The San Antonio Spurs won again against Oklahoma City, defending champion deprived of several stars, on Wednesday (116-106). And Victor Wembanyama signed some “signature” actions.
And four! San Antonio brought down Oklahoma City (116-106) for the fourth time this season on Wednesday in the NBA. A few weeks after conceding their first defeat against the Thunder (119-98), the Spurs resumed their good habits against the reigning champion, whom they had already beaten three times earlier in the season. On Wednesday, the Texan franchise left with the favor of the predictions due to the absence of numerous stars in the opposing ranks, including MVP and All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. It’s simple, OKC played without its usual major five with nine players absent due to injury or to be preserved.
Spurs not really satisfied
On the floor of the Frost Bank Center, however, it was not easy for the Spurs, authors of a good start (+15 at half-time) but gradually caught up to count only four lengths four minutes from time. The OKC substitutes worked hard to defend strongly on Victor Wembanyama, who still finished with a double-double (22 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 interceptions, 2 blocks). The Frenchman signed his signature action twice: a rebound snatched from his racket before scoring a basket on the counter.
De’Aaron Fox scored 15 points and made 10 assists while rookie Carter Bryant tied his season high (11 points) to help San Antonio earn its second straight victory and maintain its second place in the West (34 wins, 16 losses) behind OKC (40 wins, 12 losses).
At the end of the game, the Spurs were not fully satisfied with their overall production. “I felt like we lacked concentration at times,” said Keldon Johnson, co-leading scorer of the game (25 points, like Kenrich Williams). “In the end, we won, but there are things we need to correct, be more rigorous and more efficient. We were able to pull ourselves together at the end and we succeeded, but we clearly need to do better.”
“I think we did what we needed to do to get the win,” added coach Mitch Johnson. “I think there are a lot of things we could have improved on. It’s good to see we held on, but we’ll try to learn from this game to continue to improve.”
