Spurs Pull Out Road Win Despite Sixers' Joel Embiid Scoring 40

The San Antonio Spurs improve to 2-1 through three games after defeating Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers.

The San Antonio Spurs now hold a 2-1 record to begin the 2022-23 season after achieving a 114-105 road win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday. 

It was a slow start for the Spurs as they failed to reach the 20-point threshold (19 points) in the opening period. They followed it up with 95 points over the course of the final three quarter while the 76ers didn't crack 30 points in any period. 

“We are learning that we can play with anyone,” McDermott said. “We had a good win last night (against Indiana) and we didn't get complacent. We came out and competed against a really good team.”

The Spurs' offense produced an efficient outing once again. San Antonio shot 43-90 from the floor (47.8 percent), 16-38 (42.1 percent) from 3-point range, and 12-15 (80.0 percent) on free throws. 

“Defensively, we have to connect better,” Embiid said. “We're not guarding the ball well. We need to work on that. It's a fairly new team and it's going to take time to get everyone on the same page. But we'll be fine.”

It was another impressive scoring display from the Spurs' young wings. Devin Vassell finished with a team-high 22 points with 20 coming in the first half. Keldon Johnson wasn't far behind with 21 points while contributing nine rebounds. 

“We worked real hard,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “The quick turnaround is not what any of us love, but we all have them. What it showed me was they are serious about getting better and knowing what the league is like. I thought that was pretty impressive.”

The Spurs received used a collective effort to achieve this victory with six double-figure scorers with Tre Jones (17), Doug McDermott (14), and Jakob Poeltl (13), and Josh Richardson (11) meeting the mark. San Antonio had a 40-10 advantage in bench scoring. 

The Spurs return to action on Monday when they travel to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves. 

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