The San Antonio Spurs beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 133-95 in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals on Wednesday night, evening the series at 1-1 with the largest playoff defeat in Timberwolves franchise history and the highest-scoring playoff game for San Antonio since May 4, 1983.
Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 21 points. Victor Wembanyama added 19 points and 15 rebounds in 26 minutes — well below the minutes load you'd expect for a player of his stature, because the game was over by halftime. De'Aaron Fox finished with 16 points. Seven Spurs scored in double figures.
The Game Was Decided in the First Half
Wembanyama and Fox combined for San Antonio's first 11 points, and the Spurs never relinquished the lead. By halftime, San Antonio led by 25. Minnesota shot 29.8% from the field in the first half and went 2-for-15 from three. The Wolves were held to 35 first-half points — fewer than Wembanyama's individual scoring total in the conference quarterfinal opener.
San Antonio shot 50% from the field for the game, 41% from three. The lead reached 38 with ten minutes still on the clock, prompting both coaches to bench starters and let the second units finish out the formality.
Anthony Edwards summed up Minnesota's night in one sentence: "We came out cool and what happened — we got blown out."
Two Records, Forty-Three Years Apart
The 38-point margin surpassed Minnesota's previous worst postseason loss — a 30-point defeat to the Lakers on April 29, 2003. The Wolves franchise has been in the playoffs eleven times now. None of those nights ended this badly.
For San Antonio, the 133 points were the most the Spurs have scored in a playoff game since a 145-105 series-clinching win over Denver on May 4, 1983. That's a 43-year gap. The Spurs' modern dynasty era under Gregg Popovich — five championships, Tim Duncan, the Big Three — never produced a single playoff scoring output this high. The team that did it is the youngest team in the conference semifinals, with Wembanyama and Castle both still on rookie contracts.
What This Means for the Series
One blowout doesn't fix Game 1's problems, and Minnesota will get the next two at home. But the swing from Game 1 to Game 2 — Wolves win by 17, Spurs win by 38 — is the kind of result that reshapes a series mentally. Edwards, Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels, and Terrence Shannon Jr. each scored 12 points. None of Minnesota's stars looked like the player who pushed Oklahoma City to seven games last May.
Wembanyama's stat line — efficient, dominant on the glass, defensively suffocating — is what San Antonio's Game 1 stat sheet should have looked like. Game 3 is Saturday in Minnesota.
Related on Uristocrat: Wembanyama's 39-and-15 Game 3.
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