Rookie Dylan Harper kickstarted a closing 23-10 Spurs run whose exclamation points consisted of a difficult Stephon Castle lay-up, a steal and transition dunk by Devin Vassell, and an emphatic over-the-head lob from Keldon Johnson to Victor Wembanyama – allowing San Antonio to gut out a gritty 117-107 victory.
San Antonio worked through the kinks of a rough start with a 55% shooting performance (50% from three) to stake itself to a 21-point first half lead – only to lose it in a brutal third quarter amidst a storm of Brooklyn three-pointers before steadying themselves in the final moments.
Wembanyama paced the Spurs (28 points, 13 rebounds, 6 blocks, and 4 assists), who received yet another in a string of impressive performances from Harper (20 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals) and Stephon Castle (13 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists) to wrest the lead back from the Nets – both in the first and second halves. Devin Vassell (16 points), Keldon Johnson (19 points and 7 rebounds), and Julian Champagnie (13 points and 5 rebounds) shined brightly in the win, as well.
Brooklyn’s Cam Thomas (40 points) ignited and carried the young team’s offense and Michael Porter, Jr. (16 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists) reprised his former supporting role in Denver in defeat.
An aggressive and frenzied Brooklyn squad applied defensive pressure from the tip to stun San Antonio and net themselves an early advantage. Once the Spurs found their footing and preserved their possessions, they caught up shortly after, with Harper and Johnson spearheading that run to turn a six-point deficit into a seven-point lead to finish an entertaining first quarter.
San Antonio appeared to ‘play with its food’ for large parts of the second period before their impressive guards – Castle and Harper took over the frame with their respective highlight reels. Harper grew his assist count to a half-dozen, while Castle also would not be stopped on the offensive end. Undeterred, Thomas continued to grow his shot (attempt and) making totals to keep Brooklyn within striking distance, but was knocked out of the game after taking a knock to his face. A Johnson tip dunk and a Wembanyama pull-up three in transition made it 69-48 heading into the half.
San Antonio, after going up 81-55, endured its first drought that extended over the last 8+ minutes of the third period, as the Nets used Thomas’ shotmaking prowess and many brutal Spurs’ possessions. A Castle free throw and Julian Champagnie transition lay-up would be the only offense they would muster and the Spurs were fortunate to maintain a 88-81 cushion after the disastrous stanza.
Very early player comp for Harper: Humble early-2010s James Harden. He knifed his way through two defenders for an impressive and-1 moments after entering the game. .Rookie Carter Bryant nearly threw down the dunk of the season on a fast break late in the opening frame. He committed the Lonnie Walker IV step-out-of-bounds violation right after, though. After another Spurs turnover, he hustled back into the screen and batted away a pass that almost certainly would have resulted in an open shot or drive. After Wembanyama was fouled on a lob attempt from Harper late in the half, and after two years of our guards’ inability to find him in these spots, Jacob Tobey rightfully stated “Harper ALWAYS looking for his big man running the floor.” Dot Races: Blue won!Keldon’s Kitchen: There literally is NO ONE that’s going to separate him from the ball. He also seems destined to have one or two highlights each game. His one-handed putback slam late in the half punctuated a great second quarter for San Antonio. Victor Ease: His ability to lure multiple defenders to him on his drives and find cutters is pretty cool. He fed a slicing Barnes baseline in the first quarter for a power jam. Sequence of the Game #1: Pretty much anything Harper and Johnson did in the first period comeback. Sequence of the Game #2: After Castle’s and-1 midway through the second period, San Antonio took advantage of a Porter, Jr. miss, with Castle feeding Harper, who quickly re-directed it to Vassell for a corner three, making it 46-34. Sequence of the Game #3: In what looked several times like a botched possession, Wembanyama’s errant pass to Castle was rescued by the reigning Rookie of the Year, who then fired a low missile to Vassell who fed it back to Wembanyama for a shot-clock- beating three. Between Thomas and Porter, Jr. – highest teammate ‘chucking’ rate in the league? How did Juwan Howard go from coaching Michigan to being on the Nets’ bench?My takeaway after Friday night’s game about Harrison Barnes… “oof” (which kept on auto-correcting to ‘off’… which has also been the case.
Thomas put up a quick handful to get Brooklyn off to a solid start. The Nets pressed the Spurs upcourt – allowing them several transition opportunities. Wembanyama swatted away a couple of shots and fed Vassell for the hosts’ first three, but Thomas’ floater put Brooklyn up six. After a 5-second violation, San Antonio furiously attacked the paint. Harper, in particular, got an and-1 and found Vassell for a bucket. Johnson’s manly and-1 put the Spurs up one. Harper found Champagnie crosscourt for a corner three, but Thomas continued to knock down shots over a sea of arms. The Spurs extended their lead with better cohesion, while forcing Brooklyn into long contested twos, and left the first up 31-24.
Porter, Jr’s second and third triples brought Brooklyn closer to start the second. San Antonio drew the over-aggressive Nets into foul trouble – with four of them having two or three. Castle cobbled together a highlight reel of offense – an assist to Champagnie, a jumper, and an and-1 – to put the Spurs up nine. Thomas countered yet another impressive Harper lay-up with a 4-point play of his own. The Spurs’ lead hovered around 8-10 for some time until a Harper lay-up and Wembanyama lob slam extended them out 16. Wembanyama closed the half with two swats and a pull-up three (reminiscent of Kawhi Leonard’s pull-up in transition that turbocharged San Antonio’s comeback against the Miami Heat in 2014 game 5). Brooklyn went to the half down 21.
Wembanyama committed his first turnover OF THE SEASON 3+ minutes into the second half. With Thomas still absent from action, San Antonio continued to execute expertly in the halfcourt. Once the Spurs’ offense stalled, the young Nets connected from three, and Ziaire Williams’ three shaved the deficit to 11. San Antonio stayed glued to 81 (then 82) points for what seemed like an eternity of minutes, and Brooklyn crept as close as nine after a flurry of Thomas points. Brooklyn’s closing 26-7 run drew them within seven heading into the fourth.
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San Antonio hosts Brandon Ingram (and Jakob Poeltl!) and the Toronto Raptors tomorrow night for an early season SEGABABA at 7:00 PM CDT.