Week in Review: Mostly healthy Spurs take care of business to close homestand
OffRtg: 117.7 (4) DefRtg: 110.5 (3) NetRtg: +7.2 (4) Pace: 100.9 (12)Victor Wembanyama missed a game for the first time since early January and the Spurs blew a 20-point lead to the Nuggets. But they’ve won 17 of the last 18 games that Wembanyama has played in, with the last five having come against the Pistons, Clippers, Rockets, Celtics and Hornets.Three takeaways1. The Spurs have outscored their opponents by an amazing 23.6 points per 100 possessions in Wembanyama’s 540 minutes on the floor over those 18 games. That’s the best on-court mark among 339 players who’ve played in at least 10 games since Feb. 1. And 13 of those 18 games he’s played in have come against teams currently at or above .500.2. The Celtics dared the Spurs to shoot 3-pointers, and they did, registering their highest 3-point rate (55% of their shots) of the season on Tuesday. They shot 20-for-46 (43%) from deep, but also outscored the Celtics at the free throw line, with Wembanyama going 8-for-15 from beyond the arc and 9-for-12 from the stripe. Stephon Castle (who had a 30-point triple-double in the loss to Denver) still isn’t shooting a lot of 3-pointers, but he’s 18-for-45 (40%) from beyond the arc since the All-Star break, up from 29% prior.3. The Spurs have been at their best (plus-12.3 points per 100 possessions) in the first quarter and have led by double-digits in 13 (72%) of their 18 losses. That would be, by far, the highest rate for any team in the 30 seasons of play-by-play data, with only one other team in that time (the 2019-20 Heat, 55%) having had double-digit leads in at least half of the games it lost.Coming up: The Spurs will play eight of their next 11 games on the road, with a potential first-round preview at the Intuit Dome on Monday. They came back from 25 points down to win their first meeting with the Clippers 10 days ago.
