The Best Parts of San Antonio’s 2022 Mexico City Game Experience

The 2022 Mexico City game featuring the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat carried more gravitas and pomp-and-circumstance than a typical December NBA event.

Both teams trotted out titanic representatives of past glory - Alonzo Mourning for Miami and George ‘the Iceman’ Gervin for San Antonio.- to warm crowd embrace:

Devin Vassell is perhaps getting and undestanding the message to attach the basket more ferociously and he found some downhill momentum here through the Heat defense:

After a Jakob Poeltl block (welcome back, Jak!), Vassell later took an outlet pass and double-pumped this beauty home over a surprised Adebayo:

Though we all know that he is continuing to tinker with his shot mechanics and figuring his sharing of the offensive load with Vassell, Keldon Johnson maintains his fierce forays into the point with power and flair:

Johnson then outdid himself by dribbling in and through traffic to find an awaiting Sochan at the dunker spot, which bodes well for the swingman as he continues to find his way:

Jones, despite Miami’s usual perimeter intensity, was able to sneak this floater up-and-over Bam Adebayo:

Malaki Branham accomplished something that may not have ever been done by an NBA player before him - play a game for the G-League Affiliate AND the big club on international soil!

Branham showed off a shooting stroke (one part Sean Elliott and one part Mikal Bridges) by hitting on 3 of his 4 three-point attempts:

Point Forward Jeremy Sochan found a cutting Keita Bates-Diop amidst a triangle of Miami defenders with some passing wizardry:

While we’re on the topic of lean (recent) times, NBA Dataster put out this factoid yesterday - implying the Spurs have earned some proverbial leash with its fanbase:

And finally, the full-game highlights: