The gut punch, rather punches, the Sixers incurred on Tuesday night were plentiful at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs.
It started by falling behind by 9-0, continued by making just two of their first 16 shots, saw Victor Wembanyama block four shots in his first seven minutes of action, didn't score their first field goal until almost four minutes into the game, and so on and so forth.
It wound up being a 40-point beating that was attempted to be somewhat swept away by players and the head coach after the game because the team was very shorthanded without Joel Embiid (oblique strain), Paul George (suspension) and Kelly Oubre, Jr. (illness), and there was a game awaiting them the next night against the Utah Jazz.
On-court shellackings like this happen once in a while in the NBA, sometimes due to extenuating circumstances, sometimes because it's just that time of a long season to get your butts handed to you. It is the fourth time this season the Sixers have lost a game by at least 37 points, and the third time they've lost by 40 or more.
The deeper look into this one, however, wasn't so much about the embarrassing 48 minutes on the floor in front of a national television audience and sell-out crowd, but more about just where this Sixers organization is right now. If you want to be the best you have to compare yourself to the best, and San Antonio has had a culture in the league for more than 25 years that is pretty much unmatchable. And a look into who they are now and where they've come from is more evidence of why they are who they are.
It's undeniable that having down years recently has helped with the resurgence. From 1997-98 to 2018-19, the Spurs had 22 consecutive winning seasons and garnered five championships. Gregg Popovich became the best head coach the game had seen in a while and the Spurs tinkered with their style of play endlessly to fit the talents of their stars and role players.
Fast forward to the 2019-20 season when a string of six straight losing campaigns began. Along the way — Popovich had to step aside due to health reasons early in the 24-25 season — the losing records produced high draft picks and the Spurs now have the third-best record in the NBA under coach Mitch Johnson.
Wembenyama is a difference maker already, in just his third season. The were able to land tough guard Stephon Castle with the fourth pick in 2024, and got Rutgers product Dylan Harper with the second pick before this season. All of those are big factors in what San Antonio is doing.
Tuesday, Castle was in Tyrese Maxey's face all night at the defensive end, bringing a physicality that clearly bothered the Sixers' star guard. The 6-foot-6 guard from Connecticut is averaging 16.5 points and 6.8 assists this season.
Harper is coming off the bench for Johnson, and scoring 11.2 points in his 22 minutes while he learns the NBA game through the eyes of the Spurs organization. He's another big guard (6-foot-5) who brings an intense level of toughness.
Through the years, they've developed the likes of 6-foot-6 wingman Keldon Johnson, who goes for 13 points a game and shoots 54% from the floor after being drafted by the Spurs with the 29th pick in 2019. Devin Vassell, the 11th pick in 2020, learned how to become a legit scorer in the league while San Antonio was struggling, and now is a key piece of the team, averaging 14.6 points a game.
And then there is Julian Champagnie, the 6-foot-7 small forward who was signed by the Sixers to a two-way contract in June of 2022 after being undrafted. After spending most of his time with the Wilmington Blue Coats, he played two games for the Sixers before being released in February, 2023. Two days later, he was claimed by the Spurs. Four months after that, he was given a qualifying offer and days later signed a four-year, $12 million contract. He is averaging 11.2 points and 5.8 rebounds. He has played in every single Spurs game the past two seasons and is on the floor close to 28 minutes a game this season.
Add in veterans Harrison Barnes — who had his streak of 364 consecutive games played broken on Tuesday with a sore ankle — and All-Star point guard De'Aron Fox (18.6 points, 6.2 assists), and it's just all there.
It is the ultimate model in how to build a program. Yes, it all centers around a 7-foot-6 marvel in Wembanyama, who is the leading shot-blocker in the league at close to three a game. "Wemby" possesses guard-like skills and scores 23.4 a game, while hauling in 11.1 rebounds, but there is so much more to the Spurs. Making sure the draft picks fit and continue to progress as players, learning the professionalism of the NBA and playing the right way are all benchmarks in that organization.
"Obviously, the organization that I've been with and am still with, that's a very big part of what we're trying to do in terms of continuing to connect the years of the foundation that's been made and the principles that have been established and continue to evolve in our guys," said Johnson.
"Obviously, they've had a ton of success and that helps," said Sixers coach Nick Nurse of the Spurs. "You're looking at them right now and they obviously have one super special player and then a lot of really good ones. A lot of athletes, they have a number of guys that can pick up full court and pressure. Lot of guys breaking through screens, physicality that they bring on the defensive end. And then, the nice thing they have also is that those same guys can all shoot threes. So they have a bunch of guys that can really defend and shoot. They're kind of playing around their big guy in the middle. Really good guards, good wings. They just kind of keep bringing a whole lot of really good players at you."
They do and they did in Tuesday's 131-91 blowout. The lean years produced a lot of it, but the culture of the San Antonio Spurs maintains it. It certainly is a model the Sixers would be wise to emulate.
