El Conclusión: Spurs 122, Raptors 99
Wembanyama posts historic night as San Antonio blows out Toronto.
Introducing (or reintroducing) La El Conclusión: a post-game format in which a somewhat-educated basketball writer grades the performances of highly educated NBA players right after a game without having a chance to go back and watch any film. It’s perfectly irresponsible.
“El Conclusión” is a play off one of Manu Ginóbili’s nicknames, “El Contusión.” Yes, I know the correct article would be ‘La,’ but we just wanted to keep with the spirit of the name!
Also, we grade on curves for these players, as not everyone is created equal. Just FYI.
Victor Wembanyama domination, a defense forcing 12 steals, a hyperactive Jeremy Sochan shutting down Scottie Barnes while also wearing a headband and sleeves, a late-arriving but blistering Devin Vassell — plenty to talk about with this game, but we’re here for the player grades.
Wemby | 27 pts, 14 reb, 10 blk, 5 ast, 7 TOs | 10-14 FG, 2-4 3P | +20 in 29 min.
I was wondering if the Raptors were ever going to stop attacking the basket against Victor. Surely, at some point, they would. Matt Bonner even said it a few times on the broadcast: Those early blocks were going to get in people’s heads and make them think twice.
Nope!
Toronto kept trying to go through him, around him, and even over him on second-chance opportunities, and Wemby swatted their (bleep) 10 times and had a couple of goaltends to boot. It was an incredible defensive performance, and yet somehow wasn’t something completely surprising. That’s a wild thing to say, I’ll admit, but were you actually shocked? It was only a matter of time.
For the most part, he was hyper-efficient offensively. The jumper was falling early in the game, he was able to shake loose for dunks and lobs, one acrobatic, twisting layup, and one of those lefty hooks where he literally just palms the ball, aims it off the glass and fires it like a baseball. It almost looks like he doesn’t have good touch until you see what he’s actually doing.
But what was more critical (at least in my eyes) was the way he paced himself. Victor was pinging around like a ping-pong ball against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday: juking one way and spinning back the other looking for a post-up or lob that really wasn’t there, zig-zagging around the floor searching for a hole to occupy in the defense, and just looking like he was playing random basketball. Yes, those off-ball counter moves can work if they’re setup correctly, but nothing was being established that would allow them to work effectively. On top of that, it makes life difficult on his teammates when they don’t know what to do and when to do it.
But Wemby was much calmer and more deliberate against the Raptors. It allowed the offense to flow through him, and it created great looks at the basket. I’m sure the Spurs would rather that kind of performance rather than that of a 7’4 jitterbug.
Grade: A+ (I was about to be a psychopath and not hand out the highest grade because those seven turnovers were an ugly sight, but you can’t ignore historic stat lines. Wemby became the fifth player in league history to notch at least 25 points, 10 rebounds, 10 blocks and 5 assists in a game since the league started recording blocked shots, and he’s a rookie. There are actually more crazy stats out there but this is already going long. Wild performance.
Still, I’m gonna talk about those turnovers for a second because minutiae is what we do around here. Victor still has these stretches where he tries to do too much with the ball in traffic, or he brings it down to a level where stronger defenders can just smack it out of his hands. Some of that is the Spurs being OK with giving him ball-handling duties and exposing him to that part of the game, but most of it is a result of simply being too ambitious and getting ahead of himself. And you can often see it coming from a mile away once he puts his head down and three people are waiting for him. Still, it’s a blast to watch this guy figure things out in real time.)
Jeremy Sochan | 16 pts, 6 reb, 2 blk, 1 stl | 7-12 FG | +13 in 30 min.
Not going to lie to you, I’m probably gonna bump him up a bit based solely on his look tonight. A headband, arms sleeves on both arms and leg sleeves on both legs? For the initiated, he looked like an NBA 2K create-a-player, and it was great.
