Victor Wembanyama scored 34 points, with 24 of them coming in the first half, leading the San Antonio Spurs to a 128-115 win over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday in an NBA Cup West Group B game in Salt Lake City. This victory gave the Spurs their best winning streak of the season, with four straight wins.
San Antonio now has a 2-1 record in Group B, keeping their chances alive to move on to the West quarterfinals. Both the Spurs and Jazz still have one more game to play in the group stage.
Stephon Castle scored 23 points to match his career high, while Julian Champagnie added 15 points. Chris Paul contributed 14, Blake Wesley scored 11, and Keldon Johnson finished with 10 points.
Keyonte George led the Jazz with 26 points, and John Collins and Collin Sexton each added 20 points. Brice Sensabaugh scored 16 points, and Lauri Markkanen finished with 14. Collins grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Jazz have lost five of their last six games, including all three of their NBA Cup games, and have been eliminated from advancing to the quarterfinals.
At the end of the third quarter, the Spurs held a slim 96-93 lead. They pulled away in the fourth quarter thanks to their defense. With the Spurs only up 103-100 after a 3-pointer from Sexton, they went on a 13-3 run, which was capped by Champagnie’s three-pointer to give San Antonio a 13-point lead.
After the Jazz trimmed the lead to less than 10 points, Paul’s clutch 3-pointer with 2:08 remaining gave the Spurs a 12-point lead and helped seal the win.
The Jazz were ahead 35-32 after the first quarter. The Spurs took the lead early in the second, going up 48-43 after Wembanyama’s layup. Utah responded with back-to-back 3-pointers from Sensabaugh to close the gap, part of an 11-2 run that put them up 54-50.
Wembanyama and Castle then scored the last 16 points for San Antonio, with Castle’s alley-oop layup off an assist from Wembanyama tying the game 66-66 at halftime.
Wembanyama had 24 points before the break, and Castle added 16. Sensabaugh led the Jazz with 16 points, including four 3-pointers, while George had 15 and Collins added 12.
