San Antonio at Utah, Final Score: The Spurs overwhelm the hosts in the second half, 106-88

The visiting San Antonio Spurs beat the Utah Jazz on Halloween, ending the season’s first back-to-back set with a split.

Devin Vassell (right foot) and Tre Jones (right ankle) were out for the Spurs.

Lauri Markkanen was out (back spasms) for the Jazz.

The Spurs countered a 9-0 start by the Jazz with 13 points, but the offense was stuck in the mud the rest of the frame. They made just six of 24 baskets as the Jazz punished them with 11 straight figures near the period from Patty Mills and John Collins.

The second quarter started with the Jazz up 30-19, but the visitors managed to cut it to six points thanks mainly to action from Victor Wembanyama, Chris Paul, Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson.

Then the Spurs came out of the break and ran a prolific Harrison Barnes-Wembanyama pick-and-roll game that set the tone to go on a 12-2 run. Defensively, they flashed the regular full-court press plus 2-2-1 and the paint protection was strong, holding Utah to four of 13 makes in the interior for the third frame.

The fourth quarter started with the Spurs leading 77-67. Paul further organized the attack for the second sharpest shooting sequence of the game as the team drove to the finish line.

Let’s review what happened.

Observations

• On a night after having a very low impact on both ends, Victor Wembanyama unleashed the offense for the Spurs with several 3-pointers. He also scored three times from the spot in the first half on a lob set up by Paul, plus on a putback and on a feed from Julian Champagnie. Defensively, he started guarding Walker Kessler and got beat on a rim roll. Still, Wembanyama checked him well and denied him, even as he recovered to help a teammate stop the ball and denied a pick-and-roll set at the cup. His best play of the game was coming up on the Jazz’s PnR and stripping the ball from Brice Sensabaugh, then finishing a dunk on the break; and stays tall and blasts Collin Sexton’s jump shot.
• In the second half, Wembanyama’s pick-and-roll defense was solid. He deflected an opposing pass to Barnes in drop coverage and smothered Kessler in the same scheme that set up a Barnes open lane dunk.
• Former Spur Patty Mills sent her regards, spraying three triples in 53 seconds at the end of the first interval against two decent challenges and one a bit late in the corner. On top of that, the Spurs loosened up the corner guard to hinder dribble penetration. Still, the Spurs mostly got to the perimeter on the catch. The Jazz converted just 21.9 percent of the 3-pointers made.
• The Spurs’ long-range offense was unable to capitalize on various instances where the Jazz left them open to make interior scoring more difficult as well. The Silver and Black registered seven of 26 trifectas in the first half, 5 of 17 in the second half and made 57.5 percent of the attempts in the paint.
• Chris Paul was the next best Spur and his fingerprints are all over the fourth quarter. He maneuvered to the midrange for four baskets, drained three 3-pointers and went 10 games without a turnover.
• The Spurs’ bench boosted 37 points but was outscored by 13. Stephon Castle was the strongest San Antonio reserve because he bothered the ball well for the most part on defense and connected on three of eight looks.

The Spurs return home on Saturday to face the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tip off will be at 7:00 PM CT on FanDuel Sports.