Two down for San Antonio. The Spurs lost last night against Cleveland (101-113), two days after having already had to lower their flag, already at home, against Utah. While we thought Victor Wembanyama’s teammates were on the high road, capable of beating the ogre Oklahoma City three times in ten days, here they are caught with their feet in the carpet!
Dominated by two teams who are struggling a bit this season, the Spurs are losing their luster. A call to order as they aim to qualify directly for the play-offs. They knew they were capable of the best, finalists of the NBA Cup and authors of major performances against the best? They now realize that daily life in the NBA is more difficult than imagined.
The match was close for a long time, with neither team managing to really gain the upper hand. Until the last quarter and more aggression from the Cavaliers, better at rebounding and who went for the most important baskets. The Spurs, for their part, were weighed down by a dramatic three-point success (22%).
Wembanyama starts for the second time in a row
For the second time in a row, Victor Wembanyama was able to start the match as a starter. The Frenchman is less and less limited in his playing time, but Mitch Johnson, the Spurs coach, nevertheless insisted on a certain form of caution regarding the expectations weighing on his nugget, while he has just returned from a calf strain which kept him away from the courts for a month. “It will take time to reintegrate a piece as important as Victor into the starting five,” he said. We don’t play quite the same with or without him. » Paradoxically, it is since his return to the starting five that the Spurs have no longer won a match.
His match? Half fig, half grape. Wemby provided his usual statistics: a fairly easy double-double (26 points, 14 rebounds). He also put on a show, especially at the start of the game, by recovering a pass from Stephon Castle… against the board, or by scoring a three-point basket on one leg. But he also missed a lot. Particularly at the end of the first half, during two catastrophic minutes, where he was repeatedly penalized with a walk, sent a pass directly into touch, before missing his dunk on an alley-oop.
When Wembanyama is worse, San Antonio is worse. Particularly heckled by his opponents, who sent him to the mat several times, he was even dunk on the head at the end of the match by Jarrett Allen, his opposite number, untenable (27 points), then countered by Evan Mobley, who never let him breathe!
Kenny Atkinson, Cleveland coach, revealed after the match the recipe for limiting Wembanyama’s defensive impact: “You must not attack him head-on, you must dribble in defense, rotate the ball around him, so as not to allow him to take off and counter as he knows how to do. » Atkinson is well placed to know: the American coach was on the staff of the French team during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and was able to observe Wemby up close…
The Spurs will have to continue on Wednesday with the reception of the New York Knicks (1 a.m. in France on the night of Wednesday to Thursday), for a rematch of the NBA Cup final.
