San Antonio at Phoenix, Final Score: Spurs win rematch against the Suns 132-121

The Silver and Black played their best first half of the season tonight, building up a 27 point lead early and leading 75-55 at halftime. The Spurs were short-handed in the second half as Devin Vassell went out with left groin tightness, and Devin Booker heated up with a monster second half as the Suns fought all the way back to a 116-116 tie with 4:21 left in the game. But Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs would not be denied, as they ripped out a 12-0 run in a little over two minutes to put the game out of reach and won by 11.

Victor’s 38 points were amazing, but his presence on defense was also decisive at critical points in the game, especially in crunch time. Victor wasn’t the only star for San Antonio, Tre Jones had another good night holding down the point, and Jeremy Sochan made key plays on both ends. The Spurs got timely baskets from Cedi Osman to hold the lead, and Zach Collins had his best game of the year so far with 19 points. Victor was the star tonight, but it was a team win for the Silver and Black as they withstood Phoenix’s best shot and fought back to win 132-121.

Music Break:

If you thought a song titled ‘Seasons in the Sun’ would be a happy song, you’d be wrong. Really, really, wrong. It’s mostly about death.

Observations

• Sean Elliott talked about big comebacks in his career in the pregame, and of course the Memorial Game Miracle against the Trail Blazers came up. Maybe some day, the Halloween Miracle of 2023 will be regarded in a similar fashion in the Spurs historical pantheon.
• Wembanyama lost the opening tipoff, which might be one of the very few times you see that.
• The Spurs scored the first 13 points of the game, so worries about them resting on their laurels from the win on Tuesday might have been a little overblown.
• The Suns offense was really disrupted by Wembanyama’s presence in the paint, and nobody besides Durant could do much in the first quarter.
• The Spurs were cold in the first half in the first game, but tonight they were hotter than the fryer oil at a McDonald’s on a Saturday night, hitting 7 or their first 9 three-point shots in the first quarter.
• The Spurs led 39-20 after one quarter, in their most dominant period of the season so far.
• Devin Booker looked a little rusty to start the game, and had to check out early in the second quarter with 3 quick fouls. By the end of the game, he looked like he had shaken off all of the rust, cooking everybody as the Suns tried to stage a comeback.
• I think switching Eric Gordon onto Victor Wembanyama isn’t really a good defensive strategy, but the Suns seemed to go with it a lot.
• The Spurs led by 27 about halfway through the second quarter, but the Suns finally started to play better, with Grayson Allen doing a lot of the damage, getting wide open shots off of Durant’s movement.
• The Suns got into the bonus early in the second quarter, which was pretty much the only thing they had going on for their offense early.
• The Spurs sent Victor to the line to shoot technical free throws, which makes sense since he’s a great free throw shooter, and it’s a good way for him to get rhythm shots.
• The Spurs led 75-55 at the half, outscoring the Suns by one in the second quarter, thanks to a pair of late triples from Wembanyama.
• A vicious hit to the jaw from Drew Eubanks’ shoulder leveled Tre Jones just before halftime. No foul was called, and it looked intentional. That’s no way to treat your former teammate, Drewbanks! Tre returned to action in the second half, proving his toughness in addition to his skill.
• Devin Vassell was ruled out with left groin tightness in the second half, forcing Malaki Branham in for him. Branham performed admirably, providing scoring punch from the perimeter to help the Spurs hold off the Suns.
• The Suns didn’t have an answer for Victor Wembanyama in the paint. The Spurs are finally figuring out that if they pass the ball high to #1, it’s going to be an easy basket. It’s really hard to see how teams are going to be able to stop that.
• The Spurs went a little cold in the third, allowing the Suns to 89-103, down by 14, the same margin that San Antonio overcame in the fourth quarter a few days ago.
• Without Devin Vassell, the Spurs offense was limited in the second half, which made it hard to hold off Booker’s offensive explosion as he heated up late in the game.
• Keita Bates-Diop played a really solid game in his first extended action of the season for the Suns, taking advantage of some open shots.
• When the Spurs had to rest Wembanyama early in the fourth quarter, the Suns came all the way back to three points, with solid contributions from players like KBD and Watanabe supplementing Booker’s dominant scoring performance.
• Victor re-entered the game with 6 minutes left but KBD’s corner triple tied up the game with 4 minutes left in the game.
• A 12-0 run led by Wembanyama’s offense and Sochan’s defense gave the Spurs a 12 point lead with a minute and half left.
• The Suns did what they could to finish out the game by fouling the Spurs, but the Silver and Black held on to win 132-121.

The Spurs won both games against the Suns and their record is now 3-2. They return home for a Sunday afternoon game against the Toronto Raptors at 2:30 Central at the Frost Back Center.