Thanks to the phenomenon Victor Wembanyama, the Frost Bank Center had already had a few opportunities to vibrate this season, but this success against the Nuggets will undoubtedly remain as the best evening of this 2023-2024 financial year. Faced with the reigning champion, nothing suggested such a scenario.
Yet authors of a good first half, the Spurs found themselves relegated to -18 (50-68) after a big blow from Jamal Murray (11 points in four minutes). Same thing in the third quarter, this time with a crazy passage from Victor Wembanyama, against Nikola Jokic in particular, which barely allowed the gap to be reduced to 13 lengths (87-100).
Devonte' Graham's touch
And then the magic happened, San Antonio came back, between the slaughter of Wemby, the 3-points from the Jones-Mamukelashvili-Champagnie-Graham quartet, and two final baskets from the last city to achieve the perfect hold-up.
With a floater in transition less than a second from the end in front of Jamal Murray, Devonte' Graham thus offered victory to the Spurs on a plateau, as the hero of this stunning end to the match (121-120).
“I had gotten a little ahead of the others because everyone had gone to the rebound. I was just hoping he was going to throw the ball to me. At first, I wanted to shoot 3-pointers, of course, and then I told myself that we had to go to the circle, try to get a foul, even though we were only at -1. I'm just grateful the ball went in.”, did he declare.
The evening was also exceptional for Victor Wembanyama, in his duel against Nikola Jokic with a good line of stats to show for it (34 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks).
Inspiring for the future
Under the eyes of his mother, the jewel of the Spurs went through a delicate end to the first half, picking up a technical foul in the process, before moving from frustration to excellence, delivering an extraordinary sequence in the third quarter- time: 17 points in three minutes.
“Of course it's difficult, especially when you're playing against the first team. But there was nothing new. There are lots of ways to react, but my mindset at half-time was, “How are you going to react after this, what kind of player are you?” “, he confided after the meeting.
The Nuggets therefore saw what Victor Wembanyama was up to, and a whole group followed. A group which continues to grow well and sees its efforts rewarded at the end of the season with a sixth success in its last ten games, and last place in the Western Conference left to Portland.
A victory to build the future
In many respects, this full match against the champion marks a new milestone, and allows us to look ahead with optimism.
“It just makes every win that much more special.”, Wemby added. about the development of this young squad. “We like things like that. As a team that's growing, a young team, it's huge for us. We are going to need this kind of victories in the future, but in particular big victories like this, against the best teams, the first in the ranking.
San Antonio will have the opportunity to finish well this Sunday against Detroit for the last of the season at the Frost Bank Center.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Victor Wembanyama | 70 | 29.6 | 46.5 | 32.2 | 79.7 | 2.3 | 8.3 | 10.6 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 1.2 | 3.6 | 2.2 | 21.3 |
| Devin Vassell | 68 | 33.1 | 47.2 | 37.2 | 80.1 | 0.4 | 3.4 | 3.8 | 4.1 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 19.5 |
| Keldon Johnson | 69 | 29.5 | 45.4 | 34.6 | 79.2 | 1.4 | 4.1 | 5.5 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 15.7 |
| Jeremy Sochan | 74 | 29.6 | 43.8 | 30.8 | 77.1 | 1.9 | 4.6 | 6.4 | 3.4 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 11.6 |
| Zach Collins | 67 | 22.2 | 48.2 | 31.3 | 74.2 | 1.7 | 3.6 | 5.3 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 3.0 | 11.1 |
| Tre Jones | 75 | 27.7 | 50.6 | 33.9 | 87.0 | 0.8 | 2.9 | 3.7 | 6.2 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 9.9 |
| Malaki Branham | 75 | 21.3 | 43.2 | 34.7 | 87.3 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 9.2 |
| Cedi Osman | 72 | 17.6 | 47.9 | 38.9 | 67.3 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 6.8 |
| Julian Champagnie | 72 | 19.5 | 40.2 | 35.9 | 81.4 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 6.7 |
| Raiquan Gray | 2 | 8.2 | 62.5 | 60.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.5 |
| Doug McDermott | 46 | 15.2 | 44.2 | 43.9 | 58.8 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 6.0 |
| David Duke | 2 | 10.6 | 33.3 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 4.5 |
| Dominic Barlow | 33 | 12.7 | 49.6 | 33.3 | 69.0 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 4.4 |
| Devonte' Graham | 21 | 12.5 | 33.7 | 27.5 | 85.7 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 4.3 |
| Blake Wesley | 59 | 14.0 | 46.1 | 20.4 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 2.7 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 4.2 |
| Mamadi Diakite | 3 | 5.3 | 80.0 | 0.0 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 4.0 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 44 | 9.0 | 45.3 | 24.5 | 78.6 | 0.9 | 2.0 | 2.9 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 3.4 |
| Charles Bassey | 19 | 10.8 | 72.5 | 0.0 | 83.3 | 1.2 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 3.3 |
| Sidy Cissoko | 10 | 9.3 | 45.0 | 11.1 | 84.6 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 3.0 |
| Jamaree Bouyea | 2 | 7.6 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
