Victor Wembanyama, who earlier in the day was named a starter on the All-Star team for the first time, rang up 33 points and took a team-high 10 rebounds as the San Antonio Spurs dispatched the visiting Utah Jazz 123-110 on Monday to win their third consecutive game.
San Antonio led by just four points at halftime before all but cementing the victory when it outscored the Jazz by 12 points in the third quarter to carry a 96-80 advantage into the final period. The Spurs pushed their lead to 23 points on Julian Champagnie’s 3-pointer with 7:11 left to play and waltzed to the finish line.
Stephon Castle added 18 points for San Antonio while Dylan Harper chipped in 15 points, with De’Aaron Fox scoring 14, Champagnie tallying 13, and Carter Bryant hitting for 11 and Harrison Barnes finishing with 10 points.
Keyonte George led Utah with 30 points. Jusuf Nurkic added 20, Kyle Filipowski had 13, Svi Mykhailiuk and Isaiah Collier scored 10 each and Kevin Love took a game-high 11 boards. Lauri Markkanen, the Jazz’s leading scorer on the season, missed the game (his third straight) with an illness as Utah has dropped four straight outings.
The Spurs dominated the first period, building a 10-point lead before Filipowski’s jumper with 6 seconds remaining allowed Utah to trim its deficit to 34-26.
The Jazz fought back to go on top at 41-38 after Bailey’s 3-pointer three and a half minutes into the second quarter. San Antonio responded with an 8-0 run capped by a Wembanyama 3-pointer to go up by five points and built the margin to 57-48 when Fox hit a pullup jumper with 3:20 to play until halftime. Utah ended the half with a 6-2 run to claw back to 61-57 at the break.
Wembanyama led all scorers with 21 points and seven rebounds before halftime while Fox added 11 points for the Spurs, who outshot the visitors 54.3% to 40.9% over the first 24 minutes of play. George paced the Jazz with 15 points in the half.
San Antonio broke open the game with a 9-2 run punctuated by a pair of free throws by Castle that garnered it a 70-61 advantage three minutes into the third quarter. The lead grew to a then-game-high 12 points when Castle canned a 3-pointer at the 6:18 mark and to 96-80 after Fox’s 3-pointer to end the period.
