The Spurs finally found some pop on offense Tuesday, and Julian Champagnie was the one lighting the fuse.
Champagnie drilled eight first-half threes and piled up 26 points as San Antonio rolled past the Kings 130-103. Victor Wembanyama added 29 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks, and the Spurs moved to 2-2 after a start that had left them searching for a cleaner rhythm.
What stood out for coach Mitch Johnson was how fast the team started feeding the hot hand.
“I thought our team did a good job of recognizing where he was once he got going,” Johnson said, via Brad Millwater of Spurs On SI. “We’ve had some time in the last few years where I think we’ve done a poor job of (finding open shooters).
Not intentionally. I just think we’ve grown in that aspect a little bit.”
San Antonio made life miserable for Sacramento in more than one way. Wembanyama finished with nine dunks, turning the rim into a problem the Kings could not solve, while Champagnie kept stretching the floor and making the defense pay. That combo opened things up for everyone else, with seven Spurs finishing in double figures.
“The strength of our team is, as an opponent, you have to take care of multiple threats,” Wembanyama said. “This time, the lob was open early. That opened up my teammates later on.”
Brooklyn had a much rougher ending in Boston, where a rookie almost rescued the night before it slipped away in the final seconds.
Mikel Brown Jr. scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and buried the three-pointer that forced overtime, but his final decision in regulation proved costly. With the shot clock off and the Nets up by one, Brown drove for a layup instead of running more time, and Boston got another crack.
Jayson Tatum finished the job with a buzzer-beating shot that gave the Celtics a 125-124 win and dropped Brooklyn to 0-4.
As Brian Lewis of the New York Post details, Brown’s miss left Boston enough time to rebound and call timeout. Brooklyn then switched on the last possession, which left Keon Ellis guarding the bigger Tatum.
That sequence went beyond one rookie’s miss. The Nets had a chance to close out a strong road win, and they didn’t handle the last stretch well enough to finish it.
Michael Porter Jr. scored 27 points and Julius Randle added 24 before fouling out. Egor Demin left with a right leg contusion.
Even in defeat, Brooklyn showed a clear step forward from Sunday’s blowout loss to the Pacers. Brown was a big reason the Nets were in position to win at all. Now comes the harder lesson: how to finish when the game is already in your hands.
Chicago, meanwhile, is running into the kind of problem that can drive a coach crazy. The Bulls are generating shots from the areas analytics likes, but the ball isn’t going in nearly enough.
Through four games, Chicago ranked first in Cleaning the Glass’ location effective field-goal percentage, which measures shot selection based on league-average shooting from each spot on the floor. But its actual effective field-goal percentage sat 29th, as Elias Schuster of Bulls On SI explains.
That’s a wide gap between process and production.
The Bulls opened 1-3 and are shooting just 23.8% on 42 three-point attempts per game. Tiago Splitter said the issue isn’t only about the spot on the floor - it’s also about how the offense gets there.
“When we don’t touch the paint or don’t create any shifts in their defense, those are bad shots,” Splitter said. “And we’re showing and talking about those. We got to get better at that.”
Splitter’s message was simple: shot location matters, but so do timing, movement and whether the defense has been forced to react first.
“Our shot selection overall is good in terms of where we shoot it from,” Splitter said, adding that getting into the paint first remains a priority.
For a rebuilding team, rough shooting nights are part of the deal. But a clean-looking shot on paper still has to go in.
In Other News...
Why The Nets Wanted No Part Of Jaylen Brown
When Boston came calling with a trade idea for Jaylen Brown, the Nets reportedly didnt need long to think it over. According to league insider Brian Lewis, Brooklyn passed on the offer because Browns close relationship with Kyrie Irving was part of the package, and the organization was wary of reopening old doors it had worked hard to close.
For the Nets, it was less about Browns talent than the memory attached to the move. League sources said Brooklyn wanted no part of anything that could resemble another Kyrie Irving situation, a reminder of how much the franchise still measures potential additions against the turbulence that came with Irvings stint there. Brown eventually landed with the Philadelphia 76ers, where he is playing now, but the reason Brooklyn backed away says plenty about the standards the team is applying to its roster decisions. [Read more 🡒]
Nets May Have Avoided A Bigger Egor Demin Scare
Egor Demins night ended early in Boston after he left with a right leg contusion and never returned, a frustrating turn in an overtime loss for the Nets. The injury came after a collision with Paul George, and Brooklyn was left to sort through another short-handed finish while trying to assess how much trouble its rookie guard was really in.
Demin offered a calmer read after the game, saying the issue does not appear serious and that he expects to be back in a couple of days. Even so, there was still some uncertainty about whether he would need imaging, and his availability for Fridays matchup with the Detroit Pistons remains up in the air. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Rotation Tweak Hit An Early Scare In Loss To Boston
Brooklyns new starting backcourt barely had time to settle in before it hit an early bump against Boston. Egor Dmin took a knee from Paul George and was forced out of the game, an untimely interruption for a rotation tweak the Nets were trying to evaluate in real time during an overtime loss to the Celtics.
Dmin later downplayed the issue, saying the right-leg contusion did not feel serious and that he expects to be back in a few days. The Nets have not set a timetable, which leaves Jordi Fernndez and his staff waiting to see how quickly the lineup can get back on the court and whether the recent change can finally be judged with a little more continuity. [Read more 🡒]