San Antonio had missed three after three, then found one when it needed it most. Victor Wembanyama’s make with 5:20 left tied the score at 103. It was his only successful three-point attempt all night, and it arrived just eighteen seconds after P.J. Washington had put Dallas in front.
The Spurs had been given a warning. A lead that once reached nineteen was gone, and the shot that removed Dallas’s advantage came from a player who had been doing most of his damage much closer to the basket.
That shot did not make the Spurs’ shooting suddenly respectable. It made their most unusual problem survivable. Wembanyama finished with 52 points, 24 rebounds and eight blocks while going 1-for-8 from beyond the arc. The rest of San Antonio combined to shoot 4-for-28 from three. Devin Vassell went 0-for-8 overall, Julian Champagnie went 0-for-6, and the Spurs finished 5-for-36 from distance.
Yet San Antonio beat Dallas 112-111 Wednesday at Frost Bank Center, and Wembanyama’s response to Washington’s three was the night’s clearest bit of timing. Dallas had completed its climb. The Spurs needed their best player to answer a moment that belonged to the Mavericks. He did, and San Antonio never trailed again.
The rest of Wembanyama’s work came mostly closer to the basket. He made 15 of 20 two-point attempts, collected nine offensive rebounds and drew enough fouls to go 19-for-23 at the line. San Antonio scored 62 points in the paint to Dallas’ 40 and gathered 22 offensive rebounds to the Mavericks’ 18.
Those numbers explain how a team can survive a 14% night from three: it kept turning missed shots and interior touches into a different kind of pressure.
Dallas had good reasons to believe its comeback would hold. The Mavericks made 14 of 37 threes, a 27-point edge from long range, and their reserves outscored San Antonio’s bench 38-10. Naji Marshall supplied 22 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, while Cooper Flagg recovered from a 1-for-11 first half by making 6 of 8 shots afterward.
Clayton was credited with the assist on Washington’s three. Dallas had used its extra chance to take a lead.
San Antonio needed Dylan Harper to keep the game from becoming a one-man rescue mission. He scored 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting, then struck at 4:31 with a driving layup that put the Spurs ahead 105-103. Harper’s contribution was clean rather than loud: efficient scoring in a game where several teammates could not buy a perimeter basket.
At the other end, he collected the rebound after Kyrie Irving’s 15-foot attempt missed with 2.5 seconds left, ending Dallas’ last chance.