Victor Wembanyama didn't need another historic line. He finished with 30 points and 14 rebounds, his quietest scoring night of the run, and it was still enough. Coming off a week where he averaged 36 a night and dropped 52 and 24 on Dallas, 30 and 14 counts as a normal game for him now. The Kings had no Keegan Murray and no Maxime Raynaud to throw at him. De'Andre Hunter also sat with an illness, which left them 1 more forward short.
The Kings shot well enough to make the score respectable. They hit 46% from the field and 44% from 3, well above the 38.2% that sank them against the Lakers. The problem was that the Spurs shot better at every spot except the line. Sacramento made only 60% of its free throws, and in a game it was already chasing, that gave away points it couldn't afford to lose.
The second-half fade the preview worried about showed up again, just in a smaller dose. After winning the 2nd half against Dallas 60-44, San Antonio lost this one 54-48. The 3rd quarter was 24-24, and the Kings took the 4th 29-25. A 19-point halftime lead is too big to blow against a 1-8 team. Still, the supporting cast without Tobias Harris has now let off the gas after halftime 2 games in a row, and a better opponent will make them pay for it.
For Sacramento, the frontcourt help the preview pointed to doesn't show up in anything available on this game, so there's no case that Dylan Cardwell or a returning Murray changed the matchup. Hunter's late scratch meant the Kings had 1 fewer body, not 1 more. They're 1-8 and have now lost to the Spurs twice by double digits. The lone bright spot is a 4th quarter they won after the game was already gone.
San Antonio is 7-2 and has won 5 straight, and Wembanyama hasn't had a bad night in any of them. The next step is getting 48 good minutes out of the players around him instead of 24.
