The San Antonio Spurs are striving to get back to .500 when they host the struggling Utah Jazz on Saturday afternoon.
The Spurs will play the second of a five-game homestead after walloping Portland 118-105 on Thursday. Eight players scored in double figures in the win for San Antonio, which snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 3-1 on its home court.
Malaki Branham and Keldon Johnson each scored 17 points off the bench to lead the way for the Spurs, who led by one at halftime and stretched their advantage to 12 points after three quarters, mostly on the strength of their bench. The Trail Blazers never got closer than five points in the fourth quarter.
“It was a complete effort,” Spurs interim head coach Mitch Johnson said. “The bench was huge (Thursday night). Guys stepped up and did a lot of different things. We got punched in the mouth (in a loss at Houston on Wednesday), so the reaction and response were awesome.”
Zach Collins, Stephon Castle and Julian Champagnie added 14 points apiece, while Victor Wembanyama scored 12, Harrison Barnes had 11 points and Blake Wesley hit for 10. Johnson pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.
“My favorite type of win,” Wembanyama said. “If I have to describe it, it’s when we can really answer the tactics of the opponent while involving everybody.”
The Jazz head to the Alamo City after a 123-100 loss at Milwaukee on Thursday. That defeat came after Utah won at Chicago on Monday to end its six-game losing streak to begin the season.
Jordan Clarkson came off the bench to score 18 points to lead Utah in the loss Thursday. Collin Sexton added 14 points, Johnny Juzang had 12 points and John Collins hit for 11 as the Jazz shot just 42.9 percent from the floor and got outscored 39-7 in fastbreak points.
Utah got forward Lauri Markkanen back in the lineup after he missed three games with back spasms. Markkanen had just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting that included a 2-for-6 showing from beyond the arc.
“There’s some good in that game,” Markkanen said. “Of course, there’s always something we can learn. Keep moving on, and just try to get the next one.”
It will take a while for the Jazz to get to a point where they can get all their best players on the court and peaking at the same time.
“We’re trying to put a bunch of different combinations together with the bigs to figure out what works best for all of them,” Utah coach Will Hardy said. “Nothing’s ever set in stone as far as our lineups and rotations go. We also look at who we’re playing and what we think impacts that game.”
The Spurs defeated the Jazz 106-88 in Salt Lake City on Halloween night in the first meeting between the teams this season. Wembanyama racked up 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals and five blocks that night. Sexton paced the Jazz with 16 points.
