The suddenly dangerous San Antonio Spurs aim to win their fourth straight game and get a leg up on their competition in the NBA Cup when they battle the Utah Jazz on Tuesday in a West Group B meeting in Salt Lake City.
The Spurs are 1-1 in the group stage, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers and beating the Oklahoma City Thunder. Utah is 0-2, with losses to the Phoenix Suns and the Lakers. Both San Antonio and the Jazz will have one more game to play in the group stage after Tuesday’s dustup.
San Antonio takes to the road having played eight of its previous nine games at home.
The Spurs won six of those contests (all at home), most recently earning a rousing 104-94 victory over Golden State on Saturday. San Antonio rallied from 17 points down and outscored the Warriors by 20 in the fourth quarter.
Victor Wembanyama bundled 25 points with nine assists, seven rebounds and three blocks for San Antonio in his return after missing three games with a bruised knee. Rookie Stephon Castle added 19 points, including six during a decisive late run, while Harrison Barnes racked up 22 points. San Antonio was without Devin Vassell (knee) and Keldon Johnson (hamstring).
“I think the biggest thing for us is just doing it by committee and celebrating each other’s success,” said Barnes, a veteran forward who is in his first season with San Antonio.
The Spurs held sharp-shooting Golden State to just 13 points in the final period.
“It was excellent — 13 points in the fourth quarter versus a team that has been there many times and thrives in those moments,” San Antonio interim coach Mitch Johnson said. “I am very happy with the physicality, with the connectivity. It was our best quarter to date, in my opinion, defensively.”
San Antonio has taken two of three games from the Jazz this season, most recently getting a 126-118 home victory against them on Thursday. Utah produced perhaps its best win of the season after that, beating the New York Knicks 121-106 at home on Saturday behind 34 points from Lauri Markkanen.
Collin Sexton added 25 points and hit six 3-pointers for the Jazz in the win. John Collins amassed 20 points and 13 rebounds, Walker Kessler racked up 11 points and 10 boards and Keyonte George scored 11 points to go along with nine assists. Johnny Juzang netted 12 points to round out Utah’s double-digit scorers.
“It’s a really good team win for a lot of reasons,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “The first group really took pride and set the tone and the energy really well (Saturday). Always good to win in front of our home crowd, for sure.”
Utah outshot the visitors 50.6 percent to 39 percent overall and drilled 19 of 34 attempts from 3-point range (55.9 percent). The Jazz also won the rebounding battle 52-40 en route to snapping a four-game losing streak.
“Offensively, you know, any night that you can have six guys in double figures is great,” Hardy said. “Our starters played very well. It’s fun to see multiple guys play well and not have the game be about one person.”
