San Antonio vs. Sacramento, final score: Wembanyama shines with a 116-96 win

After losing a tough game to the Utah Jazz over the weekend, the San Antonio Spurs tried to start the week well. After the Sacramento Kings faltered for the second straight game, the Spurs capitalized on a dominant 116-96 win.

Victor Wembanyama had one of his best games of the season with 34 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks. He was a deterrent all night long, disrupting shot after shot and making sure the Kings went “no” right after shots at the rim. He was on fire offensively, shooting 13-22 from the field and 6-12 from distance.

Wembanyama’s defensive performance was infectious. San Antonio’s defense overwhelmed Sacramento as the Kings shot 42.9% from the field and 27% from deep. The Spurs turned the ball over 18 times, allowing the Kings’ mistakes to score 26 points, but they made up for it with a hot night of ball play. San Antonio shot 50.6% from the field and 47.8% from three.

The Spurs will face two French phenoms in Bilal Coulibaly and Alex Sarr when the Washington Wizards come to town on Wednesday the 13th.

Observations

• Stephon Castle is feeling more comfortable in the NBA every day. On Monday he had 10 points, 6 assists and a steal. He appears strong and confident as he gets to the basket and starts hitting enough threes for the defense to respect him from the outside. His attitude as a rookie shouldn’t surprise anyone who saw him at UCONN last season, but it’s still quite rare for a first-year player.
• Wembanyama has made six three-pointers in his last two games. He generally shoots the ball better in San Antonio than away from home. Wemby is shooting 47.3% from the field and 37.5% from distance at home, while shooting 38% from the field and 20.5% from three distances.
• Devin Vassell appears to be on a minutes restriction. He was substituted late in the fourth quarter after playing 21 minutes, the same amount of time as his debut against Utah. Vassell had a hot streak in the third quarter that saw him score 12 points, including three deep balls.
• Sandro Mamukelashvili provided the spark and some shots from the bench. He scored 9 points in his 16 minutes, all from deep. He held his own defensively with some timely rotations and some good isolation attacks against the Kings’ wings.
• Julian Champagnie played his 100th game for Spurs on Monday. He now has the most three-pointers in his first 100 games of any undrafted player in Spurs history, with 159. Gary Neal previously held the record with 153.
• Chris Paul finished with 12 points and 11 assists in the win. It is his 4th points-assists double-double at age 39 or older. John Stockton holds the record with 37 such games.