The San Antonio Spurs beat the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, 121-116. The Spurs had to overcome in-game injuries and a late comeback to beat New Orleans, with Victor Wembanyama, Keldon Johnson, Zach Collins, and Stephon Castle all getting hurt at one point or another.
Both Wembanyama and Collins hurt their backs, and both had to be taken out of the game, although Wembanyama returned. Johnson suffered a non-contact injury to his calf and did not return, and Castle hurt his shoulder before returning with some padding added to the area and was later popped in the face, although that was incidental contact.
The Spurs' scoring effort was led by Wembanyama's 25 points, and he added 10 rebounds and three blocks. Stephon Castle also had an excellent night, scoring 22 points on solid shooting percentages.
With Wemby and Collins both dealing with injuries, Charles Bassey was able to add 16 points and 11 rebounds in 17 minutes for good measure.
Chris Paul finished the night with six points and 10 assists, passing Jason Kidd for second place on the all-time leaderboard, and is now only behind John Stockton.
The Pelicans enjoyed an efficient 25-point effort from Trey Murphy III, and former Spur Dejounte Murray, who is arguably the best healthy player on the Pelicans, scored 18 points although his shooting numbers left a lot to be desired.
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The Spurs led for the entire second half until the final two minutes when the Pelicans took the lead. Still, a well-rounded effort from the Spurs was enough to barely hang on, despite going scoreless for over three minutes in the final frame. but a clutch 3-pointer from Wembanyama with 40 seconds left helped ice the game.
The battered Spurs will get to rest until Friday when their next game will be against the Portland Trail Blazers on the road.
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This story was originally published December 8, 2024, 6:34 PM.