LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Star rookie Victor Wembanyama put on a show, but his San Antonio Spurs slumped to a seventh straight defeat on Friday, with the Sacramento Kings knocking them out of the National Basketball Association’s new in-season tournament with a 129-120 triumph.
De’Aaron Fox matched his career high with 43 points, adding eight rebounds and seven assists for the Kings, who weathered a series of San Antonio scoring spurts to seal the win.
After scoring just eight points in a 36-point loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Wembanyama scored 27 points and pulled down nine rebounds.
Wembanyama impressed with an array of shots that included an alley-oop dunk on which his head threatened to hit the backboard.
Zach Collins scored 28 for the Spurs, who roared to an 18-point lead in the first quarter but couldn’t keep pace in a fourth quarter that saw Fox deliver 14 points as Wembanyama was held to six.
A game of multiple momentum shifts saw the Spurs close within 112-111 midway through the fourth, but the Kings responded with a 7-0 scoring run and held on.
Now 3-9, the Spurs fell to 0-3 in group play in the league’s new Cup-style tournament — out of the running for a quarter-final berth.
In other tournament games on Friday — which also count in the regular-season standings — Zion Williamson scored 26 points and the New Orleans Pelicans withstood a Nikola Jokic triple-double in a 115-110 victory over the NBA champion Denver Nuggets.
