The San Antonio Spurs will carry plenty of good vibrations with them to New Orleans for an early-season Western Conference clash with the Pelicans on Friday.
The teams opened their respective regular-season campaigns on Wednesday with decidedly different results. The Spurs, buoyed by a healthy Victor Wembanyama, rolled to a 125-92 victory over top draft pick Cooper Flagg and the Mavericks in Dallas, while New Orleans fell in Memphis to the Grizzlies 128-122.
Wembanyama produced a highlight-reel opener for the Spurs (1-0), scoring 40 points and taking 15 rebounds in his first regular-season game since missing the final three months of last year with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. He led San Antonio to an undefeated preseason and the Spurs continued that roll, dominating Dallas throughout the second half and pulling away to win with ease.
“We all knew (Wembanyama) was going to be assertive,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “He’s been out eight months and he’s been waiting for this probably longer and more thoroughly than anybody else. But honestly, the most impressive line is he had zero turnovers. The amount of fundamentally sound plays he made was really, really impressive.”
Stephon Castle added 22 points for San Antonio while rookie Dylan Harper scored 15 off the bench, Devin Vassell hit for 13 and Keldon Johnson had 11 points. Wembanyama credited his teammates for their effort and attention to detail.
“(There were) still glimpses of sometimes getting carried away a little bit, but much more control than I’ve seen from us in the past,” Wembanyama said. “I feel like we scored after every single timeout where we had a possession no matter who was on the court. So that was great.”
San Antonio won despite playing without point guard De’Aaron Fox, who missed the game with a right hamstring injury. Fox’s availability for Friday is still to be determined.
Stopping the French phenom will have to be a point of focus for the Pelicans (0-1), who got a team-high 27 points and nine rebounds from Zion Williamson in the loss to Memphis in their season opener. Williamson’s turnover on an inbounds pass with 5.6 seconds to play and New Orleans down just four points ended up as a key mistake at the worst of times.
Jordan Poole, Herbert Jones and rookie Jeremiah Fears scored 17 apiece for the Pelicans, who have dropped eight straight games dating back to last season.
It didn’t help that New Orleans was outscored by 19 points in the pivotal third quarter after leading by 11 at halftime.
“If we’re trying to win, we can’t have quarters like that,” Williamson said.
“We played three good quarters,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said. “A lot of good there. A lot to build on. But we’ve got to be better in those moments of understanding that teams are going to make some adjustments. The first adjustment is to play hard.
“We’ve got to continue to challenge each other on both ends, especially in those moments when teams try to turn up the pressure on us.”
Friday’s contest is the first of four between the Southwest Division rivals this season.
