What we learned from the Spurs win over the Clippers

01/01/2025 11:44 AM

It was just a breezy blowout win for the Spurs, which was exactly what they needed after a tough road trip.

The start of a new year is the perfect time to reflect on how things are going, and it's safe to say the Spurs are in a sweet spot. Not in the standings, mind you, where they sit at ninth with a grueling schedule ahead. But everything feels more meaningful yet somehow less stressful now than it has in years.

These days, everything feels like it matters, even in games that shouldn't provide many takeaways. Victor Wembanyama beasting inside the arc against a tired Clippers team on the second game of a back-to-back could be meaningless, yes, but it might also signify a flip of a switch that portends more dominant performances from the big man. Stephon Castle coming in to start the second half in place of an injured Jeremy Sochan and scoring inside, getting to the line and being a pest on defense after being near unplayable recently offers a respite for the believers in his star potential. The Spurs pushing the lead in the third is a show of maturity, a sign that they won't take opponents lightly. Even off the court, whenever there's a trade rumor involving the franchise or a comment from a top prospect saying he wants to land in San Antonio, it seems momentous.

Bad or questionable things exist and cause concern, but there's a backdrop of optimism to most of it. The three losses in the road trip preceding the blowout win feel weighty because the team has looked good enough to beat opponents like the 76ers, Knicks and Timberwolves away from the Frost Bank Center. Jeremy Sochan's lower back injury is frustrating because he was playing great and developing chemistry with the starting lineup, but if he misses time, Castle might get more reps with the starters and get more valuable experience. The backup centers performing poorly? An opportunity to see how smaller lineups do and to look at the trade market, but without feeling the need to take any massive risk. Not much looks truly worrying or lacks a silver lining.

Inevitably, things will change at some point. Maybe as soon as next season expectations will be higher, and expectations are the thieves of joy. The occasional blowout or sporadic promising performance from a struggling player will be celebrated, but all eyes will be on the standings because the goals will be loftier, and rightly so.

For now, the wins are fun and the losses are an opportunity to learn something. There's no pressure to win a championship like there was in the Big Three era nor a desperation to cling to relevance that defined the years that followed it. Fans can just relax, sit back and enjoy likely the last stress-free Spurs season in a while.

Takeaways

• The Spurs are torturing teams with an extremely simple but effective out-of-bounds play thanks to Victor Wembanyama's length and outside shooting ability. Every time they have to inbound from the baseline, the first option is to just lob the ball to Wemby, who can dunk it or tip it in. Opponents have decided to put a second defender on Victor and leave the inbounder (normally Chris Paul) open. So Wemby is now relocating to the corner, catching the pass and letting it fly. Against the Clippers, he missed the alley-oop but hit the corner three. There's no need to dig into minor moments like those to explain why Wemby is a cheat code — a look at his numbers suffices — but it's always fun to notice those little things.
• If Jeremy Sochan misses time with his lower back injury, it will be interesting to see if Castle, who started the second half for him, holds on to that spot or if Mitch Johnson goes for more shooting and starts Julian Champagnie. No Sochan will also force Johnson to play a backup center. Maybe Sandro Mamukelashvili gets a try so that the unit can stay small? Hopefully Sochan will be ready to go on Jan. 3, making all this speculation moot, but if he's out, there could be intriguing tweaks.
• Speaking of Sochan, he guarded James Harden before being sidelined and was determined to avoid fouling The Beard on a three-point attempt. He closed out well but made sure to keep his hand up and stop away or to the side of Harden, to prevent the former MVP from creating contact. Sochan has always been a good defender but has taken a leap this year, in part because of his focus on the little things.
• The Spurs had 32 fastbreak points and 21 points off turnovers. One of the only drawbacks of adding Chris Paul is that the team plays slower now. The change makes sense since they also turn over the ball less and are learning how to feed Wembanyama in the half-court, but it's great to see San Antonio get out on the break or simply push the pace after misses. They have the athletes for it.
• Every team needs a fun garbage-time guy. There are two kinds: the one who normally plays a tiny role but turns into a first option with the greenest of lights when the benches are cleared (Malaki Branham has been one of these guys a few times) or the guy who plays like it's a tied playoff game. Mamu is the latter. The man has major "guy who takes the pickup game too seriously" energy during blowouts, but at least he tries when others just walk around waiting for the clock to run out. While his teammates were throwing alley-oops and launching threes, Mamu was sealing his man inside the paint and boxing out on the other end. Always keep hustling like it's the first quarter, you hero.