It was a bit of a slow start for all of the San Antonio Spurs but one. The Silver and Black let the Washington Wizards stick around in the first half and blew them out in the second half to secure a 119-94
victory. It was the rookie, Dylan Harper, who was consistently great throughout the game.
Harper had a career-high 24 points on 9-13 shooting, including knocking down three triples. He added 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Spurs fans are attuned to Harper’s top-notch finishing inside, but lately he’s begun to show off his deep shot, too.
Harper got it done in a variety of ways on Thursday night. He’s always aggressive getting to the cup, and showed some impressive bounce on a few of his finishes against the Wizards with two(ish) dunks. The most promising sign was his efficiency shooting from three. He’s shooting just 30.2% from deep this season, but if Harper becomes a consistent deep threat, his offensive game will open up tremendously. It feels like there is limitless potential for the rookie to tap into.
Harper hasn’t been the only impressive member of the Spurs’ young backcourt. Stephon Castle is playing some of the best basketball of his career right now. The other half of the “Slash Brothers” had 17 points and 7 assists against the Wizards. He got things started with this electric jam in the second possession of the game. It’s safe to say we need Castle back in the dunk contest this year.
San Antonio got contributions from all its guards. Devin Vassell is back to playing some great ball after a brief cold stretch. He has been thriving as an off-ball shooter who takes advantage of aggressive closeouts. He had 18 points, knocking down three deep shots. Here we see Kyshawn George closeout hard, respecting Vassell’s ability to shoot the three-ball. Vassell attacks and would typically shoot a contested mid-range jumper here. Instead, he gets George to bite on the shot fake and steps through for a clean finish.
No highlights article would be complete without a section dedicated to Victor Wembanyama. He’s still playing on a minutes restriction, but boy, are those minutes impactful. Wemby had 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 blocks in just 17 minutes against the Wizards. He started with the smooth Gervin-esque finger roll over the top of the defense.
Why not get two Spurs in the dunk contest? Wembanyama’s length and athleticism allow him to do things above the rim that simply aren’t possible for many people. Wemby comes out of nowhere here for the put-back slam. He got slapped in the face here, but Sean Elliott asks if he hit his head on the rim. It wouldn’t be all that surprising if he did!
Wembanyama had one of the most impressive sequences of the game here. He swats the shot, dribbles the full length of the court, and slams it on Washington. What this highlight cuts off is the fact that Wemby had another block right after the dunk. If he can play enough games this season, his block count may be so high that they have to give him the Defensive Player of the Year award.
San Antonio will be back at it again on Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks. Both teams will be in the second game of a back-to-back.
