SAN ANTONIO — This was the first time the San Antonio Spurs have played a meaningful game in front of their home fans in well over a year, and the Silver & Black put on a show in a dominant 123-97 win over the Magic.
There was a palpable feedback loop between the team and the crowd, and all that screaming built to a crescendo in the third quarter with second-year wing Devin Vassell conducting.
"Energy has to be our identity," Jakob Poeltl said after the game. "I think we had a solid 48 minutes, and we had a couple of spurts where we really turned it up."
It was a balanced effort from Gregg Popovich's team as seven players scored in double-figures en route to a dominant victory. The Spurs had 32 assists on 49 made shots with just 8 turnovers, and hit 43% of their 30 attempts from three.
Pop pushed back on the idea that it was a perfect start, but seemed to like what he saw.
"I think everybody paid attention in training camp, and we're playing the way we think we have to play to win basketball games," he said. "We'll just try to get better."
"That’s the energy we want to play with, the team camaraderie we want to play with," said Devin Vassell, who finished with a team-high 19 points. "That’s the type of team we have; on any given night, anybody can be our leading scorer."
Dejounte Murray looked to be the all-around leader of the team, initiating much of the offense and wreaking havoc defensively with his long arms. He created shots for himself and others, directing traffic as the team's steady point guard. He finished with 15 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals.
Derrick White moved well off of him, spacing the floor and making a few threes and other good plays off the catch. He brought the tough defense you'd expect from him, and that helped the Spurs get going the other way. San Antonio scored 26 fast-break points off of 16 Orlando turnovers.
Keldon Johnson made his presence felt on the game by cutting, driving, dunking and screaming. He seems to take over the game in little spurts, and he's also showing much more finesse than he did last season. On one of his drives, he stretched for a long eurostep and floater. On the next play, he ran pick and roll and pulled up from the baseline.
Even when he's not on the court, he's the team's yell leader. He finished with 15 points and probably more "AAAAAH"s than that.
Doug McDermott looked crisp in his role as an off-ball assassin, knocking down threes and making important cuts. He hit a pair of threes in the first half that got the crowd buzzing.
"He's been great for our team because he obeys the basketball gods," Pop said before the game. "He cuts with purpose, he makes the extra pass, you can tell he's a coach's son. He just does things the right way. Great teammate, understands things quickly, so he sets a really good example in all those fundamental ways for everybody else. He's been a wonderful addition."
Jakob Poeltl spoke glowingly of his new teammate, and talked about how the pair are developing chemistry.
"It's not very hard, because he's very easy to play with," Poeltl said. "Really all I have to do is read off him, hand off the ball to him and then roll into the pocket. He makes it easy for me."
Poeltl played impactfully, and made more of a dent in the box score than we're used to seeing. His 8 offensive boards were pretty nuts, hustling to give his team extra chances. As both teams struggled to score to start the second half, his complimentary offense was vital as the Spurs maintained their lead.
"It's one of those things that I pride myself in, trying to get extra possessions," he said. "Those plays can be big, especially keeping a run going, maybe stopping one of their runs."
Poeltl led the team in assists, just three short of a triple double with 12 points and 13 boards.
Lonnie Walker IV has been lauded by Gregg Popovich for his scoring, but did more than that as the team's sixth man. He added 6 boards to 3 assists, a block, a steal and 17 points. His defense was focused and intense, his movement was purposeful, and it was a good start to his season despite shooting 6-17.
Devin Vassell's 19-point night should get people talking. The second-year stud showed some impressive ability to create space off the bounce, hitting shots that looked less like the simple ones he focused on last season and more like his more ambitious Summer League tries.
He led an electric run to blow the game open in the third quarter. He hit a three, snatched a few steals, dunked it and closed the period with a buzzer-beating three to put the Spurs up 94-71.
After the game, Vassell said that the energy was crazy between his teammates and the fans, though at times the latter made it difficult to communicate with the former.
"I had goosebumps going out there. You hit a shot, you hit a three and they go crazy, you get a steal and they're going crazy. That's the atmosphere I wanted so bad last year," he said. "For them to come out like they did, that's special."
The Vassell-led run helped put the game out of reach, and in the fourth quarter the only question was whether or not rookie Josh Primo would make his NBA debut. Much to the delight of the crowd he did, becoming the youngest guy to ever play college basketball and then play in the NBA.
"It's humbling, it's heartwarming just knowing they were so happy to see me out there. I think I have a real connection with them," Primo said, admitting that his palms got a little sweaty before he hit his first NBA three.
The reunion between the Spurs and the City of San Antonio was a joyous one, and something this team is looking to build on moving forward.
"This is gonna be a long season, and we're gonna have our ups and downs, but as long as we stay together as a team, we'll figure it out," Vassell said. "We're gonna try to play like that every day, all night. We can't control our shots going in or not, but we can control our energy, and that's gonna be our biggest thing this year."