Victor Wembanyama scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 26 minutes of court time and set the tone with an explosive first quarter as the San Antonio Spurs throttled the visiting Los Angeles Clippers 122-86 on Tuesday.
The Clippers were playing the second game of a road back-to-back set that started on Monday with a win in New Orleans. They never found their stride in Tuesday’s blowout, thanks in large part to the aggressive start by Wembanyama and the Spurs.
The second-year French phenom scored 17 points in the first quarter, the same as Los Angeles’ total. The Clippers trailed by 25 points late in the first half, by 28 after three quarters and by as many as 41 in the waning moments.
Keldon Johnson and Stephon Castle added 17 and 15 points, respectively, off the bench for San Antonio. Harrison Barnes hit for 11 as the Spurs won for the second time in three games. It was the largest winning margin for San Antonio this season.
James Harden led the Clippers with 17 points, 13 of them coming in the first quarter. Norman Powell added 15 points and Amir Coffey scored 14 points as Los Angeles had a three-game winning streak snapped.
The Spurs never trailed, scoring the game’s first six points and going up 18-8 when Devin Vassell canned a jumper with 5:12 left in the first quarter. Wembanyama scored nine of San Antonio’s final 11 points in the period, and the Spurs led 31-17 after 12 minutes of play.
San Antonio stoked its advantage to 20 points after Julian Champagnie’s step back 3-pointer with 7:50 to play in the second period. Wembanyama’s dunk off a Chris Paul steal and assist off the backboard with 2:04 left pushed the margin to 25 points before Powell’s layup with three seconds left brought Los Angeles to within 63-43 at the break.
Wembanyama led all players with 21 points and seven rebounds before halftime as the Spurs outshot Los Angeles 50 percent to 35.9 percent in the first half. Harden paced the Clippers with 13 points while Powell had 12.
Los Angeles never got closer than 19 points in the second half. The Spurs increased their lead to 86-57 on Johnson’s dunk with 3:22 to play in the third quarter on the way to a 91-63 advantage heading into the final period.
Overall, San Antonio outshot Los Angeles 49 percent to 34.5 percent.
