San Antonio at Boston, Final Score: The struggling half-court offense results in a 103-116 loss

Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

A flat showing before the All-Star break led to the Spurs’ third lost in the last four games.

The Spurs failed to complete a 24-point comeback against the defending champion Celtics on prime-time TV. Kristaps Porziņģis outplayed Victor Wembanyama, and Coach Mitch Johnson contemplated telling the equipment manager to load everyone’s things onto the bus early in the second quarter.

The Spurs, who are no strangers to slow starts, were put on the ropes early because of Porziņģis’ length covering the back line and the Celtics’ attack getting whatever it wanted. Wembanyama had an off-shooting night, and the rest of his team made just 35 percent of attempts in the first quarter. Their three turnovers didn’t help their defense get set up, either.

Subsequently, the Spurs were still struggling despite cranking up the RPMs. Defenders couldn’t stay down against shooters, resulting in them giving up six extra 3-pointers.

At halftime, the Spurs were trailing 66-47. The team was also down on the glass by eight and held to 14.3 percent 3-point shooting. Additionally, Tatum hung 21 points on them while creating shots for the other Celtics too.

In the third quarter, Porziņģis put more pressure on the defense because he was guarded by Harrison Barnes and Jeremy Sochan, scoring on them and grabbing rebounds over their heads. Yet, a burst from Barnes, Devin Vassell, De’Aaron Fox, and Wemby cut the deficit to 10. Chris Paul also gave the team a boost as the quarter went on.

Then, the Spurs broke within single digits after a basket from Keldon Johnson and free throws from Stephon Castle. Unfortunately, the Celtics quickly put their feet back on the accelerator and instantly countered with multiple 3-pointers and successful paint attacks. Boston’s physicality and paint actions were the difference late.

Observations

Boston’s perimeter defense was missing Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown, but they were still destroying the Spurs, like starved piranhas unleashed on prey. The team made only nine treys on 39 attempts.
The Celtics take the most threes by a wide margin and make 17.7 per game, which is also first in the league. But their efficiency at 36.8 percent is 10th best. Nonetheless, many of their actions were screen-roll attacks on the perimeter that the Spurs were slow to contest. They also put a hurtin’ on the Spurs from deep on drive-and-kick plays. The Spurs ended the game giving up 32.7 percent of 3-pointers, which could be a bit misleading. A good chunk of Boston’s missed threes had nothing to do with the Spurs.
The Celtics targeted Wembanyama on screen rolls. He had a tough time getting to the shooters, and his worst defensive sequence was getting cooked by Tatum in this set in the first quarter. On offense, Wemby failed to overpower the Celtics up close with his size and was useless from the outside.
Fox was the team‘s best player. His speed created overreactions and was too much for Derrick White, as he got to his spots for pull-up jumpers. His third-quarter flurry — scoring five baskets on the catch and dribble, plus setting up the two teammates — was a big reason why the Spurs hung in the game going into the fourth quarter.
Tatum destroyed switches and didn’t need too much space to down his jumper in all areas. Julian Champagnie also bit on his pump fake multiple times.
The team scored 93.3 points per 100 half-court plays, good enough for the 39th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.