SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama had 19 points and 15 rebounds, and the San Antonio Spurs handed Minnesota the worst postseason loss in franchise history, beating the Timberwolves 133-95 on Wednesday night to even their Western Conference semifinal series at one game apiece.<\/p>\n
Stephon Castle had 21 points and De’Aaron Fox added 16 points for San Antonio, which shot 50% from the field and 41% on 3-pointers. It was the highest-scoring playoff game for the Spurs since a series-clinching 145-105 win over Denver on May 4, 1983.<\/p>\n
Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels and Terrence Shannon Jr. each scored 12 points for Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Edwards came off the bench again as Minnesota continued to restrict his minutes in his second game back from a hyperextended left knee.<\/p>\n
Games 3 and 4 are Friday and Sunday in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
With Wembanyama playing more aggressively on offense from the outset, the Spurs put the series-opening loss behind them quickly.<\/p>\n
Minnesota’s previous largest postseason defeat was by 30 points to the Los Angeles Lakers on April 29, 2003.<\/p>\n
Only the margin of victory was in doubt Monday as both teams sent their starters to the bench with 10 minutes remaining and the Spurs leading 104-66.<\/p>\n
After combining to score 21 points on 10-for-31 shooting in Game 1, Wembanyama and Fox combined to go 12 of 25 from the field Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The All-Star duo scored the Spurs’ first 11 points as they raced to a 29-point lead in the first half.<\/p>\n
The Spurs missed their first three shots, but Wembanyama followed the third attempt by flying through the lane and throwing down a right-handed dunk to open the scoring.<\/p>\n
Minnesota was held to 35 points in the first half. The Timberwolves shot 29.8% from the field before halftime and were 2 for 15 on 3-pointers as they fell behind by 25 points.<\/p>\n
Spurs rookie Carter Bryant soared for a two-handed slam for his first points of the series and Wembanyama followed with a 3-pointer for a 43-26 lead midway through the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Back-to-back slams by Dylan Harper and Castle were part of a 11-0 run that extended the advantage to 59-34.<\/p>\n
San Antonio has not lost consecutive games since falling at Minnesota and Oklahoma City in mid-January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama had 19 points and 15 rebounds, and the San Antonio Spurs handed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":778895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-778894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-sanantonio","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116531591017748208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778894","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=778894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}