Photos by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images San Antonio’s offense struggles in a blowout loss to the Suns. On the second game of a back-to-back, the San Antonio Spurs couldn’t keep up with a red hot Phoenix Suns team. The Suns got pretty much anything they wanted offensively on their way to a 131-106 win over the Spurs. To make matters worse, San Antonio’s offense struggled for long stretches of the game. The Suns shot 59.6% from the field and 45.8% from deep in the blowout. They outscored the Spurs in the paint 68-56 and got 19 easy points off San Antonio’s 15 turnovers. Rarely do teams beat the Spurs in the assist category, but the Suns did racking up 36 assists. The Spurs struggled to score, shooting 47.1% from the field. Their poor three-point shooting hurt them once again as they hit just 27.3% of their deep shots. Devin Booker was unstoppable, taking players off the dribble and torching the Spurs in the mid-range. He led all scorers with 32 points, adding in 9 assists and 7 rebounds. Keldon Johnson led the Spurs in scoring with 14 points off the bench on 5-12 shooting. Victor Wembanyma played just 21 minutes in the blowout loss, and struggled to make an impact. He finished with 13 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 turnovers. San Antonio will get another shot at the Suns on Monday to finish their two-game series. Game Notes: - Phoenix had a clear defensive play for San Antonio. They put starting center, Jusuf Nurkic, on Jeremy Sochan or another non-shooter like Blake Wesley or Malaki Branham, and doubled Wembanyama hard in the paint. When Devin Vassell tried to shake loose off screens, he was met with immediate double teams. The gameplan against the Spurs has become clear – make anyone but Wembanyama and Vassell beat you.
- The Suns dared Wesley to shoot from deep, and he made them pay hitting both of his three-point attempts. The second-year guard had a solid game off the bench with 12 points, 3 assists and 2 steals. He played tough defense on Booker for a few possessions as well. Wesley has put together some nice games this season, boding well for a role on next year’s squad.
- If the Spurs want to play with the Suns on Monday, they’ll need to find some sort of answer for Booker and Kevin Durant. On Saturday they stuck Sochan on Durant, who did a solid job. Julian Champagnie guarded Booker and had a hard time keeping up. Because of Nurkic’s size, Wembanyama has to be occupied guarding him, even if his length could also give Durant issues. Figuring out a way to make it harder on the Suns stars could help them avoid another blowout loss.
Source: https://www.poundingtherock.com/2024/3/ ... a-popovich