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For a good portion of the season, the San Antonio Spurs have found themselves down big in the third quarter. Also common in those games is their propensity to rally. It happened again in the Spurs' 108-98 loss to the Orlando Magic, though super rookie Victor Wembanyama doesn't believe the size of the deficit really matters in the end.
ClutchPoints asked if the 20-plus point holes essentially prove too big a difference to overcome.
“Not necessarily, but it definitely doesn’t help us,” the generational prospect answered.
Spurs post-game
Vic short tonight
Asked about rallying from the big deficits the #Spurs put up themselves in…
The entire answer:
“Not necessarily, but it definitely doesn’t help us.”#GoSpursGo #PorVida pic.twitter.com/gb2o1xZB4I— Hector Ledesma (@HectorLedesmaTV) February 1, 2024
Another San Antonio Spurs rally falls short
Like in games earlier in January vs. the Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks, and Charlotte Hornets, on Wednesday the Spurs again turned a double-digit second-half deficit into an exciting finish. Like in each one of those games, the rally fell short.
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“It's basketball. I mean you get back in games, you make some stops, you make some shots, maybe the other team doesn't make some shots,” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said. “It's a 48-minute game, and it goes up and down. We had a good stretch. That group did a good job.”
When Magic big man Moritz Wagner made a lay-up with 1:59 left in the third quarter, the Silver and Black found themselves down 25. The Orlando lead was still 22 with 9:17 remaining in the game.
ClutchPoints asked forward Jeremy Sochan the same question posed to Victor Wembanyama.
“Not really, I think it's just what can we do better not get in that hole. We did a bunch of s**t that we've got to do better at and we shouldn't have been in that hole in the first place, the former Baylor Bear continued. “It's disappointing but we're still going to keep going. We're going to try our best and we've got to do better.”
Sochan scored 18 points in a loss that dropped the Spurs to 10-38. Wembanyama added 21 while Devin Vassell led all scorers with 26.
“I didn't know that we were 3-for-21,” Vassell said of the team's start from three-point range. “Yeah, just staying with it. [Coach Popovich] always preaches 48 minutes and that's what we did. Big shout-out to Blake Wesley for bringing the energy, getting back-to-back steals, just bringing the energy for us to get back into that fourth quarter.
We got to play better in that third quarter,” the 11th overall pick of the 2020 NBA draft continued. “Too many turnovers, dry possessions, and just had them basically doing layup lines. It's tough to come back in the fourth quarter from down 20. We did a great job, obviously, cutting that lead back down and making it a game, but we kind of shot ourselves in the foot with that one.”
Orlando outscored the Spurs 34-21 in the third quarter as part of a game that featured multiple swings. San Antonio took an 11-point lead in the opening period and went on a 15-0 run in the fourth to get as close as three points with three minutes still left in the contest. The Magic then closed by scoring nine of the game's final 11 points to improve to 25-23 for the season.
