncic and 26-point outing from Marcus Smart off the bench, and the win sent the Spurs to the semifinals in Las Vegas
111-109 win vs. Oklahoma City Thunder*
* NBA Cup Semifinals, at Las Vegas
Recap: Victor Wembanyama made his triumphant return from a 12-game absence, and despite coming off the bench and on a minutes restriction, he single-handedly kept the Spurs in the game by being +20 in his 7 minutes on the court in the first half (they were -23 without him). He then came up big again the clutch, and with four players scoring 20 or more points, the Spurs upset the defending champions, putting an end to their record-tying start to the season and making the NBA Cup Finals.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 6 (last week: 9)
OffRtg: 118.0 (7) DefRtg: 113.8 (14) NetRtg: +4.2 (8) Pace: 100.9 (16)
The Spurs went 9-3 during Victor Wembanyama’s absence, but they’re in the Emirates NBA Cup final because he was back in uniform on Saturday and helping them put an end to the Thunder’s 16-game winning streak.
Three takeaways
1. The win on Saturday was the Spurs’ worst offensive game of the season (111 points on 106 possessions), but it was also the Thunder’s worst (109 on 107). Oklahoma City scored just 40 points on 48 possessions (shooting 4-for-13 in the paint) in Wembanyama’s 21 minutes on the floor. The Spurs have now allowed 110.7 per 100 in the 13 games he’s played and just 104.3 per 100 in his 437 minutes on the floor.
2. The Lakers lead the league in free-throw differential, but the Spurs handed them their worst differential (29-17) of the season on Wednesday. San Antonio has seen the league’s third biggest jump in free throw rate from last season, with Wembanyama (from 22.1 to 41.4 attempts per 100 shots from the field) and Stephon Castle (from 34.8 to 52.0 per 100) having seen the third and seventh biggest jumps among 120 players with at least 200 field goal attempts in each of the last two seasons.
3. Their three games last week were the first three games in which the Spurs had Castle, De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper all in uniform. They haven’t had all three on the floor together, but each player has had their moments. Harper (on the floor instead of Castle) had the game-winning bucket in New Orleans, Castle scored an efficient 30 points (while also guarding Luka Dončić) in L.A., and Fox had the first six points on the critical, 13-0 run to close the first half against the Thunder.
Coming up: The Cup final will come against an even better offense than that of the Thunder, and the Knicks are more of a jump-shooting team than Oklahoma City. But Wembanyama’s presence in the paint should help the Spurs defend the 3-point line better, with the corners being particularly important on Tuesday. The Knicks’ 5 corner 3s per game would be the most for any team in the 47-year history of the 3-point line, and they were 8-for-15 from the corners in their Christmas win over the Spurs (the last game Wembanyama played vs. New York) last year.
Law Murray, The Athletic — 6 (last week: 9)
Trade Winds: PF Jeremy Sochan
Victor Wembanyama has returned, and Saturday night was arguably his most impactful NBA performance considering the opponent and the stakes. The Spurs still have room to figure out how to balance minutes and touches for their explosive guard trio of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper while also not forgetting about Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie now that Wembanyama is back. A player who has been completely forgotten is Sochan, who was out of the rotation even before Wembanyama returned. Sochan is a 2026 restricted free agent, and he may be of more use to San Antonio as part of a trade package that could return a better shooter.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 4 (last week: 8)
A win over the Knicks on Tuesday and claiming this year’s NBA Cup is exactly what the Spurs need to back up their win over Oklahoma City. Believe it or not, this win over the Thunder marked the first time all season that the Spurs have been fully healthy, which finally gives them a chance to begin proving what type of playoff threat they can be.
Without Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio won nine of their 11 games, and they have ranked fifth in scoring since Nov. 14. The Spurs are rolling right now, and they are an elite defensive team with Wemby on the floor. It is early, but this team has proven that it has what it takes to beat the best of the best in the Western Conference.
Coming up: Tues. 12/16 vs. New York Knicks*; Thurs. 12/18 vs. Washington Wizards; Fri. 12/19 at Atlanta Hawks; Sun. 12/21 at Washington Wizards
* NBA Cup Finals — does NOT count towards the regular season
Prediction: 4-0 — (Or officially 3-0, if you only consider games that “count”.) Why the heck not? The Spurs are fully healthy for the first time all season and just put it to the defending champs. I believe Keldon Johnson’s llama will give them enough motivation to win the Cup in Vegas tomorrow, and then they get a relatively easy schedule the rest of the week, albeit while continuing to travel between games. (Fun fact, outside of these two games in Vegas, they haven’t had consecutive games in the same place since Nov. 18 and 20 at home and won’t again until a three-game homestand after Christmas. They were already set to be the third-most traveled team this season in terms of mileage, so what did adding a trip to Los Angeles from New Orleans, and then to Las Vegas and San Antonio do to that number?)
