DETROIT – On French Heritage Night at Little Caesars Arena, Frenchman Victor Wembanyama – the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft – recorded his first career triple-double to propel the San Antonio Spurs over the Detroit Pistons, 130-108, in a battle of the two teams with the NBA’s worst records.
In addition to being his first triple-double, it was also the fifth-fastest triple-double recorded in NBA history, as Wembanyama only played 21 minutes in limited action. During that time, he put up 16 points, 12 rebounds, and a career-high 10 assists in his first visit to Detroit.
The Spurs victory came as a result of a balanced offensive attack, as eight players scored in double figures. Aside from Wembanyama’s 16, Devin Vassell had 16 points, Jeremy Sochan had 15, Doug McDermott scored 14, Keldon Johnson notched 17, and Cedi Osman, Tre Jones, and Dominick Barlow each had 11.
With star guard Cade Cunningham sidelined with a knee strain, the Pistons were also balanced. Five players scored in double figures, led by Jalen Duren who had a 21-point, 12-rebound double-double. Jaden Ivey and Bojan Bogdanovic each scored 19 points for the Pistons, while Alec Burks and Kevin Knox scored 15 and 12 points, respectively, off the bench for the home team.
Detroit trailed essentially the entire way. The first four minutes of the game saw the Pistons hop out to the slimmest of leads, 10-8, but over the next five minutes of gametime, the Spurs used a 23-5 run, including a six-minute stint with star rookie Frenchman Victor Wembanyama on the bench, to go up 31-15. In his first six minutes on the court, Wembanyama tallied six points, five rebounds, four assists, and one blocked shot.
Reserve guard Marcus Sasser helped disrupt the first-quarter run by the Spurs with a running floater at the 3:21 in the first, and the Pistons were able to string together consecutive baskets by big man James Wiseman and Sasser again to slightly narrow the first-quarter gap to 12 at 31-19.
The slow start by the Pistons was a direct contrast from the team’s last home game when they stormed out the gates with a 47-point opening quarter, which tied the second-highest scoring quarter for any NBA team this season.
The teams both struggled to make shots in the second, but a Wembanyama putback dunk at the seven-minute mark put the Spurs up 44-31. Duren and the Pistons were able to capitalize on limited minutes from Wembanyama in the second quarter and get into the paint without much reservation. But they essentially traded baskets with the Spurs for the better part of 10 minutes, finding themselves in a 54-46 hole with 2:22 remaining in the half. Following a Jeremy Sochan three pointer with 5.1 seconds left in the second, the Spurs took a 63-51 lead into intermission.
They kept pushing ahead in the second half, coming out the gate with a 10-3 run, where all but two of the Spurs points during that run were scored or assisted by Wembanyama.
“I think we started flat. I started out slow,” said Duren after the game. “That can’t happen. I’ve gotta be better. We need energy the whole game. We need guys to be locked in on coverages the whole game. We don’t have as many guys who can just win games when they turn it on. We’ve just got to be better all around.”
On having to guard Wembanyama, Duren said: “It’s definitely unique. He’s unique. He’s just tall – very tall. Skilled, lanky, the way he moves on the court. Every night, every team has somebody who is a great player. I was trying to make him take all his shots from outside the paint because when he gets in the lane, he’s right at the rim. The best thing you can really do is just try to move him away.”
Pistons Head Coach Monty Williams said that tonight was just a night where the shots weren’t falling for his team. The Pistons rebounded from a bad-shooting first half to end the game shooting 44-of-96 (46%), but only managed to make 10-of-32 three-point attempts. They also protected the ball better than they have most of the season, only turning the ball over 10 times, but the Spurs only had five turnovers and they limited the Pistons to just one basket from those five turnovers.
The Pistons fall to 3-35 on the season, losers of 34 of their last 35 games, and the Spurs are now 6-30 on the season. The Pistons are back in action on Friday, Jan. 12, when they take on the Houston Rockets.
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