San Antonio at Utah, final score: Spurs overwhelm the hosts in the second half, 106-88

The visiting San Antonio Spurs defeated the Utah Jazz on Halloween, ending their first back-to-back set of the season with a split.

Devin Vassell (right foot) and Tre Jones (right ankle) were absent for the Spurs.

Lauri Markkanen was out (back spasms) for the Jazz.

The Spurs countered a 9-0 opening run by the Jazz with 13 points, but the offense was stuck in the mud for the rest of the frame. They made just six of 24 baskets, while the Jazz punished them with 11 straight numbers, close to the era of Patty Mills and John Collins.

The second quarter started with the Jazz leading 30-19, but the visitors were able to cut the deficit to six points, mainly thanks to action from Victor Wembanyama, Chris Paul, Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson.

Then the Spurs came out of the break with a fruitful pick-and-roll play from Harrison Barnes-Wembanyama that set the tone to go in on a 12-2 run. Defensively, they showed the regular full-court press plus the 2-2-1 and the paint protection was strong, holding Utah to four of thirteen points on the interior for the third frame.

The fourth quarter started with the Spurs leading 77-67. Paul further orchestrated the attack into the second sharpest shooting sequence of the match as the team cruised to the finish.

Let’s see what happened.

Observations

• On a night after making a very low impact on both ends, Victor Wembanyama uncorked the attack for Spurs with multiple three-pointers. He also scored three times from square in the first half after a lob from Paul, plus a putback and a feed from Julian Champagnie. Defensively, he started guarding Walker Kessler, getting beat on a rim roll. Still, Wembanyama controlled him well and denied him, even as he recovered from helping a teammate stop the ball and disallowed a pick-and-roll set at the cup. His best plays of the game came on the Jazz’s PnR, stripping the ball from Brice Sensabaugh and finishing a dunk on the break; and stay high and blow up Collin Sexton’s jump shot.
• In the second half, Wembanyama’s pick-and-roll defense was solid. He deflected an opposing pass to Barnes in drop coverage and stifled Kessler in the same scheme, which set up an open-court Barnes dunk.
• Former Spur Patty Mills saluted him, hitting three triples in 53 seconds at the end of the first break against two decent challenges and one a little late in the corner. Additionally, Spurs loosened the corner guards to hinder dribble penetration. Still, the Spurs largely recovered to the perimeter in time after the catch. The Jazz converted just 21.9 percent of their three-pointers.
• The Spurs’ long-range offense was unable to capitalize on several instances, but the Jazz left them open to make scoring inside more difficult as well. The Silver and Black recorded seven of 26 trifectas in the first half, 5 of 17 in the second half and made 57.5 percent of attempts in the paint.
• Chris Paul was the second-best Spur and his fingerprints are all over the fourth quarter. He maneuvered into mid-range for four baskets, hit three 3-pointers and set up 10 plays without a single turnover.
• The Spurs bench provided a 37-point boost but was outscored by 13 points. Stephon Castle was San Antonio’s strongest reserve as he was especially good at blocking the ball on defense and connecting on three of eight looks.

The Spurs return home on Saturday to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tip-off is at 7:00 PM CT on FanDuel Sports.