SAN ANTONIO – The Spurs had Golden State chasing a lost game before the Warriors made their first basket. San Antonio opened with 18 unanswered points Friday night, and Stephon Castle turned that early control into a 123-85 NBA Cup victory that extended the team’s winning streak to 11.
Castle finished with 32 points, six assists and five rebounds in 25:07. Victor Wembanyama added 12 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in 20:54, while Keldon Johnson scored 18 off the bench.
The 38-point win moved San Antonio to 11-2 overall and 2-0 in Cup play. Golden State fell to 8-5 and 1-1 in West Group C, surrendering the position it held above the Spurs before their head-to-head meeting.
According to the Warriors’ official recap, Golden State missed its first 11 shots and went scoreless for the opening six minutes. Gui Santos finally broke through with a layup through contact. By then, San Antonio had established the terms of the night.
The Spurs began 8-for-10 from the floor. Castle scored 18 points in the first half, more than Golden State’s starting five combined, and San Antonio pushed its first-half advantage as high as 30. The Warriors described the opening as their worst start of the Steve Kerr era.
This was not, however, a game decided by San Antonio winning a three-point shooting contest. Golden State made 15 threes to the Spurs’ 14 and shot a higher percentage from outside. Those figures make the scale of the defeat more revealing, not less.
Calculations from the official NBA box score show that both teams attempted 52 two-point shots. San Antonio made 32, shooting 61.5 percent. Golden State made 16, or 30.8 percent.
That supplied the Spurs with a 32-point advantage on two-point baskets alone. They also made nine more free throws, 17 to eight. Subtract Golden State’s three-point advantage from those two differences and the final 38-point margin is accounted for exactly.
It is a description of where the points came from, not a claim that every two-point attempt was equally difficult. The box score does not explain the quality of each shot or assign individual defensive responsibility. But it establishes that Golden State’s outside shooting could not compensate for what happened inside the arc.
San Antonio also won the rebounding count 60-43. Wembanyama led with 12, Julian Champagnie had eight and Luke Kornet seven, including four offensive boards. The Spurs collected 15 offensive rebounds to Golden State’s 10.
Castle was efficient from both ranges. He made 12 of 18 shots overall, including five of eight three-pointers, and all three of his free throws. His 32 points came with only one turnover, while he shared the team lead in assists with Wembanyama.
The supporting scoring did not require another starter to approach Castle’s total. Johnson made six of 11 shots and added four assists, while Harrison Barnes supplied 11 points and three threes. San Antonio finished with 34 assists and nine turnovers.
Golden State’s most productive scorer came from the bench. LJ Cryer scored 20 points, made six of 11 threes and delivered six assists without a turnover. The Warriors identified both his scoring total and his six three-pointers as career highs.
Cryer and Charles Bassey, who scored 11 on five-for-seven shooting, were the only Warriors to reach double figures. None of Golden State’s starters scored more than eight points. The team finished 31-for-93 from the field, or 33.3 percent, against San Antonio’s 48.4 percent.
Stephen Curry was out of the lineup, and rookie forward Yaxel Lendeborg had discussed the adjustment before the game. The Warriors’ recap quoted him saying he needed to be “a lot more aggressive” without Curry. Friday’s numbers showed how difficult that transition remained: Lendeborg went one-for-13 and finished with three points in 23:40.
Curry’s absence is a material limitation on what this result says about the matchup. It does not make Golden State’s first six minutes less consequential, and it cannot turn one shorthanded defeat into a complete measure of either team’s season.
The Cup implications were more immediate. Golden State entered with the same 1-0 group record as San Antonio and a slightly better point differential, according to its account. Losing the head-to-head meeting moved the Warriors behind the Spurs with two group games left.
The team’s report said San Antonio’s 11-game run was the league’s longest active winning streak. Golden State, meanwhile, had lost consecutive games for the first time since beginning the season 0-3.
The Warriors eventually found enough three-point shooting to finish ahead in that category. San Antonio had already found a much larger difference elsewhere: on 52 attempts apiece inside the arc, it made twice as many baskets.