But most importantly he looked like vintage Sochan against Toronto. I’m going to be curious to see what tracking data tells us in the morning, but this game had to feature one of his lowest dribble counts of the season, as he was rarely on ball. Instead, he was cutting all over the place, running out on the break and just playing his special brand of random basketball. Every dunk was angry, he was grinning a cheeky grin after every play he made — it looked like he had shotgunned an energy drink just before tip.
On the other side of the ball he did a hell of a job on Scottie Barnes, who got loose on the Spurs for 30 points the last time these two teams played. Tonight, Barnes had only seven points on 3-for-15 shooting, and did not hit a shot until the third quarter.
Grade: A (Overall a really entertaining Sochan game. He was about as opportunistic as we’ve seen him all year, his defense on Barnes was incredible, and his motor did not stop in the 30 minutes he played. It wasn’t some big, impressive scoring night, but that’s fine. Plus, the accessories. What is the NBA about if not fashion?)
Devin Vassell | 25 pts, 6 ast | 9-15 FG, 5-7 3P | +17 in 27 min.
It hit me with about seven minutes left in the second quarter, “Wait, where the hell is Vassell?” He’d missed the only two shots he’d taken, and up to that point I had honestly forgotten about him given the way the Spurs were playing.
He re-entered the game shortly after that thought with the Spurs up by 15 points and proceeded to catch fire, scoring 25 points in his final 18 minutes from all areas of the floor.
Sure, the 3-pointer was his primary weapon tonight, but he’s beginning to take better advantage of the leverage he has out there and is little by little getting to the rim more often, and that’s going to have to be a necessary development in his game. Still, he was on one from the outside against the Raptors. Any time they’d try to make a little run to chip away at the lead he’d come right back and drop a shot in their faces, which is flatly demoralizing — something I’m sure many Spurs fans will attest to given the frequency with which it’s happened to them.
We’ve seen Vassell catch fire before, and after Wembanyama and Sochan shouldered much of the load in the first quarter, it was on him to keep pouring gasoline on the fire in the second. Because in case you haven’t been watching, the Spurs have blown a lead or two this season. Devin scored 13 of his 25 points in the final 5:57 of the first half and kept Toronto at arm’s length all the way into the break. Great performance, especially going from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye the way he did.
Grade: A (It’s hard to hand out the tippy-top grade given his slow start and the fact all his points came while the teams were separated by double digits, but he was a huge reason the game remained lopsided. He was looking for his shots, finding teammates, and being aggressive when he had an opening. Always cool to see someone catch fire like that regardless of score.)
Keldon Johnson | 12 pts, 4 reb, 6 ast | 4-8 FG, 4-5 FT | +27 in 28 min.
Big Body was on his bully-ball track against Toronto.
He was either relentlessly attacking the rim or setting up teammates, and largely staying away from the 3-ball. This was at least one of the versions of Keldon folks might’ve envisioned at the start of the season once players like Vassell and Sochan returned from injury and, obviously, Wembanyama was drafted: a player who can both play with the ball in his hands as part of the second group, or can take advantage of the added attention elsewhere when on the court with the starters, allowing him to do the things he does best without being the focal point of an offense.
Grade: B+ (By no means a big scoring night for Keldon, but he was aggressive as hell getting to the basket and finishing, and tonight marked the tenth time this season he’s dished out six assists in a game. Bully-ball facilitators are not prevalent breeds around the league.)
Tre Jones | 7 pts, 7 reb, 10 ast | 3-6 FG | +22 in 28 min.
Jones’ seven points were more than enough, especially considering he spent the whole night setting up all the other guys.
Tre will have a rough night here and there as the starting point guard, but the steadiness he’s brought to that group (along with Blake Wesley’s improvement as a backup) has allowed the Spurs to leave him in that spot and not look back.
San Antonio benefitted greatly from 12 steals, which allowed them to get out and run. But fast breaks haven’t exactly been a Spurs strong suit this season, and Jones was organizing them beautifully all night along with everything he was doing in the half-court.
Grade: B+ (That was essentially a how-to guide for game-managers: got off to a nice start setting the tone with an early 3-pointer, then did his job to get everyone else involved once they were off and running.)
