The conditions surrounding the past few games for the San Antonio Spurs haven’t been ideal. For the past three contests, they have been without two of their best players, Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell, as the two have been dealing with knee injuries. But the Spurs have been doing their best to stem the tide of their absence, as they have managed to win two of those three games — including their Thursday night tussle against the Utah Jazz in which they won with a final score of 126-118.
The Spurs’ more unheralded players have had to step up amid the absences of key players, and on Thursday night, it was third-string center Charles Bassey’s turn to impress. Coming off the bench behind Zach Collins, it was Bassey who helped the Spurs overturn a 20-point deficit. In 27 minutes of play, Bassey tallied 11 points, eight rebounds, and, perhaps most eye-catchingly, six blocks, allowing him to put up a game-high plus-minus of +16.
With this impressive outing from the 24-year-old center, he managed to tally the most blocks by a Spurs player coming off the bench since 1984 (according to StatMuse). Over 40 years ago, Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore came off the bench and rejected seven shots, although unlike Bassey, Gilmore was actually the team’s starting center for the majority of the season, and he also has quite the track record for being an elite shot-blocker.
The Spurs have been a much-improved defensive team this season, and much of the credit must go to Wembanyama for being the most menacing paint defender in the association today. But San Antonio clearly has the luxury of having multiple elite shot-blockers; Bassey is a per-minute monster who is averaging 2.8 blocks per 36 minutes for his career, and he showed what he can do with an extended run in their win over the Jazz on Thursday.
Charles Bassey acts as major catalyst behind Spurs’ comeback victory
In the first half, the Jazz were getting whatever they wanted on the offensive end, scoring 67 points as they took a 16-point lead heading into the halftime intermission. But Charles Bassey came in and sparked a major turnaround for the Spurs.
Bassey, in the second half, played 19 minutes and tallied nine points, eight rebounds, and four blocks; he was a +21 in the second half, and he helped slow down the Jazz as they allowed just 22 points in the third quarter. This then set the stage for Spurs veterans Chris Paul to get them across the finish line as the victor.
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