Week in Review: Home sweet home
The Spurs returned from the RRT and found their offensive stride, leading to two thrilling wins over good teams.
Welcome to the Week in Review: a Monday feature that looks back at the week that was for the San Antonio Spurs, takes a look at the week ahead, and more. Enjoy!
Week 18: The Spurs went winless in their return from the All-Star break, with a couple of tight losses to good teams a bad one to a not-so-good team.
Week 19: 2-1 (13-48, 15th in West) — 105-114 L @ Minnesota Timberwolves; 132-118 W vs. Oklahoma City Thunder; 117-105 W vs. Indiana Pacers
For the championship Spurs, the Rodeo Road Trip acted as a time for the team to come together and start their strong push towards the postseason. For the rebuilding Spurs, it’s just an exhausting road trip with little relief, making home games all the more appreciated. There may be talk of the Spurs moving on from the Frost Bank Center to a new and improved location in the future, but at least for now, it’s still home sweet home.
First, they had to get there by finishing off the RRT in Minnesota, where they suffered a blowout loss that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicated as they suffered through their second straight game with 20-plus turnovers, looking completely helpless, demoralized and not like a team with a stated goal of building towards the future in the final stretch of the season. They were looking so bad that Gregg Popovich even experimented with benching his main players in consecutive games to find a spark.
It turns out, the only spark they needed was their home crowd. Against a Thunder team that had throttled them in their prior two meetings, the Spurs looked like an entirely different team. They protected the ball, their starters all shot lights-out from three, and Victor Wembanyama put in yet another stellar performance against his direct Rookie of the Year rival Chet Holmgren, all symbolically capped off Wemby blocking the 7-footer’s jumper — something only he could pull off. It was a complete-180 from how the team had been playing, made all the more thrilling by who the opponent was.
Finally was another matchup against a playoff bound team in the Pacers, who also feature one of the top offenses in the league but have struggled with Tyrese Haliburton not being himself since returning from injury. The Spurs offense wasn’t quite as hot as it was against OKC, but Wemby remained on a tear, and the Spurs played excellent defense all night. Even though TJ McConnell did his best to fill in the role of Spurs-killer left behind by Buddy Hield, everyone else was held in check. The end result was another thrilling home victory and reminder what the Spurs can be when they perform well on both ends of the court.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 25 (last week: 28)
OffRtg: 109.5 (27) DefRtg: 117.3 (24) NetRtg: -7.8 (26) Pace: 102.2 (3)
The post-break Spurs have looked a lot more competitive, even when they haven’t won. But they have won their last two games, ending the Thunder’s six-game winning streak on Thursday.
Two takeaways
1. The Spurs have scored 114.5 points per 100 possessions (13th) over their six games since the All-Star break, up from 109.0 per 100 (28th) before the break. Only the Celtics have seen a bigger jump and seven different Spurs have averaged double-figures over the six games.
2. Those seven Spurs are led by Victor Wembanyama, who’s shot 29-for-64 (45%) from 3-point range over his last 12 games and blocked 43 shots over his last eight. Over that latter stretch, the Spurs have been 27.5 points per 100 possessions better with the rookie on the floor (plus-9.4) than they’ve been with him off the floor (minus-18.1), with big differentials on both offense and defense.
This is the fourth time that the Spurs have won two straight games. Their next chance for their first three-game winning streak will come in the building (the Toyota Center) in which they shot a season-worst 5-for-41 (12%) from 3-point range in early December.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 25 (last week: 27)
Victor Wembanyama sealed the deal on the Rookie of the Year race this past week when he and the San Antonio Spurs took down Chet Holmgren and the Thunder. In this game, Wemby had 28 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, five blocks, and two steals.
Not only is Wembanyaa in contention for Rookie of the Year, but a really strong case could be made for him to win Defensive Player of the Year as well. The French phenom has recorded at least five blocks in 17 games this season, including six of his last eight games. Regarding his steals and blocks, which many refer to as “stocks,” Wembanyama is averaging 6.0 stocks per game.
The 20-year-old is a generational talent that has the Spurs on the verge of being a force once more.
Coming up: Tues. 3/5 @ Houston Rockets; Thurs. 3/7 @ Sacramento Kings; Sat. 3/9 @ Golden State Warriors
Prediction: 2-1 — The Spurs are right back on the road ahead of an eight-game homestand starting next week (which suddenly sounds extremely intriguing), so hopefully they can carry some of their current momentum with them. The Rockets are slumping, but the matchup between these two teams are always crazy (and heated). The Kings have been middling but are a tough matchup for the Spurs, and the Warriors are rising since moving Klay Thompson to a sixth man role but are still prone to some pretty bad losses. Anything can happen.
