The Spurs’ roster was fully healthy for the first time all season for Thursday’s 133-126 overtime victory over Atlanta, writes Michael C. Wright of ESPN.
“It felt like a big relief,” All-Defensive center Victor Wembanyama said. “Even before the game, I think some of my teammates were still questionable. So we were like, ‘Is it the day, finally?'”
Capitalizing on the team’s surprising health edge, acting San Antonio head coach Mitch Johnson started Devin Vassell for the first time all year, moving Julian Champagnie to the bench for the first time since November 4. Vassell responded with 23 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
The story, of course, was Wembanyama, who led his team with 42 points, along with six rebounds, five assists and four rejections.
“I thought he imposed his will in a positive way tonight,” Johnson said. “You can see it physically just because of his sheer size when he’s demonstrative, playing with conviction, where he is going to get the ball to the spots he wants to get to and nothing’s going to stop him.”
San Antonio has gone 14-13 thus far this season, but in the competitive West, that’s only good for the No. 11 seed.
There’s more out of Alamo City:
- A grassroots community group in San Antonio, COPS/Metro Alliance, has come out in opposition to the city using any of its own dollars for a proposed new Spurs arena downtown, per Molly Smith of The San Antonio Express-News. “Whoever says that this is a done deal I think is crazy, because it’s not a done deal,” said Sonia Rodriguez, leader of COPS/Metro Alliance.
- In a Southwest Division mailbag, The Athletic’s Kelly Iko says he’s skeptical the Spurs will be open to offloading many of their rotational pieces in trades this season. Iko does suggest that – if the offer is good enough from a title hopeful – San Antonio could probably be convinced to part with Vassell or Champagnie. However, the club’s current roster seems capable of qualifying for this year’s play-tournament, Iko posits, adding that oft-injured veteran center Zach Collins, who is owed $34.7MM through 2025/26, may be the most tradable current Spur.
- In addressing the Spurs’ current starting five, Iko advocates for a shooting-oriented group made up of point guard Chris Paul, Vassell, Champagnie, forward Harrison Barnes, and Wembanyama. Iko cautions, however, that relegating forward Jeremy Sochan and Castle to bench roles would naturally limit their defensive contributions to the roster.
Victory over Atlanta?
If it wasn’t for the merger, San Antonio wouldn’t have a team in the NBA. They can’t even get local games televised. They went from one dump, to another dump, to another dump. This time I believe they’ll get the new arena, but it won’t change things regarding payroll, etc. The Alamodome was built on a hope, which didn’t turn out to be. It’s also one of the worst designs known to mankind.
So this is wrong. Local games are readily available on Spectrum. Frost Center is not a dump but it’s too far outside the city. Foolish city leadership at the time would not step up and the county did.
The Alamo Dome was never intended to be the long term home of the Spurs. It was merely an interim solution. While it has challenges it has been a significant success for the city and as noted by being in the sweet 16 and final four rotation. It will soon be renovated for just that reason.
The new arena will get built downtown – sorry Sonia – and it will be everything it should have been last time.
Spectrum? Local channels don’t carry it. Has to be FSN.
Freeman was a dump, Alamodome was built with the hope to recruit an NFL team, which never did, but is a dump anyway, and Frost, while better than those mentioned, ranked at the bottom among NBA arenas. Been to plenty events there, and gotta say, it’s a dump.
I hope the new arena is levels beyond what they currently have, but they better figure out the parking, etc. The city just can’t seem to do things right.
Has Iko ever watched a Spurs game? 1. Sochan is a huge key to the first unit. The lineup he proposes can’t rebound or defend and Champagnie is little more than a mid level back up for Vassell. Tuesday night was the lineup they have been waiting for.
Champagnie and Collins could be traded, as well as Keldon Johnson. Vassell is going nowhere.
Iko is one of the least ‘dialed in’ writers for The Athletic and that sites poor coverage of the Spurs was one of the leading reasons I cancelled my membership with them. He’s a Rockets writer who is forced to write about all teams in the Southwest and he has absolutely zero connection to any organizations so there is no inside information offered.
There is literally a 0.00% they trade Dev to anyone, let alone to a contender who will capitalize on all of the development that SAS has invested in him. It’s a space filling comment to say anything different.