The San Antonio Spurs look to start the season with three straight wins for the first time since 2019-20 when they host the winless Brooklyn Nets on Sunday afternoon.
This is the home opener for the Spurs, who are coming off a 120-116 overtime victory at New Orleans on Friday, in which San Antonio showed its depth and overall improvement.
Victor Wembanyama led the Spurs with 29 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots, but fouled out 43 seconds into overtime, letting his supporting cast take the win.
Devin Vassell, Stephon Castle, Julian Champagnie and Harrison Barnes all scored in the final four minutes, allowing the Spurs to hold off the Pelicans.
Vassell finished with 23 points, Castle had 16 and Luke Kornet added 14 points and 12 rebounds off the bench for the Spurs. Rookie Dylan Harper scored 13 points and Keldon Johnson grabbed 10 rebounds in the win.
“Our guys handled it well, especially as the game went on,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said. “It takes a lot of communication and sometimes you have different people and different schemes in terms of what you want them to do defensively. And so to stay connected it takes a lot of mental focus and courage and communication.
“The guys made some plays, but they also pressed the clock, got a little ahead of ourselves. I felt like for a little while we were a little slow on defense, or a step quick on offense.”
The Nets travel to San Antonio after a 131-124 home loss to Cleveland on Friday.
Cam Thomas scored 33 points for Brooklyn, which never led in the game and trailed by as many as 25 despite shooting 51 percent from the floor. Michael Porter Jr. added 31 and Ziaire Williams had 25 points off the bench, with those two accounting for 11 of the Nets’ 19 3-pointers.
Brooklyn did not go down without a fight. Rookie Egor Demin made a 3-pointer with 3:48 remaining to cut the deficit to 121-120, but the Nets missed their next five shots, allowing Cleveland to hold on.
“We can’t really start slow like that,” Thomas said. “Start slow, turn the ball over, you know, just get them open 3s, get some momentum, and then we get into a little bit of a rut and it’s hard to come back.”
The loss to the Cavaliers follows Charlotte’s 136-117 loss to the Bobcats on Wednesday.
“It has to be important to compete, and yet you have to be angry that you didn’t win,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said. “When we played the first game and we didn’t give ourselves a chance, it was even worse because you didn’t fight like you’re supposed to.
“(But in Friday’s game), you’re at home, you’ve got to fight for a one-possession game – the energy in the building, the fans while (we’re) racing, the momentum, the credit goes to our guys. Now we’ve got to clean up a little bit more.”
Sunday’s game is the first of back-to-backs for the Nets, who will travel to Houston for a clash with the Rockets on Monday before returning home to play four of their next five games.
–Field level media
