Sights and sounds from a Sacramento (s)LAUGH(t)ER

The Spurs’ West Coast trips have afforded me anywhere from 3-4 opportunities most seasons to see them in both Sacramento and San Francisco. With my dad — while bravely fighting his battle against cancer — unable to attend the game as had originally planned, the outing became a chance for my sister to see her first Spurs game in-person since the late 80s (HemisFair Arena!) and for my niece (Wemby is her favorite of course) and my nephew (Wemby’s not even his fifth favorite Spur???) to see the 50-win juggernaut live. While all of us were too busy taking videos of the action to remember to take family photos, it was a wonderful night on the town and with a victory securely in hand by midway through the third.

Observations

• The Golden 1 Center concourse is very wide and allows for a lot more people than one can imagine to occupy the same space.
• Unfortunately that means the second level seats are at such a steep angle (steeper than Frost Bank) that fans have tumbled down the stairs several times a season.
• A childhood friend hooked up my sister’s family and myself with enough food for several games, and my worry now is that these kids will now expect this bounty and outcome each future game that they go to!
• Apparently the only Spur that didn’t perform to my sister’s expectation was Kelly Olynyk, as she repeated “I don’t like the guy in the headband” on several occasions.
• I really enjoyed the pregame preparations that Wembanyama has been doing to better gird himself for the increasing amount of physical contact opponents are throwing at him.

Pregame Fun

This was my first time seeing Wemby’s pregame preparation for the physicality that tends to ensue after tipoff:

This footwork also seems to explain how Wemby is able to turn his ankle so often and not (knock on wood) suffer worse injuries.

There’s a ton of glee watching a 7’4” human dunk a ball with ease into a 10’ tall hole in the sky:

Sean Elliott seemed to demonstrate the “appropriate” fear concept that Pop insialled into him:

1st Half Dominance

These two walkdowns by Keldon Johnson may have been the easiest buckets he’s had all season.

Definitely looking forward to the 1-2 ‘Passenger 57’ lobs that Castle and Kornet will use to break up or start a Spurs run in the playoff rounds:

These easier games have been good for Dylan Harper to try out figure out his shooting stroke, too.

It will be very nice to get 1 or 2 Bruce Bowen corner threes from Carter Bryant in the games that count:

Wembanyama did what he was supposed to do against a fellow agile big – take him right to the rack:

Julian Champagnie’s splashes – particularly above the break – were something to behold:

2nd Half – Extended Bench Time

This Fox to Wembanyama lob was aided by the threat of a dumpoff to Castle or him diving to the other side of the rim:

Fox had an inordinate amount of time to size up this wing three:

This was nice perimeter action between Lindy Waters III and Jordan McLaughlin (made easier due to the attention on the diving Spur):

Though helped by a very ‘ole’ defense most of the evening, it was nice for Keldon to see some of his outside shots go down: