Game 62: Spurs can't get stops in Minnesota, as Wolves win by 17

(1) De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle led the way on offense. (2) Wolves' offense too much inside, outside, and on the boards.

Sunday in Minnesota, the San Antonio Spurs kept the game within single digits for most of the initial 33 minutes of the game, with the Spurs only trailing the Wolves by 8 points with 3 minutes left in the third quarter. Toward the end of the third though, the Wolves put a run together, going into the fourth leading by 15 points. In the fourth, Minnesota started to gain major distance from the Spurs, building a 24-point lead. With the Spurs having a back-to-back in San Antonio on Monday, both coaches took out most of their rotation players with about five minutes left in the game, and the Wolves went on to win by 17 points.

“Give them credit, they played a good game,” said Spurs Acting Head Coach Mitch Johnson after the game. “They made some tough shots. I thought first half we got lost a few times on off-the-ball screens that hurt us. The offensive rebounds crushed us. I think they hit maybe 4, 5 in the first half alone. I’m not sure in the second half. That’s 7 or 8 just right there in offensive rebounds and then just getting lost on off-ball screens. I thought a couple of times on our closeouts, maybe a little bit of softness in terms of taking away some airspace when you know you’ve got a guy like (Donte) DiVincenzo or Naz Reid, where that’s what they want to do, they’re think catch - shot, rather than, catch - go, where they put the ball down. Again, you give them credit, they played a well executed game on that end of the floor and they moved the ball, and they made it tough on us at times.”

“We’re in a tough stretch here defensively, I know we haven’t been great, but I think it’s about going back, watching tape, seeing what things we can pull from this game, and a quick turnaround tomorrow,” said Harrison Barnes postgame.

Since losing their best player in Victor Wembanyama for the remainder of the season, 20-point deficits have become more and more familiar for the Spurs. In their 10 games since losing Wemby, they’ve now been in 20-point holes in 6 of those contests. Overall, they’re 1-20 when trailing by 20 points in a game this season.

The loss brings the Spurs to 10 games under .500 for the first time this season, at 26-36.

• Play-in race update: The Spurs are now 4.5 games behind the Dallas Mavericks (10th out West), whom they’ll face Monday. The Phoenix Suns (11th out West) are now 3 games ahead of San Antonio. If the Suns go on to win 38 games, the Spurs would need to go 13-7 in their final 20 games of the season to finish with a better record than Phoenix.

• Lottery update: On the flip side, every loss for the Spurs (9th in lottery order) continues to improve their lottery odds. They’re now 1 game ahead of the Chicago Bulls (8th), 4.5 games ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers (7th), 5.5 games ahead of the Brooklyn Nets (6th), and 6 games ahead of the Toronto Raptors (5th).

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On Offense

The Spurs did enough on offense to win, scoring 124 points, shooting 55% from the floor, and only turning the ball over 12 times. It was the other side of the floor that led to the loss, but before diving into the defense (more below), let’s look at the Spurs’ two leading scorers in the game - De’Aaron Fox and rookie Stephon Castle.