For the fifth time this season, the San Antonio Spurs have beaten the best team in the NBA. This time it was the Detroit Pistons, who fell 114-103 in a showdown of league contenders. Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs seem like a legitmate title threat now, a year or two ahead of schedule.
With a talent like 7-foot-4 unicorn Victor Wembanyama, the timeline in the San Antonio Spurs' route from rebuilding to contender is getting shorter by the day. An NBA title not only seems to be in the Spurs' future, but it may be in their present as well.
Wembanyama and the Spurs showed that again on Monday night when they went to Detroit to take on the Pistons, who entered the game with a 42-13 record and a .764 winning percentage, the best in the NBA.
Wembanyama had 21 points and the Spurs made 18 three-pointers in an impressive 114-103 win. It was the fifth time this season that San Antonio has beaten the best team in the NBA. (They beat Oklahoma City four other times.)
It's the first time in 33 years that an NBA team had five wins against the league's best, with the New York Knicks the last team to do it in 1993.
Here's the game story from Pistons Roundtable writer Eric Rutter.
“It’s definitely a night where we confirmed progression and confirmed potential as well,” Wembanyama told reporters after the game. “That was a good test. I think it’s definitely top five games most physical.
"But I think for the future and looking at the season overall, this is probably the team that is most capable of playing that way. We were so connected and tried to fight against the wall the whole game. We tried to make it a basketball game and score the ball, and the only way to do it is to share it.”
Spurs guard Devin Vassell led the way with 28 points, including seven three-pointers. They held Pistons star Cade Cunningham to just 16 points on 5-of-26 shooting.
Despite the loss, the Pistons still have the best record in the Eastern Conference by a wide margin, leading the Boston Celtics by five games. One loss isn't going to change the perception of them as a title contender, but there are several more challenges ahead in the next week or so.
The Pistons have a home game defending champion and Western Conference No. 1 seed Oklahoma City, and they'll have another shot at the Spurs one week later on March 5. Between then, they have two games with Cleveland — possibly their biggest threat in the East — and Orlando.
San Antonio has now won nine straight games, and eight in a row by double figures, the second-longest streak in franchise history according to the Spurs' radio broadcast. play-by-play voice Dan Weiss.
San Antonio looks like a title contender because they've been beating the best teams in the league all season. The Spurs are 8-1 against the top three seeds in each conference.