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Michael C. Wright
multiple authors
san antonio – as Spurs Coach Mitch Johnson addressed reporters after a 116-112 win friday LA ClippersA few feet behind him, a wave of joy erupted inside the team’s locker room.
On the second night of a back-to-back set, San Antonio overcame a 25-point deficit, the club’s second-largest comeback in the play-by-play era (since 1997–98), tying its league-best 14–1 record since February 1. According to ESPN research, it is the team’s best score in a 15-game period since the 2015–16 season, when the Spurs achieved a franchise-record 67 wins.
“Right now I have zero left,” said Victor WembanyamaWho told ESPN during his post-game interview that he was “about to faint.”
“That was one of the best wins,” he said. “That was one of the best games, the best part of my career, of my basketball life.”
Vembanyama scored a team-high 27 points, including a go-ahead bucket off a long pass in transition. De’Aaron Fox and dunked it with 16 seconds remaining, sending fans at Frost Bank Center into a tizzy.
“He was probably the last [fast break] “I was in my body like that,” said Vembanyama, who also had 10 rebounds and four blocks in 22 minutes.
Fox scored or assisted 25 of San Antonio’s 35 fourth-quarter points and finished with 19 points and nine assists.
“It felt good,” Fox said. “It felt better than yesterday.”
against the forerunner detroit pistons On Thursday, Wembanyama and Fox scored 38 and 29 points, respectively, and became the first San Antonio teammates to score more than 20 points in the same half of a game since 2018, according to ESPN Research. The combined effort gave the Spurs a decisive victory that moved them to 6–1 against the No. 1 seeds in each conference.
After Friday’s win, a clearly exhausted Wembanyama, wearing a hooded gray sweatshirt, called the conclusion of the team’s latest back-to-back the “best 30 hours of basketball” of his life.
“[My] The favorite thing is that these last two games we’ve faced some very different tests, and we’ve been able to answer the call in every one of them,” he said.
shear center brook lopezJohnson’s former college teammate at Stanford made it more difficult for San Antonio. He scored a game-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the first half, leading the Spurs to their largest halftime deficit of the season by 20 points.
By the 9:23 mark of the third quarter, the Clippers had increased their lead to 75–50.
“It was a tough fight last night. [against Detroit]”The second night of a back-to-back, the guys are banging,” Johnson said. The competitive response and character that people showed, to really come together and try to fight the mental, physical and emotional fatigue, was admirable.
former spur kawhi leonardWho was teased every time he touched the ball, he scored a game-high 30 points with nine rebounds, three assists and two steals.
spurs newbie carter bryant Leonard, Johnson and Wembanyama were praised after the game. The 20-year-old Bryant protected Leonard. His father, De’Sean Bryant, coached Leonard in high school as an assistant at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California.
“When my dad was working on Kawhi, I’d be on the other end of the court, just watching what he was doing,” Bryant said. “I was 8, 9, 10 years old watching Kawhi go to San Diego State. He came up to me after the game. He said, ‘Man, your little ass ran around on the court. I’m proud of you. Just keep going. Trust the process.’
San Antonio outscored the Clippers 66–37 in the final 21:20 of the second half. There were seven major changes in the fourth quarter. With 52.3 seconds remaining, derrick jones jr. Fox converted a three-point play to put the Clippers ahead 112–111, before Fox and Wembanyama connected for the go-ahead dunk.
According to ESPN research, Wembanyama recorded his 16th game with four 3-point field goals and four blocks, the most in NBA history. The Spurs plan to take Saturday off before resuming their homestand with a physical contest on Sunday Houston Rockets.
In the middle of concluding his post-game media availability, Vembanyama asked what time it was as he began calculating how much sleep he could get before the next outing.
“I will get two good nights of sleep,” Wembanyama said. “The good thing is that I don’t have any super sore points in my body. So, I don’t have anything specific that needs to be covered. It’s just the whole system, which is the best. That means I’m healthy. Two good nights of sleep, recovery, massage, whatever, cold contrast, hot and cold, all that stuff. I recover really quickly. So, I’m not worried about two days from now.”
