Last season, the Spurs had the second-best record in the league on the second night of back-to-backs, and surely their youth played a role in that. Believe it or not, they’re still young just a few months later, and they are now 3-0 on SEGABABA’s this season after an absolute beatdown of the Portland Trail Blazers for their 8th straight win. Portland started the season hot but were coming off a loss to the Lakers last night, and while they may have been revenge-minded for their first-round loss in the playoffs,
they were missing Ja Morant, Robert Williams and Shaedon Sharpe and were no match for a healthy Spurs squad with Victor Wembanyama playing the way he is.
However, before the blowout came, the Spurs would have to get through a sluggish first half borne of both poor shooting from both teams and a heavy whistle. After hitting 3-5 from three before the first timeout, including both of Wemby’s attempts for an 11-3 lead, both teams were sluggish, with the Spurs up shooting 33% in the quarter and the Blazers just 25%. But Portland got hot to close the quarter while the Spurs got sloppy, closing on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to two, 22-20.
After barely playing last night, Carter Bryant brought a spark to the start the second quarter with a couple of corner threes and a block of Damian Lillard. Meanwhile, the Blazers did a good job of drawing fouls and were in the bonus less than four minutes in. It didn’t take long for the Spurs to join them, and what was already a sluggish game came to a screeching halt with all the whistles and free throws. Overall, the teams combined for 41 free throws in the half, and at one point, the Spurs scored 11 straight points from the stripe before a Stephon Castle alley-oop and consecutive Junliam Chamapgnie threes in the final minutes got the offense going again, and they went into the half up 64-49.
The lack of whistles allowed the offenses to open up in the second half, but the Spurs were red hot, especially Wemby, who finished the night with 29 points on 9-13 shooting (3-6 from three) in just 24 minutes of play. An 11-0 run capped off by a technical foul on Deni Avdija gave the Spurs their first 20-point lead of the game, and there was no stopping them from there. The Blazers had nothing left in the tank, and the crowd watched in stunned silence as the Spurs got the lead all the way up to 30 for the first time this season on a Dylan Harper banker late in the third quarter. The last 15+ minutes of the game was entirely garbage time, and the Spurs finished their most dominant game of the season with a 125-103 win.
Game Notes
- We finally got a glimpse of last season’s version of Luke Kornet. He was active in his first stint with a floater, two rebounds and block of a Chris Youngblood three-point shot, and the Spurs added a point to the lead. Granted, most of his time was spent against Yang Hansen, but he needed a confidence-booster, and maybe this was it. He finished the night with 6 points and 4 rebounds in 15 minutes, and perhaps most notably, was a +9 while on the floor.
- As frustrating as all the whistles were for both sides in the first half, it was comical at times (granted it’s easier to laugh when your team is ahead). Some of the calls were mindbogglingly soft, and Wemby former Spurs teammate Sidy Cissoko got into a bit of a French Flop Fest, with both exaggerating contact to get whistles. To borrow a hilarious text from Jesus Gomez last night, “Sidy flopped three times, and Wemby said, ‘Hold my cabernet sauvignon’”. (He also shook the refs’ hands after the game, which I’ve never seen before, adding to the hilarity.)
- Random thought of the night while sitting through a blowout: David Jones Garcia is still with the team instead of joining his fellow two-way players in Austin to start the season, which seems odd, but perhaps the Spurs intend to make him their 15th player once enough time has passed that they can sign him without going over the luxury tax, so he’s staying with the main team? He really has nothing left to prove at the G League level, and he reportedly turned down more lucrative offers from overseas, so maybe there’s an agreement in place? Just my two cents.
Play of the Game
It wasn’t the prettiest play of the game, but when trying to get out of the slugfest and free-throw-a-thon that was the second quarter, sometimes it just takes plays like this. (You also know it’s your night when stuff like this goes in.)
Up next: Monday 11/9 at Phoenix Suns
8:00 PM CT on DAZN
