Spurs Bury Dallas 122-106 Behind Five Players Scoring 19+
San Antonio rolled into Dallas and walked out with a 122-106 win, getting double-digit scoring from five different players. Victor Wembanyama led the way with 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks, but the story of the night was how thoroughly the Spurs suffocated Dallas with depth.
The first quarter was a street fight. Dallas actually took a 6-4 lead on a P.J. Washington floater, but San Antonio answered with a 10-2 run — Devin Vassell knocking down back-to-back jumpers, Stephon Castle adding a layup and a running dunk — to push it to 14-6. Dallas kept clawing back, tying it three separate times, and P.J. Washington's 1-foot running dunk with 38 seconds left gave the Mavericks a 31-30 edge. Carter Bryant answered immediately with a 2-foot driving dunk off a De'Aaron Fox assist to put San Antonio back up 32-31 at the break. It was that kind of quarter — neither team able to breathe for more than two possessions.
The second quarter opened with Dallas briefly retaking the lead on a Morez Johnson Jr. dunk, but Julian Champagnie hit a 25-foot three to flip it back, and De'Aaron Fox converted two free throws to push the margin to 37-33. Sergio de Larrea — Dallas's most persistent bright spot all night, finishing with 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists — hit back-to-back buckets to tie it again at 37. Fox responded with a driving floater, Dylan Harper added a layup, and San Antonio began to pull away for good. The Spurs' ability to answer every Dallas run looks like the defining trait of this roster — they simply don't have a soft stretch.
The dagger came in the third quarter. With Dallas still within striking distance, Stephon Castle drained a 26-foot three-pointer assisted by Devin Vassell at the 1:09 mark of the third — swinging the home win probability from 33% to 25%, an 8-point shift that effectively ended the competitive portion of the evening. Castle finished with 19 points, 8 assists, and 3 steals. Fox added 19 points, 9 assists, and 3 steals of his own. Dylan Harper chipped in 22 points and 2 steals. When four guards are combining for that kind of two-way production alongside Wembanyama's 4 blocks anchoring the paint, it appears San Antonio has the kind of connective tissue that makes them genuinely difficult to game-plan against. Dwight Powell was a DNP by coach's decision for Dallas. The final: San Antonio 122, Dallas 106.