In a tense final minute, a timely offensive rebound and putback by Luke Kornet followed by two free throws on a loose ball foul drawn by Keldon Johnson pushed the Spurs lead to five and fouled out Karl-Anthony Towns in the process. Harrison Barnes\u2019 and Johnson\u2019s free throws provided the margin for San Antonio to claim an inspired victory to close the calendar year. After losing Victor Wembanyama to an undisclosed injury minutes into the fourth quarter, De\u2019Aaron Fox and Julian Champagnie kickstarted the late comeback for the Spurs.<\/p>\n
A slow start by San Antonio allowed New York to claim an early advantage in a first half with an endless stream of points offset by jarring stoppages of play and bouts of questionable officiating. The Spurs ended a memorable December – hitting the highest of highs and ending with a noticeable low (hopefully nothing more than a minor setback for Victor Wembanyama) – compiling a 11-3 record in the process.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama (31 points and 13 rebounds) carried the Spurs offense over the first three periods before landing awkwardly moments into the fourth quarter, while Champagnie (36 points and 6 rebounds, 11-for-17 from three) picked an opportune game to have a career-best shooting performance – obliterating Chuck (The Rifleman) Person\u2019s single-game three-pointers record. Champagnie and Fox (26 points and 7 assists) valiantly carried San Antonio over the non-Wemby waning moments. Keldon Johnson (19 points and 8 rebounds) had yet another impactful game as the most productive reserve.<\/p>\n
Perennial All-Stars Towns (20 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 fouls) and Jalen Brunson (29 points and 8 assists) paced New York this evening, while Jordan Clarkson (20 points and 6 fouls) and Deuce McBride (21 points) led a spirited bench effort for the Knicks in defeat.<\/p>\n
San Antonio came out of the gates sluggishly and fell behind. Brunson had his way on the offfensive end, and received surprise support from Mohamed Diawara (6 points). Fox and Wembanyama helped stabilize the Spurs and they caught New York shortly after. Then Brunson and Towns caught fire later in the period to help the Knicks rip away the lead. The fast-flowing first quarter was halted by two reckless closeouts – first, a Dylan Harper closeout on a Brunson three was ruled a flagrant foul which netted two free throws and a Kevin McCullar Jr three after, and the second, a Champagnie three attempt where he hit his free throws and Fox knocked down a jumper on the next possession. The Knicks\u2019 hot hand from behind the arc was the separating factor and they left the period up nine.<\/p>\n
Though New York threatened to run away with it in the second period, some heady-way two-man play by Wembanyama and Castle helped drag San Antonio to within four. Towns was able to get to 15 points by the midway point, and the teams surpassed 110+ points by the 6 minute mark. The Spurs\u2019 shooting touched betrayed them over several agonizing minutes and they were punished severely in transition amidst a deluge of New York scores. Down 19, Wembanyama mounted a closing 9-0 run to make it a ten point game.<\/p>\n
The Spurs re-discovered their offensive execution in the third period, and though Wembanyama\u2019s scoring was needed, it was Castle\u2019s steady facilitation that enabled the comeback to start in earnest. A 14-0 run tied the game at 86, and San Antonio pieced together just enough stops to re-claim a slim lead behind Johnson\u2019s bucket. Clarkson nailed a three to get back his team back in the driver\u2019s seat 102-93 after three.<\/p>\n
From the tip, a pair of Diawara threes put New York up seven quickly. Wembanyama did well to draw several fouls in those opening minutes to keep the Knicks\u2019 frontline honest – all while scoring four of the team\u2019s first five. Fox\u2019s driving lay-up and enusing steal and score tied things at 13. Champagnie and Towns traded straightaway threes. Brunson\u2019s corner three then drew the ire of Coach Johnson, but the timeout only delayed two more Knicks threes in succession. Kornet was whacked across the face on a Champagnie catch-and-shoot three and converted his freebie. Johnson persistently attacked the rim (with Mitchell Robinson absent) relentlessly and earned San Antonio a handful of tough points. Kevin McCullar Jr. was the latest unheralded opponent to detonate from three – connecting on two straight. Tyler Kolek\u2019s reckless closeout on Champagnie allowed the Spurs to gain back five points and New York went to the second period up 45-36.<\/p>\n
The KAT experience in 90 seconds – knocked down a tough and-1 over Wembanyama and committed a dead-ball foul against Olynyk. Spur-killer Jordan Clarkson made his first jumper, but San Antonio was able to draw two fouls in succession on the San Antonian. A Champagnie wing three concluded a 6-0 Spur run. Towns was rescued by a questionable call and gifted three free throws. Area 51 made back-to-back highlight worthy plays to trim the deficit to four. Anunoby was left open in the halfcourt and in transition for two jams to put New York up ten again. After countless deflating misses from the perimeter, yet another burst from Clarkson put the Knicks up 19. Wembanyama prevented San Antonio from getting blown out, and the Spurs were extremely lucky to get to the break down 63-73.<\/p>\n
Towns scootted around Wembanyama for an and-1 to start the third. Castle found Wembanyama in traffic for what Sean Elliott referred to as a \u2019Nerf Alley-oop.\u2018 Deuce McBride knocked down three heat-check shots in response to keep the Knicks\u2019 lead in double digits. Castle\u2019s lay-in and Wembanyama\u2019s trio of free throws – both in transition – brought San Antonio within six, and Champagnie\u2019s two straight threes ended a 14-0 run. With several chances to re-take the lead, the Spurs committed turnovers, but Champagnie\u2019s seven three tied things again. San Antonio competed hard to get a hard-earned stop, and Johnson converted a floater to put the Spurs back out front. Clarkson\u2019s three started a closing 11-0 run for New York and they went to the fourth up nine.<\/p>\n
For the Knicks fan\u2019s perspective please visit Po<\/a><\/strong>sting and Toasting<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n San Antonio visits Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers Friday night at 6:00 PM CDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a tense final minute, a timely offensive rebound and putback by Luke Kornet followed by two free…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":483850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,145911,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-483849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-spurs-game-recaps","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115817739237361246","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}