Week in Review: Spurs salvage rough week with thrilling OT win in Austin
Despite four straight “home” games — three against fringe teams — the Spurs only managed one win last 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 20: After a disappointing effort in Houston and heartbreaker in Sacramento, the shorthanded Spurs came out swinging to steal a win in Golden State.
Week 21: 1-3 (15-53, 15th in West)
102-112 loss vs. Golden State Warriors
Recap — After a couple of red hot games, the Spurs’ offense returned to earth, with a dreadful third quarter spelling their doom to close a miniseries against the Warriors.
101-103 loss vs. Houston Rockets
Recap — In similar fashion to the previous game, the Spurs got out to strong start against the Rockets but sputtered in the middle two quarters before a failed comeback attempt in the fourth.
106-117 loss vs. Denver Nuggets (in Austin)
Recap — In a reverse of trends, after a slow start, the Spurs made an admirable comeback in the middle quarters before the defending champions put their foot on the gas in the fourth.
122-115 OT win vs. Brooklyn Nets (in Austin)
Recap — After a back-and-forth game, the Spurs made a late rally (spurred by a pointless flagrant foul from the Nets’ Day’Ron Sharpe that resulted in a five-point play) to force overtime and win their second game in Austin on the back of another historic performance from Victor Wembanyama.
In case you missed it
- Victor Wembanyama is breaking NBA history — CBS’s Sam Quinn breaks down Wemby’s insane run of historical performances, putting together accomplishments in just his rookie season that no other player has combined for in their entire careers.
- Victor Wembanyama is the best scoring rookie since Michael Jordan — While apologizing for laughing off Wemby as a Rookie of the Year candidate earlier in the season, JJ Redick dropped a bombshell stat: he has the most points per minute for a rookie since Michael Jordan at 0.72.
- Gregg Popovich’s most notorious line-ups — From undersized centers to munchkin lineups and no point guard, we looked back at some Pop’s most notorious lineup decisions that have stuck in our memories over the years.
- The NBA is cracking down on foul hunting — Have you noticed more physical play being allowed and a slight decrease in scoring lately? That’s because in an attempt to find some balance between offense and defense, the NBA sent a memo to the officials telling them crack down on foul hunting by focusing on legal guarding position and players who stray away from their path to the basket just to draw contact. So far, it seems to be helping.
- For even more things Wemby, check out Every day is Wembsday, courtesy of Mikey Rouleau.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 25 (last week: 25)
OffRtg: 109.7 (27) DefRtg: 117.0 (23) NetRtg: -7.3 (26) Pace: 101.9 (3)
The Spurs went 1-3 on the first half of the eight-game homestand that included two games in Austin last week, getting a (rare) comeback win over Brooklyn on Sunday.
Two takeaways
1. The Spurs had two more losses (dropping to 10-17) in games that they led by double-digits last week. They were 4-46 (with 14 straight losses) in games they trailed by double-digits before Sunday, when they came back from a 10-point deficit with less than six minutes left to force overtime. In that game, Victor Wembanyama had the go-ahead, alley-oop dunk with 38 seconds left. The rookie had shot just 19-for-49 (39%) over his previous four games, but had 33 points (on 14-for-26 shooting), 15 rebounds, seven assists and seven blocks against the Nets, rejecting Dennis Schroder’s attempt to get the lead back on the possession after his dunk.
2. Keldon Johnson hit a big 3 in regulation, scored 24 points off the bench on Sunday and has seen the seventh biggest post-break jump in effective field goal percentage (from 51.3% to 61.2%) among 176 players with at least 200 field goal attempts before the break and at least 75 since. Tre Jones, who scored 24 points against the Rockets earlier in the week, has seen the fifth biggest jump (from 53.7% to 64.6%) among that group. As a team, the Spurs have seen the second-biggest jump in points scored per 100 possessions (plus-4.0), ranking 15th offensively since the break.
The Spurs won just four of their first 37 games against the 18 teams that currently have winning records, but they’ve got three wins against good teams (the Thunder, Pacers and Warriors) in the last few weeks, and 10 of their final 14 games will be against that group. Two of those first four wins came against the Suns, who will be in San Antonio for a two-game series starting Saturday.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 26 (last week: 26)
The San Antonio Spurs currently own the worst record in the Western Conference, giving them yet another shot at landing the first overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. It may not be long until Victor Wembanyama is paired with another top overall pick, which would surely boost the Spurs’ potential moving forward.
The fact of the matter with the Spurs is that they aren’t a bad team. Unfortunately, they are just young and don’t have the right pieces in place yet. In time, the Spurs will be a juggernaut once more, especially since Wemby continues his journey to becoming a superstar in this league.
Coming up: Tues. 3/19 vs. Dallas Mavericks; Fri. 3/22 vs. Memphis Grizzlies; Sat. 3/23 vs. Phoenix Suns
Prediction 1-2 — When I believe, I get burned. It’s hard to believe the Spurs can keep up with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving (who always brings his best to San Antonio for some reason), and although the Suns are struggling again, odds are they haven’t forgotten what happened at the beginning of the season. However, the Spurs should do something they haven’t done all season: beat a depleted Grizzlies that is Jaren Jackson Jr and little else.
