The San Antonio Spurs have turned around their sputtering start that resulted in two early-season losses by relying more on their biggest asset — figuratively and literally. The result has been four straight wins.
The Spurs likely will continue to rely on 7-foot-4 star Victor Wembanyama when they host the Utah Jazz on Monday in a rematch of Wednesday’s game between the teams, won by the Spurs in overtime in Salt Lake City.
San Antonio returns to the court for the middle contest of a three-game homestand after beating the short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves 121-111 on Saturday. Wembanyama poured in a season-high 43 points in the victory while Dylan Harper added 25, De’Aaron Fox scored 22 and Julian Champagnie added 12 off the bench.
Wembanyama has been the Spurs’ leading scorer in five of their six games after going 1-for-13 from the field and recording just 12 points in the team’s season-opening loss at home to Oklahoma City. He averaged 31.2 points per game in the next five outings.
In Saturday’s win over Minnesota, Wembanyama took 34 shots — just three less than the Spurs’ other four starters combined (37). It was the third straight game that he had an increase in field-goal attempts. Even with the increased shots, Wembanyama has stayed in sync and in the flow to help drive San Antonio’s offense.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said Saturday that playing though his star is his first option.
“It really causes a problem for the other team,” Johnson explained. “Whether that’s screening, whether that’s spacing, whether that’s handling the basketball and playing the two-man game or three-man game even.”
Wembanyama, ever the tactician, said every game situation adds to his — and his team’s — learning curve.
“After playing so many games — I mean, literally hundreds of games now in the NBA — the brain knows what kind of game to go toward to have fun,” Wembanyama said. “Over time, you recognize patterns and you err towards those patterns. It’s always ups and downs, but we’re trending in the right direction.”
The Jazz head to the Alamo City after a 112-90 loss at home to the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday. Rookie guard Darryn Peterson had 16 points to pace Utah, which shot just 37.2% overall (29 of 78) and 27.5 % from beyond the arc (11 of 40) and lost the rebounding battle 48-37.
Lauri Markkanen added 13 points and fellow forward Brice Sensabaugh scored 12 for the Jazz, who produced their lowest offensive output of the early season by 13 points. Peterson led all Jazz players with 15 field-goal attempts, making six.
Utah has dropped four straight games and five of its first six outings. While the Jazz players understand that improving and winning is a game-by-game process, there has to be a level of frustration after the team’s early season struggles.
“Obviously, we want to speed up the process, but that’s just a mindset we have to be in, and that’s the mindset for me,” Utah guard Keyonte George said. “This whole season for me, it’s just been: ‘How can I learn after every game?’ Win or lose, we’ve got to figure out how we can go over that hump.”
