Talk about ending the new year with a bang. Or in this case, a splash. Actually, in this case, 11 splashes.
When things looked dire for the San Antonio Spurs in their New Year’s Eve game against the New York Knicks, Julian Champagnie got them back on track with his three-point shooting. Champagnie set the franchise single-game record for most three-pointers in a game, knocking down 11 of them on his way to 36 points. He led all scorers in San Antonio’s 134-132 win.
What makes this performance even better is the fact that Champagnie had been ice-cold coming into the matchup. He’d only made one three-pointer in his last 4 games. The explosion of threes likely means his shooting slump is over. That’s a big deal for a Spurs squad that has struggled to shoot the deep ball on this home stand.
Champagnie wasn’t the only 30-point scorer for the Spurs. Victor Wembanyama had 31 points and 13 rebounds in just 23 minutes. He left the game with an apparent knee injury in the fourth quarter. He told reporters after the game that he’s confident that he will be back for the Spurs’ next game against the Indiana Pacers on January 2nd. When he was in the game, Wembanyama was super efficient, only missing two shots all night. He got great looks on lobs like this one from Harrison Barnes.
Speaking of Barnes… how in the world was he able to get this shot to go in? Immediately, this shot reminded me of the Trevor Booker shot from years ago. Barnes is backwards! Facing away from the rim and still has the touch to make the ball go in. I guess they don’t call him Mr. 100% for nothing.
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program of alley-oop dunks. Stephon Castle didn’t score much on Wednesday night with just 5 points. He made up for it by leading the team with 7 assists. He’s not always the perfect point guard, but Castle’s lob-throwing ability is about as good as it gets. This one is particularly great because he’s able to draw two defenders by initiating contact around the rim, then has the vision to find Wemby streaking toward the basket.
And of course Castle’s connection with Luke Kornet has been fantastic this year. This is how San Antonio’s offense should look to be successful. Guards like Castle, De’Aaron Fox, and Dylan Harper are getting downhill, and then spraying out to shooters or finding their lob-threat bigs under the basket. The Spurs are a hard team to stop when they go north to south.
Fox earned his nickname on Wednesday night. He had 3 steals to go along with his 26 points, 7 assists, and 0 turnovers. This is vintage Fox. He waits for the defender to turn his back and lose sight of him, and then he sneaks in to grab the steal and finish on the other end. Fox is playing like an All-Star this year. He should be in the running for a spot.
The Spurs will now hit the road for the first game of a back-to-back against the Pacers on Friday night. Check out full-game highlights from the Spurs’ win over the Knicks below.
