Game 70: Spurs finish with 2nd largest victory of season in win over Raptors

(1) Devin Vassell's efficient night (2) Julian Champagnie off the bench (3) Spurs build a 30-point lead for the 3rd time this season (4) Defense was the biggest reason for the Spurs' win

Photo credit: Reginald Thomas II, Spurs.com

Leading by 30 points is a position the San Antonio Spurs haven’t been in many times this season, but Sunday in Toronto, the Spurs found themselves in that scenario. Fueled by their defense, the Spurs jumped out on the Raptors early and led by 20 points after the opening quarter. For the rest of the game, that lead would only expand, as the Spurs led by as many as 38 points in the second half. The game was so lopsided that with around 9 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Spurs Acting Head Coach Mitch Johnson put in the end of the bench players to close out the game. When the buzzer finally went off, the Spurs won by 34 points, making Sunday their second largest victory of the season.

“The defensive activity and I think it was the most connected we’ve been,” said Coach Johnson of the team defense after the game. “The most communication I think that we heard from the bench. Just guys navigating actions, screens, things that were happening on the court, that has to take those five guys on the court to figure out. I thought tonight they were absolutely tremendous.”

“Great performance tonight from everybody, huge team win,” said Devin Vassell. “We need that, this is our third win in a row and we want to keep this thing going.”

When asked what led to the victory, Vassell said, “our defense, 100%.”

The Spurs have now won 3 games in a row for the first time since way back on November 23. Sunday also marked just the second time all season where the Spurs have built 15-point leads in 3 straight games. The last time that took place was even further back on November 4. The Spurs are now 21-4 when leading by 15 points in a game this season.

As mentioned above, the Spurs don’t find themselves with 30-point leads all that often. In fact, it was just the 3rd time all season that the Spurs have led by 30 points in a game. Their 38-point lead was 3 points shy of matching their 41-point lead they had against the Los Angeles Clippers on New Year’s Eve. The team is now 15-1 when leading by 20 points in a game this season.

With the win, the Spurs are 31-39, still 13th out West, but getting even closer to the play-in tournament. The Spurs are just 2.5 games behind the Phoenix Suns for the 10th play-in spot out West.

By winning 5 of their last 7 games though, the Spurs are starting to stay in that 10th position in the lottery order.

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Outliers on Offense

While the Spurs made close to their season average number of threes and only shot 33% from beyond the arc, they still won the 3-point line by 12 points. They’re now 19-15 when winning or tying the 3-point line.

The free throw line really stood out though, with the Spurs making 27 free throws on 84% accuracy from the line. Rookie Stephon Castle led the team here, going 8-of-10 from the line. 9 different Spurs players made 2 or more free throws in the win.

Due to their defense, the Spurs forced plenty of turnovers, which gave them multiple fast break opportunities. The Spurs took advantage out on the break, by scoring 22 fast break points.

Vassell had quite an efficient game on both ends of the floor in 30 minutes of play. He led the team in scoring with 25 points, on 11-of-14 shooting. He was perfect on his 2-point shots, with some of those shots contested well by Raptors defenders. His only missed shots were from three, but he still made 3-of-6 triples.

“It’s funny, we went through that stretch where there were a lot of alarms and concerns that maybe he lost his powers, but now, he’s making shot after shot,” said Coach Johnson of Vassell. “But he’s impacting winning, and doing a lot of the things that don’t show up on the box score - shifting on defense, tipping rebounds out, deflections, his rotations have been sharp. His closeouts have been more consistent.”