The San Antonio Spurs were winless in Summer League action entering this afternoon’s game against the Charlotte Hornets. While the Spurs were without Devin Vassell and Joshua Primo, who both sat out, guard Tre Jones said they weren’t looking to make excuses and were focused on winning.
With a matchup against lottery picks James Bouknight and Kai Jones, who many Spurs faithful hoped San Antonio would draft, a win certainly wouldn’t come easy, and that proved to be true as the teams battled all four quarters until Jones made the go-ahead layup over the outstretched arms of Kai Jones and then subsequently swiped the ball from Vernon Carey Jr. with just 1.6 seconds left on the clock.
The steal secured the 106-105 win, and finally put the Summer Spurs in the win column.
Tre Jones, who has performed well in Vegas, had his best performance yet showing off all of his offensive and defensive tools on the way to 34 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds.
Jones was aggressive and looked to attack the Hornets’ defense early, and he was the catalyst, not only getting to the basket but also making solid passes in transition that fueled an early 7-0 run by San Antonio.
While Bouknight struggled early, he eventually got going and he and Jones seemed to be battling throughout the rest of the game. For his part, Bouknight finished with 23 points and eight assists.
The Spurs’ second-round draft pick, Joe Wieskamp, likely also had his best performance of Summer League. While he still struggled to knock down his jumper, Jones found him in space early to get him going from deep.
Though Wieskamp got beat off the dribble several times, his defensive effort was a positive, and he also continued to display some strong rebounding skills at his size. Wieskamp finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, and two blocked shots. He was 6-of-13 from the field and 3-of-9 from deep.
Other bright spots for San Antonio were Jaylen Morris with 20 points and DaQuan Jeffries with 13. It was also interesting seeing Justin Robinson, son of Spurs great David Robinson, get 16 minutes of action and show off some shot-blocking skills early.
The Spurs wrap up Summer League on Sunday against the Brooklyn Nets at 5 p.m. on NBA TV.
