Shorthanded Spurs show stellar teamwork in close win over Pelicans

The Spurs had crucial contributions from multiple players and played with effort to overcome a more talented opponent.

The shorthanded Spurs pulled off the upset in New Orleans, beating the home team 111-109 in a nail-biter. Despite missing several rotation players, San Antonio put together a fantastic team performance to play the spoiler against a Pelicans team that needed the win but couldn’t close the game out despite leading by 15 at one point.

It was an entertaining game from the start. The Spurs tried their 18th starting lineup of the season against the Pelicans, but didn’t look as disjointed as expected early on. The home team decided to let anyone but Victor Wembanyama beat them and send doubles almost immediately whenever he tried to score but San Antonio was moving the ball well. Unfortunately, the shots didn’t fall as often as needed, which defanged the Silver and Black’s offense. Untimely turnovers didn’t help, and a bench unit that overhelped constantly started to give New Orleans, which mostly relied on CJ McCollum and Jonas Valanciunas for points, better looks for their role players. The play from both teams got sloppier as the minutes passed, and the Pelicans’ mistakes prevented them from building a double-digit lead.

Pop went with a bigger frontcourt to start the second, pairing Wembanyama with Zach Collins. New Orleans continued to focus their energy on Victor, but a couple of shots fell for the Spurs, and the size inside helped on the boards. Good contributions from Sandro Mamukelashvili and Devonte’ Graham also helped on offense, but the issues were on the other end. After struggling against a more structured San Antonio defense, the Pelicans showed more patience and started to find holes to attack. Their lead was at 10 when Wemby went to the bench and quickly jumped to 15 after as the Silver and Black struggled with turnovers. Fortunately, the three-ball fell for the Spurs when they needed it the most, which helped them respond and only trail by 10 at the break.

It wasn’t an auspicious start to the second half for the Spurs, as they seemed a little sluggish. The bad times didn’t last, though, as the ball movement once again led to some timely threes. The offense continued to be hard to stop for the Pelicans, who in their effort to stop Wembanyama routinely had to leave others open and were easily put into rotation by a selfless opponent. The visitors made a push and chipped away at the deficit before New Orleans responded. Turnovers threatened to derail San Antonio’s attack when Wembanyama rested, but the Pelicans’ offense went cold without Valanciunas and McCollum and Devonte’ Graham made a couple of big threes to allow the Spurs to close well and go into the final period tied at 86.

A crucial moment in the game was Valanciunas picking up his fifth foul early in the fourth. Without one of its two stalwarts, New Orleans struggled. Herb Jones tried to pick up the slack on offense, to mixed results, but the Pelicans couldn’t take advantage of a second unit that was shaky all game long. The Spurs had their opportunity to create separation and were playing better for a while, but they simply couldn’t stretch their lead. As both teams traded buckets, it became clear that the game would come down to the wire. With 42 seconds to go, Valanciunas got the Pelicans within one and Graham missed the two-for-one shot with 31 to go. It wasn’t hard to imagine the home team clutching up and taking the win, but the Spurs’ defense, which had been lacking for long stretches, showed up when it mattered and secured the victory for San Antonio with a couple of big stops.

Game notes

• Wembanyama’s offensive versatility was on display against an opponent that game-planned to stop him inside. Victor got rid of the ball quickly when the doubles came to get the Pelicans rotating or found the open man himself. Then in the second half started to get points by shooting from outside. In a season or two, when he cuts down on the unnecessary turnovers and gets more consistent from outside, he’ll be impossible to neutralize.
• The Spurs had seven players in double figures and 34 assists in this game. The strategy to take Wembanyama out of the game as a scorer failed the Pelicans, as the threes fell for San Antonio and Victor didn’t try to force things, acting as a decoy if needed.
• Devonte’ Graham and Sandro Mamukelashvili, guys that were not getting minutes until the injuries, were huge in this game. Graham led all scorers with 20 points to go with five assists and three steals and Mamu posted a 15-5-2-1-1 stat line that shows how active he was in every aspect of the game.
• Malaki Branham and especially Blake Wesley looked out of control for most of the game when the ball was in their hands. They combined for eight of the Spurs’ 16 turnovers and forced things at times. Branham made up for it by hitting threes, but Wesley looked like the rookie version of himself who didn’t know how to play. It’s just one game, so nothing to worry about in the long term.
• Most Spurs fans would say that the goal in the offseason is to get upgrades over Julian Champagnie and Tre Jones, but those two played really good games, showing that the best versions of themselves can work well as stopgap starters. Jones hit his threes and was a good game manager while Champagnie made athletic plays on both ends, finishing with four blocks and a couple of dunks.
• Zach Collins had his third good game in a row, finishing with 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists. The minutes next to Wemby were good, too. In a 15 to 20-minute backup center role, Collins should be able to thrive next season.
• Sidy Cissoko played six minutes but didn’t do anything impressive.

Play of the game

The Spurs used to get Richard Jefferson easy points using this simple alley-oop play years ago and it still works.

Next game: vs. Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday

The Spurs will host Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the Sixers in a couple of days. Will Embiid dominate the matchup like he did last time?