Riding an 8-game winning streak and coming off consecutive wins against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Spurs entered the ultimate trap game. Returning home for multiple games for the first time since November 20 and coming in 13-0 against sub-.500 teams, the Spurs ran into a Utah Jazz team that upset the Detroit Pistons the night before and were out for more blood tonight. Down De’Aaron Fox and cold on offense after the first quarter, the Spurs couldn’t keep up with a white-hot Utah team that seemingly couldn’t miss, and despite a late rally to briefly tie things up, the Jazz did what they did all night: respond to hand the Spurs their first (official) loss in nine games.

The Spurs were a little asleep at the wheel to start the game, with Mitch Johnson calling a timeout just three minutes in after consecutive Jazz threes had his team down 4-10 early. Stephon Castle responded by aggressively driving to the rim for five quick points and two steals on the other end as part of an 8-0 run, and Keldon Johnson entered and brought his hot three-point shooting over from OKC, hitting his first three attempts. The Spurs got the lead as high as 11 at 30-19, and while the Jazz hit 6-7 from three in the quarter themselves to keep things close, the Spurs still led 40-32 after the first 12 minutes.

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Victor Wembanyama, who was back into he starting lineup tonight, was getting to the rim with ease before subbing out early in the second quarter, but the good vibes ended there, and the Spurs’ hot offense from the first quarter completely abandoned them. They started getting sloppy with the ball and settling for jumpers instead of attacking the Jazz’ porous defense. On the other end, they struggled to get stops, and the Jazz remained hot, taking a lead they would never relinquish just past the midway point of the quarter on a 14-3 run. The same problems continued to plague the Spurs throughout, and Utah stretched the lead as far as 14 before the Spurs scored the last four points of the half to get within ten, 60-70, after being outscored 38-20.

Things weren’t any better out of halftime, with the Jazz continuing to get what they wanted on offense while the lid traveled across to the other basket for the Spurs. The lead was out to 17 at 82-65 after Utah started on a 12-5 run before the Spurs finally got the memo to attack the paint more. They got within 10 a couple of times, but the Jazz always had an answer. The Spurs were also constantly getting stripped or missing open threes, preventing them from going on any kind of sustained run, and they were still down 87-98 heading into the fourth quarter.

Keldon scored the first five points of the fourth for the Spurs, and while Utah again responded with threes each time, the Spurs kept grinding, using the offensive glass and tightening up on defense to claw their way back. A driving Wemby dunk-and-one got them back within three on a 9-0 run, and five straight points from Stephon Castle tied things up at 106 apiece, but that would be as close as they got. Not to get too repetitive, but again the Jazz responded, this time with a 10-4 run while Wemby sat. Wemby re-eneterd with 4 minutes left, but whatever rally magic that Spurs had left was used up, and the Jazz were back up by double-digits with 2 minutes left, and the Spurs went on to lose 127-114.

Game notes

De’Aaron Fox sat with “abductor tightness”, which Johnson called “real but very short-term”. Considering this is not a back-to-back and he has not shown any need for a “rest” game, I’ll take his word for it but will guess he’s back by Monday. That being said, the Spurs missed him terribly, and he once again showed his value in absence just as much as on the court. There’s a reason the Spurs’ season really took off once he returned from his offseason hamstring injury, and it’s because his leadership, scoring and ball-handling are something the Spurs otherwise lack when he’s out. There’s no saying if they win this game with him, but there’s no doubt he was certainly missed.

Victor Wembanyama looked good-not-great in his return to the starting lineup. He scored 32 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks and was one of few Spurs who recognized that attacking the rim was the way to go against this Jazz defense, but he also sagged off shooters a bit too much on defense, had three turnovers from trying to do too much with the ball in his hands, and was 0-4 from three. Regardless, the most important part is he’s healthy enough to play starters minutes again, and the fact that we can look at those stats and say it was far from his finest outing says a lot about where he is as a player.

A similar thing could be said of Castle, whose immediate stats look okay, but this was actually one of his poorer performances. On one hand, he had 20 points, 7 assists and 2 steals, but he was 1-8 from three (he is not that level of a shooter yet to be taking that many attempts, especially when he’s cold) and had 4 turnovers, mostly from trying to drive directly into the defense and getting stripped. He is excellent as a secondary handler but is not ready to be the only one on the court, and splitting those duties with Fox helps mask some of his deficiencies.

Keldon Johnson had another excellent game off the bench with 27 points on 10-14 shooting, 5-7 from three. There isn’t much more to say other than he has been great and this Keldon Stan will continue advocating for him to win Sixth Man of the Year.

Up next: Monday vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

7:00 PM CT, NBC/Peacock