The San Antonio Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings 130-103 at Frost Bank Center on Tuesday night. It was the Spurs' first home win of the season, and the game was effectively decided before halftime. Deadspin described an "80-point first half." The line score backs that up: San Antonio scored 39 in the first quarter and 41 in the second, against 54 for Sacramento. The Spurs' largest lead was 28, and the Kings never led by more than one.
Victor Wembanyama had 29 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes, per AP and ESPN. The box score adds that he shot 14-for-21, blocked five shots and had no turnovers and no fouls. He was +22. That was a sharp turn from his previous home game, the Oct. 20 loss to Oklahoma City, when he shot 1-for-13 and scored 12. He had 23 points in the win at Dallas on Saturday.
Julian Champagnie supplied the outside shooting. Deadspin had him making eight 3-pointers in the first half. Our box score has him 8-for-13 from deep for the game, which suggests nearly all of them came before the break. Sportsnet's video recap has him at 28 points off the bench, but our box score shows 26 on 9-for-14 shooting. The same recap lists the final as 130-106. AP, ESPN and our box score all have 130-103, and that is the score we're using.
The shooting gap was wide: 54 percent from the field for San Antonio against 43 percent for Sacramento. The Spurs also hit 17 of 37 threes to the Kings' 13 of 37. They scored 29 fast-break points to Sacramento's 15 and had a 60-46 edge in the paint. Yahoo's second recap called it a balanced attack. De'Aaron Fox had 11 points and six assists, Stephon Castle 15, and Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson 14 each. Dylan Harper added 13 on 6-for-7 shooting.
Yahoo's headline called the Kings "shorthanded" and "injury-riddled," but the feed summaries don't name who was out. Sacramento still had Domantas Sabonis, who posted 20 points and 14 rebounds. De'Andre Hunter scored 24 and Zach LaVine 22. The Kings' bench and role players struggled, and Malik Monk went 1-for-7.
Yahoo says the win puts the Spurs "back to .500." Our standings have them at 2-1, third in the Southwest, on a two-game winning streak. The Kings are 0-3 and fifth in the Pacific. They have lost 121-96 at the Clippers, 123-112 to Memphis and now this.
San Antonio is at Utah on Wednesday, so Wembanyama and the starters will have a short turnaround. Sacramento is at New Orleans on Thursday, looking for its first win.
Discussion