Victor Wembanyama Too Much for Pacers, Leads Spurs to 117-105 Win

1. First Quarter

On Friday night, the New Orleans Pelicans blitzed the Pacers with 48 first-quarter points, but tonight the defense wasn’t the issue to start the game. Indiana’s offense scored a first quarter low, 16-points. The Pacers shot 31.8% from the field and only made one of the twelve three-point attempts. Victor Wembanyama started the scoring off with a dunk off a miss from Devin Vassell. San Antonio went ahead 12-3 in the first 3:49 after Vassell’s triple. The most Indiana would trail in the quarter was twelve points three times. San Antonio would lead 26-16 after twelve minutes. Vassell and T.J. McConnell led all scorers with 8 points.

2. Second Quarter

After a poor offensive first quarter, Indiana was better in the second, but their defense struggles to get stops. Pascal Siakam trimmed the Pacers deficit to six points after converting a three to make it 31-25 with 9:11 remaining in the half. The Spurs quickly pushed the lead back to double digits after a Keldon Johnson layup. With 3:08 remaining in the half, Jeremy Sochan got to the rim for a layup to put San Antonio up 47-37. Indiana then went on a 12-2 run to make it 49-48 after Andrew Nembhard was left wide open from three-point range. Wemby made his first triple of the game on the following possession to put San Antonio up 52-48 at intermission. After 11 second quarter points, Wembanyama led all scorers with 15 points followed by McConnell with 14 points.

3. Third Quarter

To start the third quarter, it looked like a different Pacers team because they opened the half on a 9-2 run to go ahead 57-54 after a Myles Turner three and layup. The lead for Indiana only lasted a little over four minutes after a Malaki Branham three-pointer to put San Antonio ahead 65-63. After going down 63-60, the Spurs scored eleven straight points to go up 71-63 after a step back three from Wemby. San Antonio eventually went back up by double figures and ended up leading 86-77 after three quarters. Branham had nine points in the quarter to lead the scoring in the period. Wembanyama paced all scorers with 23 points followed by Branham with 18 points. Indiana’s leading scorer was Siakam with 17 points. Indiana was 4/23 (17.4%) through three quarters from deep.

4. Fourth Quarter

The late surge by San Antonio carried over to the final quarter of play as they went ahead by 13 points with 9:40 remaining following a Johnson two-pointer. Indiana came together to go from trailing 97-84 with 8:58 remaining, to trailing 98-97 with 5:59 remaining. Turner cut it to one with a three-pointer on back-to-back possessions for the Pacers. Indiana cut it to one on three straight possessions, but they could not get stops to retake the lead. With 4:56 remaining in the game, Indiana was down 103-102, but San Antonio went on a 10-0 run. The Pacers just had no answers for Wembanyama down the stretch, whether that was offensively or defensively. Indiana has now lost two straight with the 117-105 loss to the Spurs.

5. Top Performers

Victor Wembanyama (31p, 12r, 6a, 6b), Malaki Branham (18p, 6a, 4r), Devin Vassell (17p, 9r, 5a), Keldon Johnson (17p), and Jeremy Sochan (12p, 8r, 4a). For Indiana, T.J. McConnell (26p, 5a, 3s), Pascal Siakam (21p, 8r), and Myles Turner (16p, 10r). For tonight’s full box score, click here.

6. Notes

• Victor Wembanyama recorded his 5th game with 30+ points
  • 32nd double-double
  • 17th game with 5+ blocks
• J. McConnell’s 26 points are a season high and second most point scored in his career
• Tyrese Haliburton with 0 threes in back-to-back threes for first time as a Pacer
  • First time since the first two games of the ’21-’22 season
  • 3rd time in his career
  • Since All-Star game, Haliburton is 9/41 (21.95%)
  • Pacers are 5-10 when Haliburton makes 0 or 1 three
• Myles Turner recorded his 14th double-double of the season
• San Antonio’s 4th time this season winning back-to-back games
• San Antonio’s 54.1% is 3rd best shooting game of the season
• Indiana’s 16 first quarter points tied the lowest points in a quarter this season (Q3 at New Orleans)
  • Fewest points scored in a first quarter this season
• Indiana now 0-16 when scoring 110 points or less
  • 4-12 when making 10 or fewer threes
    • Milwaukee (2x),
  • Indiana’s 20% three-point shooting is 4th worst this season
  • Indiana is now 8-6 against Detroit, Washington, San Antonio, Charlotte, Portland
    • 5-6 if you remove 3 wins against Detroit

7. Next Up

The Indiana Pacers wrap-up their three-game road trip on Tuesday night against the Dallas Mavericks. Pat Boylan will get things started with the Kroger Pregame Show at 8pm on 93.5/107.5 The Fan. Mark Boyle will have the play-by-play starting at 8:30pm.