Pace and Patience: The Spurs Can Beat You a Million Different Ways

SAN ANTONIO - The star power of Victor Wembanyama is so blinding that 64 games into the season, many people have yet to discover that the Spurs are so much more than just their MVP candidate.

The nine other players in Mitch Johnson's rotation can each be an X factor on any given night, and together with Wemby they all work in concert to play a punishing and relentless style of basketball that has produced 15 wins in the last 16 games. It doesn't matter if it's a grinding physical slog or a track meet, this team can make the adjustment and find a way to win against any opponent or play style.

The depth of San Antonio's roster was on full display in a home win over the Rockets, a 145-120 boat race in which five players scored 19 or more points. They set season highs in assists, made triples, field goal percentage and 3-point percentage, all while limiting turnovers to one off a season low.

Wembanyama of course was otherworldly as he almost always is. He scored 29 points with a dazzling array of offensive moves, cooking on the perimeter and in the mid-range and at the cup. De'Aaron Fox sliced the Rockets in half over and over, finishing with 20 points and 10 assists. As fantastic as they both were, their jobs are so much easier because of the style of play that the versatile roster around them allows.

"When you have the amount of people that average the points that they average for us on the surface, and then on a given night, you have someone that can have a big night, Keldon and Dylan off the bench had good nights," Mitch Johnson said. "We had three starters with 20 plus, you may not have the points. And so if we can continue to acknowledge and celebrate that for not only ourselves, but for each other, I think it makes us that much more dynamic."

Johnson is always urging his team to push the ball up the court and often speaks about 'flattening the floor' by getting shooters into the corners. San Antonio scores 27.7 points per game in transition, fifth-most in the NBA.

"It starts with the defense and the rebound, because then you get a play off misses," said Johnson. "The pace has been really consistent. It feels like recently, in terms of kicking the ball ahead, kicking the ball across, people running to put pressure on the paint if applicable or appropriate, and then also flattening the defense and getting to the corners. And when you do that with the speed that we can play with and the talent, dynamic, variety that we have with the basketball, it's really hard to guard."

San Antonio's measured pace of 100.9 possessions per 48 minutes is pretty average, but they're crossing halfcourt as quickly as possible to knock defenses off balance.

"We have almost an exclusive emphasis on anybody that rebounds it, we want them to push. That's part of getting mismatches or advantages where the defense can't get set," Johnson said. "Maybe it's not necessarily a numbers advantage, but we have momentum. I think (Wembanyama's) done a really good job of not playing in crowds and trying to force things individually and allowing his teammates to play with him whether that's them screening for him or him dribble handoff or pitching it to somebody going to screen. And I think that's the variety that's hard to guard."

"I could go four minutes straight without touching the ball and find enough to find ways to impact the game and make my teammates better by setting screens, rolling hard, calling for the ball in the right places, and expecting them to switch or to double team," said Wembanyama, who often pushes the pace himself with devastating effect.

Even when the defense can get set, the Spurs play with pace and space that is almost impossible to stop. If the defense is a big rubber band, San Antonio works to stretch it to a breaking point on every possession. When this team moves the ball the way they have been, it inevitably finds a talented player who is open to catch and shoot or slash through an open lane to the basket. No team in the league has more offensive firepower or versatility.

In the game against the Rockets, San Antonio's embarrassment of riches played in stark contrast to Houston's limitations. The Athletic's Jared Weiss said the Rocket's offense triggered his claustrophobia. With multiple non-shooters on the floor, their options are limited. The Spurs, meanwhile, may be difficult to watch for anyone suffering from agoraphobia or megalophobia.

San Antonio has three star point guards who can all shoot a bit, and they have five floor-spacing wings who can all put the ball on the floor. All of them set screens and make the extra pass. The only player whose jumper defenses don't have to worry about is the backup center who has his own ways of creating space and advantages.

"As a group we have so much weapons on offense," said Dylan Harper, who scored 17 off the bench in the first half. "I think that from me to Fox to Steph to Vic, to Dev, to Ju, to Keldon, to everyone on the team, I mean, I think we're all so gifted offensively that I think it's kind of a bad thing if we don't swing the ball like that. So just having that patience and playing with each other, I think on our offensive side has been the biggest part for us."

"Everything is intentional," Harper said. "We ran a play 15 times today, just back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back. I think that just little things like that, I think we're just all starting to get it. We're all starting to get how good we are."

The Spurs can run the same play 15 times in a row for two reasons. First, they identified an advantage and a weak point in the defense. They went buffalo hunting, targeting the slow-footed Alperen Sengun in the pick and roll. Second, they know every player on the court can capitalize if the ball finds them off the initial advantage.

"Vic layup, shot, shot, someone else got a shot," Harper said. "The ball was popping, offensive rebounds, kickouts. There's little things like that, I think just make us who we are."

It takes some moxie to say, "This is our A-game, we're just gonna run it down your throat until you prove you can stop it." Stephon Castle has moxie aplenty. Amen Thompson guarded him as he had a conversation with Mitch Johnson about the game plan, but the reigning Rookie of the Year didn't care.

"I went over there and talked to him about what I needed to talk about," Castle said. "It doesn't matter if the other team knows what we're about to do, or they know our play. I don't think they would stop it. So, yeah, it didn't really matter who was in the huddle."

That confidence has been earned by this Spurs team that has lost just one game since the start of February and could very well finish with 60 wins or more for the season. It's only possible because of the collective.

"These guys are trustworthy," Wembanyama said. "I can trust them to make the right play. I can trust them to play unselfishly. And I can trust that anybody here can choose that if they do the effort, the efforts, my teammates will do the right choice, and we'll capitalize on it."