San Antonio vs. Dallas, Final Score: Wembanyama dominates as Spurs win 125-92

Victor Wembanyama has gotten hype from just about everyone in the basketball world leading up to the opening night of the NBA season. He backed it up on opening night by dominating the Dallas Mavericks with 40 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 blocks on 15-21 shooting in the San Antonio Spurs’ 125-92 victory. The superstar’s performance led the Spurs to their first opening-night victory since the 2019-20 season.

The Mavericks hung around for about 20 minutes, until the Spurs started to pull away at the end of the second quarter. San Antonio never looked back after establishing a 20-point lead in the third quarter.

They built their lead with stout defense that led to easy buckets on the offensive end. The Spurs held the Mavs to 37.3% shooting. They stole the ball 10 times and scored 19 points off turnovers. They owned the paint, outscoring Dallas 68-26 inside.

Wembanyama will get all of the attention with his stellar play, but his running mate, Stephon Castle, should get a lot of credit as well. The former Rookie of the Year was disruptive defensively, holding first-overall pick Cooper Flagg to just 10 points in his NBA debut. Castle had 22 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals in the win. Anthony Davis led the way for the Mavericks, putting up 22 points and 13 rebounds in the loss.

The Spurs will look to improve to 2-0 in New Orleans against the Pelicans on Friday night.