The Spurs, missing Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell, took care of business in their visit to Indiana. While only intermittently playing good basketball, they still managed to hand the Pacers their 11th loss in a row. Dylan Harper had one of the best games of his young career in the 123-113 win, dazzling on his way to 22 points in 15 shots.<\/p>\n
The shorthanded Spurs didn\u2019t get off to a good start. The offense was too lackadaisical, with the ball handlers struggling to get to their spots against solid defense and the shooters hesitating. The ball didn\u2019t move enough or with much purpose and a few too many possessions ended in last resort one-on-one plays. The Pacers, on the other hand, executed well and found consistent scoring from Andrew Nembhard. It wasn\u2019t long before the hosts found themselves with a lead. Fortunately, the second unit came in with more energy on both ends and stopped the bleeding. Neither team could keep the other out of the paint and San Antonio took advantage of that to get their attack going. After one, and despite not playing particularly well, the Silver and Black trailed by only one.<\/p>\n
The offense looked much better in the second quarter, boosted by Dylan Harper and De\u2019Aaron Fox, who came alive after a quiet opening frame. The guards were getting to the rim and hitting jumpers while the Pacers\u2019 defense struggled to find answers. Indiana went to a zone but the Spurs busted it with a couple of threes and started to create separation. Pascal Siakam was a problem, but turnovers plagued the home team, and they couldn\u2019t keep San Antonio off the offensive glass, giving the Silver and Black a huge advantage in shot attempts. With the guards leading the way, balanced scoring from the rest of the rotation players, and a 16-0 edge on second chance points, the visitors went into the break up 13.<\/p>\n
The third-quarter letdown seemed inevitable, considering the absences and the fact that it\u2019s not uncommon for the Spurs to play down to their opponents. Some solid defense and great Harper play only delayed it. Eventually, the threes stopped falling, with San Antonio going 0-for-12 in the frame. Stephon Castle tried to make things happen, but ended up driving into traffic and coughing the ball up or not getting an advantage. The defense got a little lax, and there were still no answers for Siakam, who dominated. Making matters worse, the Pacers stopped turning the ball over and did a better job on the offensive glass, so the extra possessions just weren\u2019t there. Indiana was simply the better team for 12 minutes and headed into the fourth down eight and brimming with confidence.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, the Spurs have been able to wake up before it\u2019s too late in most games against inferior teams, and they did it again on Friday. Great contributions from Keldon Johnson and Dylan Harper helped the offense get going. The offensive rebounding returned and Indiana, despite at times running some beautiful offense, made some mistakes that cost them scoring possessions. To their credit, the Pacers didn\u2019t give up and cut the lead to just eight with 2:33 to go by playing the same level of disruptive defense that befuddled San Antonio in the first quarter, but a dagger three from Fox demoralized them, and the comeback attempt mostly ended there. It wasn\u2019t the prettiest of games, but a win on the road without two starters is nothing to scoff at, no matter the opponent.<\/p>\n
Harper\u2019s handles had Aaron Nesmith, a great defender, looking clueless.<\/p>\n
Next game: vs. Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday<\/p>\n
The Spurs will travel back to San Antonio to face the Blazers. Both teams will be in the second game of a back-to-back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spurs, missing Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell, took care of business in their visit to Indiana. While…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,6,114,52387],"class_list":{"0":"post-513632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pacers","14":"tag-spurs-game-recaps"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115830466997595954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}