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SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors’ best shooters need only a second of daylight to get their shots off. San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama’s eight-foot wingspan closed any and all gaps in a Warriors’ 122-117 loss in the preseason finale on Friday night at Chase Center. The Warriors finish 4-1 in the preseason.
A few Warriors tried to shoot over the 7-foot-4 rookie with little success. He blocked Andrew Wiggins twice, first swatting a 3-point attempt then batting away his jumper after Wiggins tried to take him to the rim one-on-one. He blocked Klay Thompson’s 3-pointer, leading to a transition dunk in which Wembanyama waited a beat under the basket with the ball to let gunning defenders fly by him before barely lifting his feet to slam the ball.
Jonathan Kuminga had some relative success going at Wembanyama, at the start of the second half taking him one-on-one on a drive to the basket for a layup. Earlier, he rainbow-ed a jumper over Wembanyama’s outstretched arms. Kuminga finished with 13 points and a team-high five assists and six rebounds in 21 minutes.
The Warriors learned their lesson mid-way through the first quarter: Don’t shoot the ball with Wembanyama anywhere near. But the smaller Warriors didn’t have an answer defensively for the young, athletic Spurs, who put up 72 points at the half.
Chris Paul took on his expected role as a second unit organizer for a good chunk of the first half with a lineup of Jonathan Kuminga, Dario Saric, Gary Payton II, Cory Joseph — replaced by Thompson at the start of the second quarter. They kept the all moving often and quickly to generate open looks to make the non-Curry minutes on offense productive.
The go-to starting group of Paul, Curry, Thompson, Wiggins and Kevon Looney — playing without an injured Draymond Green — played 20 minutes in Friday’s preseason finale. Green participated in a three-on-three scrimmage and should advance to five-on-five in the coming days, but is questionable to play in Tuesday’s opener against the Phoenix Suns.
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