Hot Shooting Propels Golden State Warriors Past San Antonio As Spurs Go Winless in In-Season Tourney
SAN ANTONIO — In a new stadium in front of a new crowd facing a new team, the San Antonio Spurs geared up looking to earn their fourth win of the season.
Up to that point, victories had been extremely hard to come by, and given how young the Spurs are, it made sense. Playing teams as stacked as the Los Angeles Clippers and as put together as the Oklahoma City Thunder — who the Spurs hope to emulate in the near future — isn't exactly a recipe for youth success, but nonetheless, expectations were through the roof for Victor Wembanyama and company.
Friday night was no exception, especially with it being the first regular-season matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Spurs. The Bay showed out, adding to the buzz surrounding the in-season tournament, and made sure its home team was backed.
Safe to say, it worked out.
Wembanyama coming out with a misspelled jersey in the first half wasn't the only thing that went wrong for San Antonio, as Golden State shot its way to a 118-112 home victory to hand the Spurs their 13th loss in just 17 games.
Wembanyama finished with 22 points and eight rebounds to go with his pair of blocks while Devin Vassell finished with a team-high 24 points, but it proved to be not enough to outmatch the hosting Warriors, who finished with a 49.4 percent shooting clip from the floor and nearly identical 47.5 percent from deep.
November 24, 2023; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors forward Dario Saric (20) celebrates making a three-point basket against the San Antonio Spurs during the second quarter at Chase Center.
© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
From the jump — which Kerr noted pre-game was always going to be won by the Spurs — San Antonio fell behind by a handful of points before making its way to an early 11-4 lead after Wembanyama knocked down a 3-pointer.
At that point, all signs pointed toward the generational rookie notching a game to remember and a potential Spurs rout, but it was too far-fetched to be true. Wembanyama only ended up making that one shot from behind the arc for the rest of the game, and Golden State kept things close all the way through the first period, falling behind by just three points heading to the second quarter.
In the ensuing 12 minutes, San Antonio once again made waves on the offensive side of things, taking a quick nine-point lead as Vassell came alive to give the Spurs some hope, but same as before, the Warriors got right back into it.
A few trips to the free-throw line followed by three straight 3-pointers by three different players put Golden State back in the lead with six minutes to play. From there, a few more makes from the Warriors did just enough to give them an edge heading to the locker room, as they took a four-point lead to intermission.
The third quarter saw more back-and-forth action as Klay Thompson — who finished the game with 15 points — and Victor Wembanyama, with a correctly-spelled jersey, got things started.
It wasn't long, however, before the Warriors — behind Dario Saric, who scored four 3-pointers, and Curry — opened up the game from deep to take a double-digit of their own with under four minutes to play.
Still, the Spurs battled back behind Vassell and Sochan, and were able to make it a respectable four-point game headed to the final quarter of play.
But unfortunately for them, that was as close as they'd get.
Golden State rallied behind Jonathan Kuminga and Chris Paul to mount a 15-2 run to open up the quarter, and as quickly as the game had become competitive, it became the opposite. San Antonio attempted to claw its way back into the contest with 3-pointers of its own, but to no avail. The Spurs shot just 25.5 percent from deep on the game, and down the stretch, their misses turned into points for the Warriors.
As the Warriors' crowd began to chant their name with the clock winding down, the damage had been done and the Spurs' chances at winning slimmed to near zero.
A few turnovers in crunch time for Golden State did give its visitors slimmers of hope, as the Spurs went on an 11-0 run to bring it to the same margin it left the third quarter on, but another missed 3-pointer by Keldon Johnson gave the Warriors the ball back, and they went on to secure a 118-112 home victory.
With the loss, San Antonio goes winless during the In-Season Tournament and falls to 3-13 on the season — still unable to break a now 11-game losing streak. On the other hand, Golden State improves to 8-9 and comes within one game of .500 on the year.
Next up for the Spurs is a another road game — this time in Denver — against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets. Tipoff from Ball Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. CST.
