Spurs Beat Celtics 100-95 Behind Wembanyama, Fox, and Defense

The Spurs’ cold shooting streak continued in Boston, but San Antonio leaned on defense, De’Aaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama to beat the Celtics 100-95.

Fox and Wembanyama each scored 21 and did a lot of work from mid-range, and they needed it on a night when the Spurs couldn’t hit from deep and the Celtics packed the paint accordingly. Fox reached 12,000 career points in the win. Late in the fourth Wembanyama drilled a pair of pull-up jumpers near the free throw line, first to give San Antonio the lead and then to ice the game, pushing them to 27-11 on the season.

WEMBY ICES IT!

21 pts, 6 reb, 3 blk in the win over the Celtics 🫡

It's San Antonio's first win vs. Boston since Jan. 5, 2022! pic.twitter.com/zgwAMXjXkH
— NBA (@NBA) January 11, 2026

Wembanyama came off the bench on a minutes restriction, like the previous win over the Lakers. He spent the game navigating between imposing his will and forcing it, but ultimately his impact turned the game in San Antonio’s favor.

“He's so dynamic when he has the ball, he can dictate the tempo or the pace of the game,” said head coach Mitch Johnson. “And so I think sometimes he just gets a little sped up, like I know it's hard to say, because it's him, but any 21 year old, and he's been out, and he's not getting to play as much as he wants, so sometimes he's trying to get right to it, and so it's just a continued growth opportunity for him.”

“I thought, obviously, when it mattered the most, he was at his best, and we'll take that every time and continue to try to get better,” Johnson said.

San Antonio shot just 23% from deep, the latest example in a two-week stretch where their long-rang shots didn’t fall. The Spurs are 4-4 since beating the Thunder on Christmas Day, and they’ve shot 27% on 3-point attempts in that span.

Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie didn’t shoot up to their potential, but they each notched a double double and combined for 30 points and 23 rebounds. With a lid on the rim, that pair of wings made an impact by controlling what they could control.

“I think Julian embodied what we were trying to do and what we've been fighting to do more consistent through this stretch in terms of just putting our energy into the right places and not allowing outcomes, results or shots to dictate that energy,” Mitch Johnson said.

Johnson pushed the right buttons down the stretch by inserting the French Vanilla lineup with Wembanyama and Luke Kornet, who returned to the city where he won a championship to a warm ovation. The big-man combo presented a number of issues for the Celtics late.

“We like to lineup a lot… it gives us constant rim protection,” Johnson said. “We have to be better in terms of, we need time to learn what that looks like for everybody else, in terms of whether it's navigating pick and roll screens, pressing up. You always have a constant of one of those two is your low man on the opposite side.”

“It's going to take time, but the idea of it in terms of rebounding, in terms of it doesn't sacrifice anything we want to do spacing wise, Luke’s extremely smart. I think there's a lot of potential, it's just we have to be mindful and just allow it to grow organically,” Johnson said.

That rim protection and defense was crucial for San Antonio as they slammed the door late in the second half. They allowed Boston to score just 40 points in the second half on 33% shooting.

Now San Antonio heads to Minnesota for the second leg of a difficult back-to-back set.

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