Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
In a night where the Washington Wizards featured their future French Stars in Bilal Coulibaly and Alex Sarr on a dual bobblehead, it was the other French star from San Antonio that took the spotlight tonight.
Victor Wembanyama had 31 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Spurs to a 131-121 victory. While his output might not have been as impressive as the 50 points he dropped on the Wizard back in November, he clearly had command of this game when he wanted during the game.
Wembanyama fueled a 22-0 run by the Spurs in the first half, which at that point had the Wizards down by over 20 points. But it was the rest of the team that the Wizards had to keep up with as well. De’Aaron Fox contributed 30 points for the Spurs, and Chris Paul had 10 assists. Rookie Stephon Castle added 16 points.
Washington had nine players in double figures but went just 14 of 47 from 3-point range — with Jordan Poole going 2 for 13. This is the same Jordan Poole that just two games ago scored 45 points and the first 40 plus point scorer for the Wizards since 2021.
Tristan Vukcevic led Washington with 18 points and was a key component of erasing the 20-point deficit by halftime, where the Wizards trailed by 3 points after Bub Carrington makes 28-foot three pointer only to be beaten again at the buzzer by Chris Paul who hit a three sending the Spurs into the locker room with a 66-63 lead.
The Wizards continued to remain in the game and had the game within reach at the end of the third when the two teams got a bit chippy turning into a technical foul called on Keldon Johnson with 1.0 remaining on the clock. Malcom Brogdon hit the tech to cut the score to 100-96.
Again, the Wizards have played several games this season super competitive and then the fourth quarter hits.
Washington made this game until about the 3:13 mark when Fox hit a lay-up for the Spurs and the lead grew to 7 at 122-115. After that lay-up, Wemby and Paul had the lead up ballon all the way back 10 points with 31 seconds remaining in the game and left the Wizards no hope of a comeback at this point.
