San Antonio closed out Boston with a late 19-10 surge (including a 12-0 run) to secure its 16th win in 17. The second seeds in each conference treated the viewing audience to a bombardment of three-point makes in a first half where no team led by more than seven. While it wasn’t quite Bird / Wilkins from 1988, Victor Wembanyama (14) and Derrick White (19) countered each other with buckets-a-plenty throughout the third quarter. Celtics star Jaylen Brown was whistled for two technicals and tossed late in the first half for arguing with the referees. With the win San Antonio stayed comfortably ahead of the 3-6 seeds – 7.5 ahead of Houston / Minnesota, 8.5 ahead of Los Angeles, and 9 ahead of Denver (with Wolves and Lakers as the nightcap).
Wembanyama (39 points and 11 rebounds – eight triples) continued to withstand the aggression other teams’ frontline players throw at him, while De’Aaron Fox (25 points and 9 assists) and Stephon Castle (18 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists) matched the Celtics’ intensity to keep San Antonio toe-to-toe with the Celtics until that late flourish. Devin Vassell (14 points) came on late with timely shooting.
Despite pulling up gimpy at the end of the third, White (34 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds) carried Boston’s second half attack in this highly emotional contest. Jayson Tatum (24 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals) and Ron Harper, Jr. – with a career high 22 – provided support in the glaring absence of Brown.
In a taut back-and-forth physical first 12 minutes, Boston and San Antonio treated this matchup with the requisite respect a late-season tilt deserved. Aside from a brief moment where the Spurs went up six, the teams were separated by fewer points for most of the period. Castle carried the Spurs early on, while Wembanyama was pelted in the face twice and smarting from the blows. Brown and White staked the Celtics to a lead with their 7-0 run. Castle and Brown were halted by their respective pair of fouls. Despite Boston’s barrage of threes they snuck out of the quarter only ahead two after Carter Bryant’s corner three.
As intense as the first quarter action, it was visibly heightened in the second. Ron Harper, Jr. had a succession of field goals spanning throughout the half and had a greater impact initially over his younger brother. Fox was able to find easy offense to keep the Spurs close. Late in the half, Brown (despite the consistent physicality throughout the half) meekly fell out of bounds and was tossed for arguing the phantom call with the crew chief and another referee. Julian Champagnie and Vassell were largely kept out of the scorebook; however San Antonio was able to get to halftime even with Boston 58-58.
San Antonio turned the 3-point shooting tables on Boston to start the third with a handful of makes from Fox, Wembanyama, and Castle. White tried to capably play the Brown role – putting up a 11 quick points. When the Spurs’ bench came in, Dylan Harper and Keldon Johnson and helped get the Spurs back on top. Harper’s flurry of scores helped San Antonio nab its largest lead of the night late in the frame. Fittingly, Fox and Wembanyama’s scores completed the scoring for the Spurs and they went to the fourth up seven.
Crunchtime Sequence of the Game: Vassell, after swishing a jumper in the lane, shot the gap at the other end to steal an errant pass and soared in for a transition lay-up to make it 115-105.I could not imagine what it’d be like to suffer an achilles tear and then have to come back because it’s related to my career (Tatum)… although I had hoped there’d be a longer pre-game recognition of what the Spurs had done (15-1 in the last month).Bam Adebayo (83) nearly matched both teams’ outputs for three periods tonight.Interesting to see Castle (Spurs’ future) and White (Spurs’ past) paired with each other from the tip.My brother in law called during the first period just to say this: ”They (San Antonio) make basketball fun again to watch!”Hugo Gonzalez is tailor-made to be a future Spur.The Celtics lead the lague with the most impressive bald shaves / facial hair combos (White, Brown, and Jordan Walsh)Castle Hills: Castle will need to limit the silly Karl-Anthony Towns-like reach-in fouls during the playoff rounds. His two early ones in the first forced him to the bench.Sequence of the Game #1: In the opening moments, and after Wembanyama swatted away a Queta shot, Castle hit from the wing at the other end.Sequence of the Game #2:. Early on in the second period, Fox hit a catch-and-shoot three, and then stripped White just across halfcourt and coasted in for a lay-up.Sequence of the Game #3: In a early third quarter runout, Vassell splayed out to the right wing – and perhaps thought that his teammates wouldn’t find him, but after Castle fed it to a trailing Wembanyama, the center lasered it out to Vassell – who hit the three.
Boston thought they had a sly give-and-go action to get Queta a lay-up, but Wembanyama sniffed it out and erased it. The referees missed an obvious foul to the center’s face by Sam Hauser on a dribble drive. Vassell also got hit in the face on a loose ball by Brown, and thankfully that one was called. Fox’s pair of paint buckets put San Antonio up six and he seemed to be the only Spur that found steady success. The Celtics’ output after four minutes was just triples from White and Luka Garza. Brown then spearheaded a 7-0 run to get Boston on top. Taylor Schiermann also made contact to Luke Kornet’s face with a minute to go. Tatum saw some shots go down later in the quarter and Boston headed to the second up a pair.
Bryant’s second threed brought San Antonio within two to start the second. Fox’s personal 5-0 run momentarily put the Spurs back up. Bryant’s fadeaway in the paint(?!) was matched by White’s second lay-up of the stanza. Brown and Wembanyama matched each other with consecutive pairs of field goals. Brown doinked a dunk attempt that caromed all the way out past the 3-point line. The teams stayed glued to 51-47 for some time as the feistiness ratcheted up several levels. After Brown tried to sell a fou call by falling out of bounds, he spent an embarrassing amount of time protesting it and was teed up twice. Though the Spurs squandered several chances to tie or lead, Castle’s degree-of-difficulty banker tied things at 58.
The baskets again came furiously after the break, and Fox’s stepback three put the Spurs up six. White screamed like (Keldon) Johnson on several pull-ups to draw fouls. Vassell’s first field goal came 27 minutes into game action. White and Tatum helped the Celtics leapfrog San Antonio back into the lead. Harper’s first field goal came against his brother nearly 2 1/2 quarters in and then proceeded to add to his tally prodigiously. White nearly matched San Antonio’s output for the quarter by himself. Wembanyama’s stepback triple helped get the Spurs went to the fourth up 97-90.
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San Antonio’s continues its slate of games against Western Conference contenders Thursday night with Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets at 8:00 PM CDT.