Week in Review: Injuries, poor defense turns Spurs’ week into a blast from the past
Tweaks, strains, sprains, opponents getting hot, and the Spurs going cold all culminated in a rough week.
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 6: The Spurs sandwiched two road wins around a home loss, including ending the week with a thrilling victory in Sacramento on the back of a franchise-record 23 threes.
Week 7: 1-3 (12-12, 11th in West)
93-104 loss @ Phoenix Suns (NBA Cup)
Recap: Two nights after hitting the aforementioned 23 threes, the law of averages came back with a vengeance in Phoenix, with the Spurs hitting just 8-44 (18%) from downtown, preventing them from taking advantage of a good defensive effort and no Kevin Durant for most of the night. The loss also kept the Spurs from making the Emirates NBA Cup Tournament in Las Vegas, although with the all the new injuries that would arise, that might end up being a good thing.
124-139 loss vs. Chicago Bulls
Recap: On the same night the Spurs finally got Jeremy Sochan back from thumb surgery, Victor Wembanyama was out after hurting his back on a hard fall late in the Suns game. Without him, the Spurs had no answer for Nikola Vucevic, who destroyed them with 39 points, and even though they were better on offense by attacking the paint more, they still only hit 8 threes (this time on 28 attempts) for the second game in a row.
113-140 loss vs. Sacramento Kings
Recap: With Devin Vassell (load management) joining Wemby on the bench for the second night of a back-to-back, the Spurs were once again outgunned and outmatched against a talented Kings team that has struggled from three all season, so of course they found their range on this particular night, spoiling a career high of 30 points and six threes from Julian Champagnie. It also didn’t help that Zach Collins got himself ejected with three early fouls, getting his money’s worth on his way out.
121-116 win vs. New Orleans Pelicans
Recap: With everyone except Tre Jones back, the Spurs had a chance walk all over the most injured team in the NBA. However, the Pelicans seemed to inflict the Bayou Bug on them, with a whopping four players heading to the locker room in the first half with injury — Wemby and Collins (back), Stephon Castle (shoulder) and Keldon Johnson (calf). Wemby and Castle fortunately returned just in time to help Chris Paul move to 2nd all time in assists, and both had big plays in the fourth quarter to help stave off the upset and salvage what was about to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.
What we learned
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 20 (last week: 14)
OffRtg: 111.7 (18) DefRtg: 113.9 (17) NetRtg: -2.1 (17) Pace: 99.5 (15)
After a three-game losing streak dropped them below .500, the Spurs got Victor Wembanyama back from a two-game absence and got a rest-advantage win over the Pelicans on Sunday.
Three takeaways
1. The Spurs have now gone 10 games without winning the first quarter, getting outscored by 34.1 points per 100 possessions over those 120 total first-quarter minutes. They were up 13 with 2:30 left in the first period against the Kings on Friday, but that lead was gone by the end of the quarter and they were eventually in a 12-point hole midway through the second.
2. The Spurs allowed just 107.8 points per 100 possessions over Victor Wembanyama’s first (three-game) absence, but they allowed the Bulls and Kings to score 133.5 per 100 without him last week. Overall, they’ve allowed 8.3 fewer points per 100 possessions with Wembanyama on the floor (108.2) than they have with him off the floor (116.5), a bigger differential than they had last season (6.1 per 100).
3. With an inbounds pass to Wembanyama midway through the second quarter on Sunday, Chris Paul passed Jason Kidd for second in career assists. Paul’s assist/turnover ratio of 4.77 would be the second highest of his career and while the Spurs’ defense needs the 20-year-old phenom, the offense needs the 39-year-old vet. San Antonio has scored 10 more points per 100 possessions with Paul on the floor (114) than it has with him off the floor (104).
With those big on-off differentials, the Spurs’ bench ranks 25th this season. But the bench had some good minutes (without Tre Jones or Devin Vassell) in their first meeting (a 13-point win) against the Blazers. They’re in Portland for meeting No. 2 on Friday.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 15 (last week: 19)
A 12-12 record is a good place for the San Antonio Spurs to be right now. Even though they let some games slip by, the Spurs are still a younger team learning one another and growing in the Western Conference. The key to the Spurs finally taking that next step forward lies on offense. More specifically, getting off to fast starts and maintaining leads heading into the second half. Should San Antonio be able to figure this out, they will be a team nobody wants to run into.
Coming up: Fri. 12/13 @ Portland Trail Blazers; Sun. 12/15 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
Prediction: 1-1 — Woof. Did I ever get burned for going all in with 4-0 last week. It was certainly possible with the schedule, but as has already been rehashed, injuries and other factors just weren’t on the Spurs’ side. Now, they get a much needed four days off during the Cup quarterfinals to hopefully heal and recuperate. As Mitch Johnson said last night, even though long breaks are bad for rhythm, the Spurs couldn’t have asked for it at a better time. Last week’s burn is keeping me from predicting 2-0 this week despite another friendly schedule, but it’s certainly doable.
