The Washington Wizards lost to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night, 124-113 at Capital One Arena. The loss drops them to 5-22 while the Spurs improve to 21-7.
The first half of this game went poorly for Washington and as expected to some degree. The Wizards were out-rebounded 33-20 in the first 24 minutes while the Spurs raced to a 69-49 lead. Tristan Vukcevic scored 16 of his 18 points to lead the Wizards but there wasn’t much to root for besides his strong play that half.
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After the Spurs got up by as much as 24 points in the 3rd quarter, the momentum slowly started changing in this game, in favor for the Wizards, around the 9:07 mark in the 3rd quarter when Wizards coach Brian Keefe decided to deploy a small ball lineup that did not include a traditional center. The Wizards started slowly chipping away at the lead and even “won” the period, 37-29.
Bub Carrington and Tre Johnson scored in double digits in the third quarter alone and shooting a combined 7-of-8 from the field in that time.
Need an understanding of how much the Wizards missed Alex Sarr and Marvin Bagley Jr.? The Spurs were able to collect 20 offensive rebounds, which led to 32 2nd chance points. The Wizards only were able to muster 9 second chance points. The Spurs overall won the rebounding battle, 77-50. More opportunities to score will make it difficult to beat the other team on most nights.
That said, the Spurs were still undoubtedly in control of this contest. Carrington ultimately led the Wizards with 21 points and Johnson added 19 points off the bench.
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For the Spurs, De’Aaron Fox led with 27 points, Luke Kornet added 20 more and Victor Wembanyama added 14 points and 12 rebounds off the bench in just 21 minutes.
The Wizards’ next game is on Tuesday when they go on the road to play the Charlotte Hornets. Tip off is at 7 p.m. ET. See you then.