Victor Wembanyama scored 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds as the host San Antonio Spurs dominated the final three quarters on the way to a 133-95 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, leveling the teams’ Western Conference semifinal series at one win apiece.
Second-seeded San Antonio has not lost back-to-back contests since Jan. 11 at Minnesota and Jan. 13 at Oklahoma City, a stretch of 49 games.
San Antonio swamped the sixth-seeded Timberwolves in the second quarter, turning a seven-point lead after the opening period into a 24-point advantage at halftime. The Spurs expanded the margin to 98-63 after three periods as Julian Champagnie poured in all 12 of his points on the night via four 3-pointers in the frame.
From there, San Antonio cruised to the finish, building its lead to as many as 47 points.
Stephon Castle’s 21 points led the Spurs, with De’Aaron Fox scoring 16, Harrison Barnes tallying 12, Dylan Harper adding 11, Devin Vassell hitting for 10 points and Keldon Johnson pulling down 10 rebounds. Wembanyama canned two 3-pointers but is just 2 of 15 from behind the arc for the series.
Wembanyama said of the difference between Game 1 to Game 2, “We had intensity early on. Crashing the offensive boards early, fighting for the ball and passing to the open man. …
“Of course, we’re gonna keep doubling up on what worked and the few things that didn’t. We’re gonna erase them. (Minnesota) is an experienced team — we know they’re going to respond. … I love how everyone had everybody’s back. It looked like a system that worked.”
Julius Randle, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 12 points each to lead the Timberwolves. Naz Reid added 11 points, and Rudy Gobert snagged 10 rebounds.
“They just kicked their butt in every aspect of the game tonight. So offensively, defensively didn’t matter,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “They took it to us. We didn’t really respond very well. It was, you know, a very disappointing performance. …
“I just told them, ‘We just got punked.'”
Games 3 of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Friday in Minneapolis.
San Antonio led 24-17 after 12 minutes of play.
The Spurs used a grab-it-and-go attack in the second quarter to run away from the Timberwolves. San Antonio forced the pace even after made baskets and went to the hole at every opportunity, scoring eight fastbreak points and amassing 18 points in the paint in the second period alone to take a 59-35 lead into the break. The Timberwolves logged their lowest scoring output for a first half in any game this season.
Wembanyama and Fox each had 14 points before halftime, in the process exceeded their combined total points in San Antonio’s Game 1 loss by seven. Castle added 12 points for the Spurs, who outshot Minnesota 45.7% to 29.8% in the first half despite missing 15 shots in the paint.
“We respond well to adversity,” Castle said, referring to the previous defeat. “I think we’ve done that all year. I mean, I don’t think we were too shellshocked coming out of Game 1 — we knew why we lost, we addressed it. That’s what carried us through tonight.”
Randle and Edwards led the Timberwolves with eight points apiece in the first half but shot a combined 6 of 17 from the floor.
“We just didn’t play smart,” Randle said. “Turned the ball over, including myself. I’m turning over so much. We took bad shots. …
“At the end of the day we came here, we won a game. We’ll regroup. It’s a long series.”
On the night overall, the Spurs made 50% of their field-goal attempts and the Timberwolves hit 39.8%.
–Field Level Media
