Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs square off against the up-and-down Indiana Pacers on Monday in an interconference game between teams looking to get back on the winning track.
San Antonio heads north for the second game of a home-road back-to-back set after a 123-116 overtime loss to Toronto on Sunday afternoon. Keldon Johnson paced the Spurs with 26 points while Zach Collins had 21 points and 11 rebounds. Wembanyama racked up 20 points and a career-high five blocked shots, Malaki Branham added 16 points and Doug McDermott tallied 12 points off the bench in the defeat.
The Spurs built a 22-point edge late in the second quarter, were up by 19 at the half, and led by 15 points after three quarters but succumbed to a furious Toronto rally in the fourth quarter that sent the game to an extra period. San Antonio quickly fell behind by six points in overtime and never recovered, with the result snapping a two-game winning streak
San Antonio was outscored by 27 points from beyond the arc in the loss.
“It was a young group playing against a very experienced group,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said afterward in a comparison between his team and the Raptors. “Toronto is like the biggest small team you can imagine with their length and their athleticism. We didn’t have as much down the stretch, scoring-wise.
“We had a bit more trouble with their aggressiveness and their ability to get in passing lanes — it slowed us down to the point where our offense wasn’t as smooth and they were able to come back.”
The Pacers play the third game of a five-game homestand and have dropped three of their past four outings, most recently a 125-124 setback against Charlotte on Saturday. The loss, the second of a home back-to-back and Indiana’s third game in four nights, was suffered despite a career-high-tying 43 points by guard Tyrese Haliburton, who also dished out 12 assists.
Haliburton made eight 3-pointers in the loss and racked up his fifth double-double in as many games this season. All of Haliburton’s points came in the final three quarters, 25 of them were scored in the third quarter and 30 were tallied after halftime.
“Tyrese’s third quarter was historic — beyond amazing, really, when you think about it,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle told the Indianapolis Star. “But we needed to back that up with a really solid fourth quarter, and (Charlotte) threw some hellacious shot-making at us.”
The Pacers had two chances to tie or win the game in the final minute. First, Buddy Hield missed a free throw that would have finished off a three-point play and tied the score and then Haliburton was well-defended on the final possession and could not produce a game-winner.
“It was an awful lot to ask of Tyrese, to (try and) manufacture some kind of miraculous step-back three or floating shot going to the basket (on the final possession),” Carlisle said. “He’s certainly capable, but too many other things put us in a situation where we left too much to chance.”
Hield added 19 points for Indiana while Myles Turner had 14, Obi Toppin hit for 11 points and Jalen Smith finished with 11 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
–Field Level Media