2 Games Covered Here: Spurs don't show up for National Game at OKC, Take the L. Next day, Spurs show up against Jazz with a W. Wembanyama gets a 5 x 5

 What is up people of Earth? Since San Antonio played a back-to-back schedule on Wednesday and Thursday, I decided to cover both games in 1 blog.

Let's start with the road loss at OKC. A Nationally televised game and the Spurs not at full strength missing Devin Vassell and Tre Jones out with lower leg injuries but are expected to return in the near future. OKC was missing key free agent acquisition Center, Isaiah Hartenstein.

The Spurs have not played well on National TV, my anecdotal evidence is a long memory of watching Spurs games for decades and noticing that when the Spurs got regular season nationally televised games, it would seem that they lost more of these specific types of games than they won. But then on all the other games on regional networks, they would wreck shop. It makes it seem like they don't want the attention of winning the nationally televised games

Here is the Game Recap for Game 4
Spurs @ OKC 93-105 L

The media would have you believe that this was a Wembanyama v Holmgren focused matchup and while it is true that they have a seriously competitive history of playing against each other, this game was really about which team was more cohesive. Newsflash, it was not the Spurs that were cohesive. When all was said and done, Wembanyama finished with 6 points for the entire game. Probably one his worse ever. Holmgren went off for 19 and 5 going 3 of 3 from the 3PT Line. The best player was Lugentz Dort. He played 25 minutes scored 20 points, got 6 boards, played good defense, and shot 6 of 8 from the 3PT Line. SGA scored and passed well enough but it wasn't one his better games. 18 Points on 20 shots isn't efficient. 

Check the Points Created Link Below to read how the Spurs and Thunder did.

As for our Spurs? Wembanyama played but he looked out of sorts. Some reports say he could be fighting some sort of cold or allergy? No excuses though. He didn't have it and it showed. Our Spurs would trim a big lead and hover around a 12 point margin or so. The new OLD vets came to play and while they scored, no one other than Jeremy Sochan, could build on their foundation scoring. Champagnie made 1 3 pointer and had 3 turnovers. That's not good. 
For the bench, only Malakai Branham and Sandro Mamukelashvili came to play. For this team to win, there has to be more of a group output. We need to get back to the days where there were at least 5 double-digit scorers and 1 of those guys go for 25+.

Points Created Game 4 Loss @ Thunder 103024 

The Spurs are now 1-3 with 78 more games to go:

Next Matchup is at Jazz and it's Halloween Night.
No Face from Hayao Miyazaki Animated Film, Spirited Away. No Face is Shape-Shifting Spirit and adeptly being cosplayed by 1 rather tall Frenchman.

Victor Wembanyama as No Face

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ONTO GAME 5!

Here is the Game Recap for Game 5:
NBA Game Recap Spurs @ Jazz 106-88 W 

Hey, the Spurs got a W and while Victor didn't have it the previous night, on this one, he got his 2nd career 5 X 5! What's a Five by Five? It's when a player gets at least 5 units in 5 major statistical categories. Victor scored 25 Points, 9 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 5 Steals, and 5 Blocks. 
Check out how he did it here:
A 5 X 5 By Wembanyama


CP3 went for 19 and 10 and Sochan chipped in with 11 Points, 5 Boards, and 3 Assists. For the bench, the usual suspects were underwhelming. Castle is still a rookie and while he plays confidently and scores, his other stats need improvement. His Per Minute Scores is similar to Keldon Johnson. Even though they are scoring points, there are lots of missed shots and a few turnovers. Against the Jazz, the Spurs got away with it. Against better teams, that is highly unlikely. Mamukelashvili and Collins played an equal amount of minutes and in this game, just like the previous ones, Sandro was more efficient. Collins is a better defender but Mamu seems to contribute more with his shot creation. 

 Check the Points Created Link to read how the Spurs and Jazz did.

For the Jazz, other than an amazing 30 points 1st quarter led by bench stalwart and FIBA God, Patty Mills, who started hot going 3-3 of the 3PT Line and helped his team build that lead. Spurs are lucky that Patty's next 3 attempts were misses. Their prized rookie, Cody Williams, missed all 6 of his FG attempts and the other rookie, Kyle Filipowski did yeoman's work with 12 Points and 5 Boards. The Jazz were led by Colin Sexton's bench points with 16 Points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and 2 steals. John Collins added 14 Points and 11 boards.

Points Created Game 5 Win vs Jazz 103124


Here is the NBA Game Stories Link for the Spurs next matchup vs the T-Wolves:
NBA Stories Spurs v Timberwolves 110224

Spurs have 77 Games to play this season and will head to the West Coast to visit the Clippers in their brand new Intuit Dome Arena on Monday after their game with Minnesota tonight.
#GoSpursGo