Spurs overcome third quarter collapse to rally past 76ers for second straight win

03/21/2025 11:30 PM

The Spurs had another of their classic turd quarters, but this time, they overcame it against a depleted 76ers squad.

Two nights after Mamu Mania swept the city in a win over the Knicks, the San Antonio Spurs had a good shot to get their second straight win against a Philadelphia team that is in tank mode and only had 9 available players, not including Joel Embiid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey and several other noteworthy names. The Spurs seemed well on their way to securing the win early, building a 16-point lead in the third quarter, but they took their foot off the gas, squandering it all and them some before rallying back themselves for a thrilling 128-120 win.

Jeremy Sochan, who got the start at center for the second straight game, got the Spurs' first six points by doing what he does best: diving to the basket, but otherwise they struggled to score or get stops and quickly found themselves down 15-6. They responded with an 11-2 run out of a timeout that included two Devin Vassell threes to tie things back up. Overall, he had 11 points in the quarter as the Spurs woke up and led 28-26 after one.

The threes kept falling for the Spurs to start the second quarter with two from Blake Wesley and a few more from Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie and Vassell as they built a 45-34 midway through. Quintin Grimes was the main source of offense for the 76ers with 12 of his 25 points in the quarter, and both teams mostly traded buckets from there, with the Spurs up 64-52 at the half, in no small part thanks to shooting 10-20 from three.

Chris Paul, who for some reason shed his undershirt and shooting sleeves during the first half and looking barely recognizable with bare arms, hit four quick threes to open the second half while Sochan continued to attack the rim, forcing a Sixers timeout with lead out to 16, 80-64. Unfortunately, as they are wont to do, the Spurs took their foot off the gas, and Philly went on a 21-5 run to tie things up at 85 before Champagnie three briefly stopped the bleeding for the Spurs. But Philly was still too hot from three, and SA found themselves down 95-91 after the turd quarter in which they were outscored 43-27.

Wesley and Paul hit a couple more three to open the fourth quarter for the Spurs, but they still struggled to get stops now that the Sixers were hot and seeing everything fall. Mitch Johnson had to call two timeouts in the first five minutes, the second which came with the lead out to 8 off a series of careless turnovers and missed layups. The Spurs finally got the message from there, and their aggression picked back up. The Sixers also finally started missing shots, and the Spurs retook the lead on Johnson steal and lob to Sochan to completely take back the momentum. Overall, the Spurs ended the game on a 24-8 run to get them to 30 wins on the season for the first time since 2022.

Game Notes

• It wasn't Castle's best shooting night — 6-14, 0-3 from three for 17 points — but he put on a passing clinic with a career high 14 assists: the most for any rookie this season and tied for the second-most by a rookie in Spurs history, matching Alvin Robertson and behind Johnny Moore's 19. He also added 5 rebounds, 3 steals and a block. Rookie of the Year is all but in the bag.
• Both teams spread the wealth in scoring tonight. The 76ers had four players score 20 or more points, led by 25 from both Grimes and Justin Edwards, and the Spurs had six players score in double figures, with Sochan scoring a team-high 23 and Vassell getting 20. The Spurs also had a great night from beyond the arc, hitting 19-39 threes. Six different players hit multiple threes, including an improbable 3-3 from Wesley and 6-7 from Paul, which made him the fifth player in NBA history to hit five or more threes in a game in his 20th season, joining LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, and Dirk Nowitzki. Very fitting company.
• We may be complaining that this season did not go as planned primarily due to injury and health issues, but think back to last summer, when many of us thought Vegas's over/under of 36.5 wins was a little high, and 30-ish wins seemed more reasonable. While the Spurs showed us early that their ceiling was higher before everything was derailed by Wemby's blood clot, it's wild to think they are meeting preseason expectations even with only 46 games from him. They aren't folding, and if anything, this is a good experience for next season, especially on offense. Crazy as it may seem, the Spurs have had the top rated offense in the entire league over their last 11 games. (Of course, they've had the worst defense, but we all know why.)

Play of the game

We're going with the aforementioned steal by Johnson and lob to Sochan gave the lead back to the Spurs for good.

Up next: Sunday at Toronto Raptors

The Spurs have chance to make things even more interesting if they can get a third straight win against a struggling Raptors team that sits a distance 11th in the East. Tip-off will be at 5:00 PM CT on FanDuel Sports.