Week in Review: Spurs winless in return from All-Star break
Spurs lose tight games to a couple of good before being blown out by a bad one.
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 17: Victor Wembanyama’s historic triple-double was the highlight of the week ahead of the All-Star Break.
Week 18: 0-3 (11-47, 15th in West) — 122-127 L @ Sacramento Kings; 118-123 L @ Los Angeles Lakers; 109-128 L @ Utah Jazz
The Spurs came out of the All-Star break without anything to play for in terms of aspirations for this season (beyond avoiding a franchise record number of losses, which at this point will require them to go 9-15 the rest of the way just to tie 1996-97’s 20-62 record), but they the stated goal was to show improvement and built momentum heading into the offseason. They kinda did that to start the week, but they ended on a sour note.
One thing that wasn’t sour: Victor Wembanyama, who continued his streak of pulling off big feats or hitting a new milestone with each passing game. While the opener against the Kings wasn’t his finest outing from a scoring standpoint, he came within an assist of his first 5×5 game and was the youngest player to record 5 blocks and 5 steals in a single game. Devin Vassell continued his hot scoring in that game as well, and although the Spurs came up short and once against struggled to close a game they led late, it ended up being one of their more entertaining games of the season.
The next night was a visit to the Lakers. (Some might recall their last meeting was the the win that ended the Spurs’ massive 18-game losing streak in December.) This was the first time the Spurs played the Lakers with both LeBron James and Anthony Davis available, and again they were simply out-talented in a hard-fought but losing battle. However, Wemby did get his 5×5 game this time, becoming the youngest player to do it and the first to average such a stat line across multiple games.
Last was their matchup against a slumping Jazz team that was on a five-game losing streak and had lost 7 of their last 11. It seemed like a good opportunity to end the week on a high note, but instead the Spurs came out flat and tired, possibly impacted by the underrated altitude of Salt Lake City. With 20 turnovers and a poor night from the free throw line, the Spurs found themselves down to the Jazz early, and outside of quick run to open the fourth quarter, they just couldn’t get out of their own way long enough to truly threaten a comeback. When factoring in the strength of the opponent, it ended up being one of their more disappointing performances in quite a while. On the bright side, Wemby became the first Spur since David Robinson in 1995 to record 5 blocks in three straight games, so the milestone streak continued.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 28 (last week: 28)
OffRtg: 109.1 (27) DefRtg: 117.6 (24) NetRtg: -8.5 (26) Pace: 102.3 (3)
The Spurs are 1-7 on the rodeo trip, though they played close games against the Kings and Lakers last week.
Two takeaways
1. It was just a matter of time. One night after coming one assist shy, Victor Wembanyama recorded the first 5 x 5 game in more than five years (since Jusuf Nurkic in Jan. 2019). Now we have to wonder how many he’ll have in his career, with Hakeem Olajuwon (six) and Andrei Kirilenko (three) the only players with multiple 5 x 5 games in the 51 seasons that blocks and steals have been tracked. Might he have more than everybody in NBA history combined (21)? Wembanyama is now averaging 5.79 steals + blocks per 36 minutes, the most for any player who’s played at least 1,000 minutes in the last 32 seasons (since three guys — David Robinson, Manute Bol and Olajuwon — averaged more in 1991-92).
2. With those two close losses last week, the Spurs have lost 20 of their last 22 games that were within five points in the last five minutes, having scored just 94.7 points per 100 clutch possessions over that stretch. At 5-21, they still don’t have the worst clutch record this season, with one of those two clutch wins since early November having come against the team (Washington) that does.
The rodeo trip ends in Minnesota on Tuesday, with all three meetings between the Spurs and Wolves (including the other clutch Spurs win since early November) having been determined by single digits.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 27 (last week: 26)
The 2023-24 season for the San Antonio Spurs is all about Victor Wembanyama. What he continues to do is simply memorizing, as Wemby recently recorded a 5×5 game with 27 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals, and 5 blocks against the Lakers. With this performance, Wembamnyama became the youngest player in league history to record such numbers.
LeBron shouted out the Spurs rookie after this performance, simply tweeting: “That kid is SPECIAL!!” with the alien emoji.
As long as Wembanyama remains on the court and healthy moving forward, the Spurs will be a team on the rise in the NBA Power Rankings.
Coming up: Tues. 2/27 @ Minnesota Timberwolves; Thurs. 2/29 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder; Sun. 3/3 vs. Indiana Pacers
Prediction: 0-3 — Even though the Spurs will be returning from the Rodeo Road Trip and will surely be happy to be home, this is a tough schedule, and their continued struggles make it hard to expect them to beat playoff-caliber teams (although they did beat Minnesota at home a month ago). Plus, when I stop believing is usually when they pull out a win.