Blake Wesley | 10 pts, 2 reb, 2 ast, 4 TOs | 3-5 FG, 3-4 FT | +1 in 20 min.
This version of Wesley that just tries to dunk everything is warming the hearts of many, but the more impressive growth in his game is the body control he’s developing.
Instead of just darting toward the rim and going straight up, often getting blocked by defenders who are just waiting to time his shot, he’s being so much more patient around the basket and finding angles that keep shot-blockers away from the ball. The difference from last season to this is night and day.
And really, he just looks healthy. After a knee injury marred his rookie season, his burst is all the way back, he’s bigger and stronger, and little by little he’s seeing the fruits of his labor.
Grade: C+ (I know I just said a bunch of nice things about him, but the play- and decision-making still has a long way to go. That’s expected, though. He was always going to be a project. He’s still very much learning how to play point guard. Hit a 3-pointer and had a couple of nice plays near the rim, oh buddy those turnovers were not pretty. Now, had he been able to put Kelly Olynyk on that poster, I would’ve had no choice but to elevate this grade.
Zach Collins | 6 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast | 2-5 FG | +3 in 19 min.
I’m just not sure what’s happened to Collins. There’s been a steady decline since the start of the season and the only thing I can remotely think of is his confidence is leaking.
The 3-point drop-off from last year was the obvious issue early on, but in its place his post game looked much improved, as did his passing. Zach isn’t some rangy shot-blocker, but at least he positioned himself well and his issues with fouling had been mostly corrected.
But now he just seems passive sometimes, and you can see it in his activity levels and his hesitancy to do things he’d done well dating back to last season. But think about it: You come all the way back from injury, take on the starting center role following the Jakob Poeltl trade at last year’s deadline, earn the starting spot out of camp back in October, are put back on the bench because your 3-pointer isn’t falling anymore and the offense needs spacing, then recently you’re benched in the second half of a game in favor of Dominick Barlow (who’s been playing well, relatively speaking). That’s a steep plunge.
Grade: C- (It’s not like he hurt the Spurs against Toronto, but he was just kinda out there playing, operating as a pick-and-roll partner and offensive facilitator from the elbows, getting in people’s way and not giving up easy shots when he was in the area. Just basically playing replacement level basketball. He did have a couple of really nice assists to Sochan in the first quarter, though.
Cedi Osman | 5 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl | 2-4 FG | +11 in 15 min.
Cedi is such a confusing player to me. He’ll have nights where he looks great and really seems to be helping the team, then you look at the box score and he’s -11 for the night; or it’ll be the total inverse, where it seems like he’s not really doing too much but you look at the box score and he’s +11 for the night. I swear this has been a year-long thing.
Not all that confusing as to why the latter was the case against the Raptors though. He’s one of Pop’s first guys off the bench and the Spurs were doing some damage while he was on the floor. And the thing about Osman is, when he’s not doing a bunch of scoring, he’s always getting involved somehow. He’s a good rebounder, he loves to push the pace, he’s not a very good defender but he’ll get his hands in there and mess things up when he can — he’s just a smart, active player. Usually that means good things.
Grade: B- (Unremarkable performance, and probably would’ve played more minutes had it not been a blowout, but he’s just always in the mix contributing in a number of different ways no matter his playing time.)
Julian Champagnie | 2 pts, 1 reb, 1 TO | 1-3 FG | +/- 0 in 10 minutes
Speaking of just kinda out there playing, Julian often seems nonexistent. He’s a much better defender than I think he’s given credit for at times, but when he has these games where he’s just floating around offensively it takes away an added element to the Spurs’ starting lineup.
Grade: D- (The Spurs won by a million and he wasn’t a net negative. Group effort. Team effort. Can’t fail someone after a game like that. But that badly air-balled 3-pointer made me think about it. That’s one of your primary jobs, man.)
That air ball by Julian at the beginning literally had me gasp. Love the writeup, it’s nice to have you back.
I've been a big Barlow believer, all the moreso in comparison to how Collins has just gone downhill. Great post game recap