The San Antonio Spurs didn\u2019t panic when the Utah Jazz erased a double-digit lead and turned Thursday night into a tight fourth quarter game. Instead, they responded with their best basketball of the night.<\/p>\n
Behind a decisive late surge powered by De\u2019Aaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs broke open a close contest and rolled past the Jazz, 126\u2013109, at the Delta Center.<\/p>\n
After watching Utah claw all the way back to tie the game early in the fourth quarter, San Antonio flipped the switch. The Spurs closed the night on a dominant run, overwhelming the Jazz with pace, shooting, and renewed defensive intensity.<\/p>\n
\u201dI think a big thing was we were getting stops,\u201d Fox said. \u201cI think that\u2019s why they got back into the game, we stopped getting stops. Once our defense got going again, that\u2019s where we broke the game open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fox led all scorers with 31 points, torching the Jazz from beyond the arc and setting the tone during the Spurs\u2019 closing push. Wembanyama added 26 points, including several clutch three-pointers, as San Antonio finally found separation after a back-and-forth second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hat goes out to him (Fox). Every day, he comes in, doesn\u2019t have no ego, comes in to work, comes out there, gives us his best every night,\u201d Spurs forward Keldon Johnson said.<\/p>\n
The Spurs controlled much of the first half, building a lead behind sharp ball movement and hot perimeter shooting. They connected from deep early and often, opening up space inside and forcing Utah to scramble defensively. Johnson provided a spark off the bench with 21 points, giving San Antonio valuable scoring when the offense stalled.<\/p>\n
But Utah refused to go away. The Jazz chipped away at the Spurs\u2019 lead in the third quarter and carried that momentum into the fourth, briefly pulling even and threatening to steal control. Rookie Ace Bailey paced Utah with 25 points, while center Jusuf Nurki\u0107 posted his second straight triple-double, anchoring the Jazz\u2019s comeback attempt.<\/p>\n
That momentum didn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n
Midway through the fourth, Wembanyama drilled a three to break a brief shooting drought, igniting a run that turned a tense game into a comfortable win. Fox followed with another deep ball, and the Spurs rattled off a decisive stretch that left Utah scrambling for answers.<\/p>\n
Head coach Mitch Johnson praised his team\u2019s composure after the Jazz made their run.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt\u2019s a never-ending battle and a lot of defensive miscues and game plan execution breakdowns in terms of coverage, scheme, discipline, personnel, but again, 17 points in the fourth quarter got the job done.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
San Antonio finished with five players in double figures and controlled the final minutes on both ends, holding Utah to limited looks while continuing to punish defensive breakdowns.<\/p>\n
For a Spurs team still learning how to close games consistently, the final stretch offered an encouraging sign.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to continue to get better and continue to hold ourselves to the standard that we believe is our standard, and then also continue to get better in regards to that as well,\u201d Coach Johnson said.<\/p>\n
The Spurs will look to build on that fourth quarter performance as they return to the court on Sunday after a few days off, hoping Thursday\u2019s finish is less of an exception and more of a blueprint going forward.<\/p>\n
Luke Kornet joined the Spurs\u2019 injury list but Mitch Johnson said he doesn\u2019t expect him to be on the list long. That\u2019s a good sign because man, did the Spurs miss him tonight.Stephon Castle had a nice night at the office with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals. The best stat of all? Just one turnover. Let\u2019s hope his trend of turning the ball over is done.The Spurs may have struggled as a team from beyond the arc this past month but not Julian Champagnie. He was hot again from three, scoring 17 points while hitting five triples.San Antonio will now have two days off before playing Sunday against New Orleans and another two days off after that. That rest is going to be much needed for Vassell and Kornet. It would not surprise me if they were back for that next game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Antonio Spurs didn\u2019t panic when the Utah Jazz erased a double-digit lead and turned Thursday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,6,969,474,4075,4074,534,52387],"class_list":{"0":"post-554962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-san-antonio","11":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","12":"tag-sanantonio","13":"tag-sanantoniospurs","14":"tag-spurs","15":"tag-spurs-game-recaps"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115943127642237827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554962","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=554962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}