Wembanyama Drops 30 as Spurs Roll Kings 124-109 for Seventh Straight Win

For about ninety seconds on Friday night, Sacramento could dream. Domantas Sabonis opened the game with a thunderous dunk right over Victor Wembanyama, rookie Darius Acuff Jr. followed it with a three, and the Kings led 5-2 at Golden 1 Center. Then the San Antonio Spurs remembered who they are, and the night turned into another Wembanyama highlight reel. The Spurs scored 20 points in the final 4:59 of the first quarter to take charge for good. Wembanyama scored the last eight of the period himself, finishing it with an alley-oop dunk in the closing seconds that made it 38-29. By half-time he had 20 points on seven-of-nine shooting, San Antonio had 75 — its second-highest scoring first half of the season — and the game was effectively over at 75-56. Wembanyama finished with 30 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks in only 26 minutes, sitting out the final eight with the Spurs up by 22. It was his seventh double-double of the season, and it came two nights after his 52-point, 24-rebound, eight-block explosion against Dallas. The 7-foot-4 Frenchman is barely a month into the season and already looks firmly in the early MVP race, doing damage from everywhere — he made four of six three-pointers on Friday after entering the night shooting just 24 percent from deep. What makes this Spurs team frightening is that Wembanyama no longer has to do it alone. Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell and Dylan Harper each scored 19 points, Harrison Barnes added 13 off the bench, and San Antonio shot 50 percent from three as a team. The Spurs led by as many as 24 in the fourth, and the only real scare came in the second quarter, when Wembanyama grabbed at his ankle after landing on Sabonis' foot on a three-point attempt. The foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1, Wembanyama stayed in the game, and the scare passed as quickly as it arrived. For Sacramento, the numbers are getting grim. The 124-109 defeat dropped the Kings to 1-8, tying the worst nine-game start in franchise history, and they are still winless in four home games. Sabonis finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Acuff gave the home crowd something to hold onto with 22 points and eight assists, but the Kings committed 26 fouls and watched San Antonio shoot 42 free throws. They actually outscored the Spurs 53-49 after half-time, which only showed how deep the first-half hole had been. The win was also San Antonio's opener in the NBA Cup, in West Group C, and the first stop on a four-game road trip that continues in Portland on Saturday. At 7-2, with seven straight wins and a superstar playing like the best player on the planet, the Spurs are no longer a curiosity. They are the team nobody in the West wants to see right now.