The Spurs have been searching for a little offensive life early on, and Tuesday night they finally got a burst that spread across the roster.
Julian Champagnie was the spark. He drilled eight first-half threes and finished with 26 points in San Antonio’s 130-103 victory over the Kings, while Victor Wembanyama piled up 29 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks as the Spurs moved to 2-2. Seven Spurs finished in double figures, a sign that the ball was finding the right hands instead of sticking in one spot.
Coach Mitch Johnson liked the way that unfolded once Champagnie caught fire.
“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.”
Wembanyama made life miserable for Sacramento in more ways than one. He finished with nine dunks, and the Kings were already dealing with the challenge of protecting the rim before Champagnie’s shooting started stretching them even thinner.
“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 very different kind of night, one that turned on a single late decision and ended with a brutal finish.
Mikel Brown Jr. gave the Nets every chance to steal a win in regulation. The rookie scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, then hit the last-second three that forced overtime in Boston. But with the shot clock off and Brooklyn up one in overtime, his attempt at a layup opened the door for the Celtics.
Jayson Tatum finished it with a buzzer-beater, sending the Nets to a 125-124 loss and dropping them to 0-4. Brian Lewis of the New York Post detailed how Brown’s miss left Boston enough time to rebound and call timeout, and how Brooklyn then switched on the final possession, leaving Keon Ellis on the much bigger Tatum.
The final sequence had more moving parts than one missed shot. Brooklyn had a road chance to beat a strong opponent and couldn’t close the last few seconds cleanly.
Michael Porter Jr. scored 27 points, Julius Randle added 24 before fouling out, and Egor Demin left with a right leg contusion. Even so, the overall performance was a step forward after Sunday’s blowout loss to the Pacers, with Brown doing enough to put the Nets in position to win.
Chicago’s early story is less about ugly shot quality than ugly shooting.
Through four games, the Bulls lead Cleaning the Glass’ location effective field-goal percentage, which measures shot selection using league-average shooting from each area. But their actual effective field-goal percentage sits 29th, according to Elias Schuster of Bulls On SI. In other words, the Bulls are getting to the spots analytics like, but the results are not following.
Chicago is 1-3 and has shot just 23.8% on 42 three-point attempts per game. Coach Tiago Splitter said the bigger issue is not simply where the shots come from, but 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 added that the team’s shot selection is generally sound from a location standpoint, but insisted that getting into the paint first still matters.
“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 nights are part of the package. But as Chicago is finding out, a shot that looks clean on paper still has to go in.
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