Stephon Castle racked up a season-best 32 points as the host San Antonio Spurs dominated from the jump and rolled to a 123-85 win over the short-handed Golden State Warriors on Friday in an NBA Cup clash.
The Spurs (2-0 in NBA Cup) won their 11th straight game after dropping their first two contests of the season. Golden State (1-1 NBA Cup), playing without star guard Stephen Curry (right oblique tear), dropped its second outing in a row after forging an eight-game winning streak.
San Antonio led by 30 points at halftime and by 43 after a 3-pointer by reserve Harrison Barnes with 57 seconds to play in the third quarter.
All of San Antonio’s starters were out of the game by the 1:58 mark of the third as the Spurs strolled to the win.
Castle’s total included a career-high-tying five 3-pointers. Victor Wembanyama finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds in 21 minutes of court time, Keldon Johnson had 18 points and Barnes produced 11 in the victory.
LJ Cryer paced Golden State with a career-high 19 points off the bench while Charles Bassey scored 11. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, who entered the contest averaging 21.4 points per game, was held to three points on a 1-of-13 showing from the floor.
The game could not have started better for the Spurs — or worse for Golden State.
San Antonio scored 18 straight points (eight of those by Castle) over the initial 4:29, the most consecutive points to begin a contest since the NBA began tracking play-by-play in 1996-97. The Warriors missed their first 11 shots from the floor and trailed 38-14 after a quarter of play.
The Warriors trimmed their deficit to 18 points on Georges Niang’s 3-pointer at the 7:26 mark of the second quarter before San Antonio responded, ruling the remainder of the period and leading 63-33 at the break.
Castle scored 18 points and was the only player in double figures for either team before halftime.
–Field Level Media
