San Antonio vs. Washington, final score: Spurs ride Wemby’s first 50-point game to a 139-130 victory over the Wizards

Another day, another historic game for Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs went into tonight against the struggling Washington Wizards looking for their third win in four games during those five home games, and while the second unit gave up a couple of double-digit leads in the first and fourth quarters, they were buoyed by Wemby’s red-hot shooting built up, and the Spurs were able to hold their own down the stretch and secure the 139:130 victory.

Wemby scored a career-high 50 points with 8 three-pointers on 15 attempts along with 6 rebounds and 3 blocks. His big night actually surpassed a similar one from Jordan Poole, who had 42 points and led the Wizards in their final comeback attempt to keep the game interesting until the final seconds.

Observations

• In case you missed it, the Spurs announced earlier in the day that the medical episode Gregg Popovich suffered before the Timberwolves game on November 2nd was a mild stroke. He is currently in a rehabilitation program and is expected to make a full recovery, but there is no timetable for his return. Pop and his family remain in our thoughts and prayers and hope that he can return to the sidelines.

• Jonas Valanciunas continued his Spurs killer ways, posting a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds in just 10 minutes of play in the first half alone. Luckily he didn’t get going again in the second half as Spurs pulled away.
• Sometimes the plus/minus box score doesn’t lie, and that was the case in the first half. All starters had a plus/minus of +9 to +17, while everyone off the bench had a negative, double-digit plus/minus, except for Blake Wesley, who was at 0. That certainly passed the eye test, just like the Spurs built a 16-point lead early on, but gave it up almost immediately when the bench came into play for the first time, and the teams played pretty evenly from then on, like that that they were tied 67 points at halftime.
• Wembanyama are absolutely on top of their game in this home game and that continued today. He had 24 points at halftime and didn’t let up in the second half. For the third straight game, he matched his career high of three-pointers in a game (6) early in the third quarter – only to soon break it with another. Although he attempted 15 three-pointers (maybe he’ll go on to break the franchise record), he made eight of them. The real test will come when Spurs return to the road on Saturday, as he switches between home and away games day and night.
• One thing the Spurs didn’t do well in this game was defending the lead. They got out of the gate early from three and built a 16-point lead in the first quarter, but the bench almost completely squandered them and the lead dwindled to one point at the end of the first quarter. The Wizards eventually took a three-point lead a few times before the Spurs ended the third quarter with a huge 26-7 victory. The Spurs then extended the lead to 21 in the fourth period, but when Mitch Johnson went to the bench, the Wizards once again began to fade, and the starters had to return with five minutes left to finish things off. Thanks to the Wizards for not giving up.
• Finally, to say something that the Spurs have done well that they haven’t done in previous games: protecting the ball. They had only nine turnovers and only conceded four points. On the other hand, the Wizards had 18 turnovers and gave up 20 points to the Spurs. It turns out the Spurs needed every little difference tonight.

For the Wizards fans’ perspective, visit Bullets Forever.

The Spurs will wrap up their home opener of the NBA Emirates Cup on Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers. Tipoff occurs at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.