The visiting San Antonio Spurs bested the Utah Jazz on Halloween and completed its first back-to-back set of the season with a split.
Devin Vassell (right foot) and Tre Jones (right ankle) were absent for the Spurs.
Lauri Markkanen was out (back spasms) for the Jazz.
The Spurs countered a 9-0 opening Jazz run with 13 points, but the offense was stuck in the mud the rest of the frame. They only made six of 24 baskets as the Jazz punished them with 11 straight digits close to the period from Patty Mills and John Collins.
The second quarter started with the Jazz up 30-19, but the visitors managed to cut it to six points, mainly thanks to action from Victor Wembanyama, Chris Paul, Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson.
Then, the Spurs came out of the break running a fruitful Harrison Barnes-Wembanyama pick-and-roll play that set the tone of going inside on a 12-2 run. Defensively, they flashed the regular full-court press plus the 2-2-1 and the paint protection was strong, holding Utah to four of 13 makes in the interior for the third frame.
The fourth quarter started with the Spurs ahead 77-67. Paul further organized the offense to the second-sharpest shooting sequence of the game as the team coasted to the finish line.
Let’s review what happened.
Observations
- On a night after making a very low impact on both sides, Victor Wembanyama uncorked the offense for the Spurs with multiple 3-pointers. He also scored thrice in the square in the first half on a lob set up by Paul, plus on a putback and on a feed by Julian Champagnie. Defensively, he started guarding Walker Kessler, getting beat on a rim roll. Yet, Wembanyama checked him well and denied him even when recovering from helping a teammate stop the ball and rejected a pick-and-roll set at the cup. His best plays of the game were coming up on the Jazz’s PnR and stripping the ball from Brice Sensabaugh then finishing a dunk on the break; and staying high and blowing up Collin Sexton’s jump shot.
- In the second half, Wembanyama’s pick-and-roll defense was solid. He deflected an opposing pass to Barnes in drop coverage and stifled Kessler in the same scheme, which set up a Barnes open-court dunk.
- Former Spur Patty Mills sent his regards, splashing three triples in 53 seconds at the end of first interval against two decent challenges and one slightly late in the corner. On top of that, the Spurs loosened up corner protections to bother dribble penetration. Still, the Spurs recovered on time for the most part to the perimeter on the catch. The Jazz only converted 21.9 percent of hoisted 3-pointers.
- The Spurs’ long range attack wasn’t able to capitalize on various instances the Jazz left them open to also make inside scoring harder. The Silver and Black registered seven of 26 first-half trifectas, 5 of 17 in the second half and made 57.5 percent of attempts in the paint.
- Chris Paul was the second-best Spur, and his fingerprints are all over the fourth quarter. He maneuvered to the mid-range for four baskets, swished three 3-pointers, and set up 10 plays without one turnover.
- The Spurs’ bench provided a boost of 37 points, but was outscored by 13. Stephon Castle was the strongest San Antonio reserve because he bothered the ball mostly well on defense and connected on three of eight looks.
The Spurs will return home on Saturday to face the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tip off will be at 7:00 PM CT on FanDuel Sports.
