The San Antonio Spurs delivered the tricks and took home the treat on Halloween, earning a 121–111 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Frost Bank Center on Saturday night, sending the fans home with smiles on their faces and candy in their bellies.

The victory is the fourth straight for San Antonio, who started the season 0-2 after losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets.

Spurs Head Coach Mitch Johnson informed reporters before the game that guard Stephon Castle was suffering from a migraine and was a game-time decision. He would eventually be in the starting lineup and play 22 minutes.

San Antonio opened the game with one of their strongest defensive efforts of the season, holding the Timberwolves to 37 percent shooting in the first quarter. At one point in the period, the Spurs led 11-2, but the Timberwolves went on an 11-0 run to briefly take a one-point lead. De’Aaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama combined for 19 of the Spurs’ 34 points.

“We want to just try to make sure we can get the best shot in every possession, and that’s never going to happen,” Coach Johnson said after the game. “But I think if you just constantly keep that at the front of your brain and at the at the forefront of the conversation, and if everybody, for the most part, over time is putting their energy into that, you’ll land in a pretty good spot.”

Wembanayama knew he needed to be more aggressive and he acted like it. From the opening tip, he was calling for Fox, Dylan Harper, and Stephon Castle to lob him the ball. He scored 24 points in the first half (43 points for the game), including throwing the ball to himself off the glass for a dunk that got the crowd on its feet and had Minnesota head coach Chris Finch asking for a timeout.

“He’s just so dominant,” Harper said of Wembanyama. “I feel like he goes out there and when he puts his imprint on the game, he’s unstoppable, and he did that tonight from the jump to end of the game. So I mean, hey, I was okay with him taking those shots. Those are all good looks, and my biggest thing with him is just if you’re gonna take the shot, take it, be confident.”

San Antonio went up double digits, but turnovers allowed the Timberwolves to get back into the game, turning the deficit for Minnesota into a one-point lead at halftime. The Spurs committed four their 15 turnovers in the second quarter.

With Minnesota missing stars Anthony Edwards, Rudy Golbert, and Donte DiVincenzo, Finch relied on newly acquired guard LaMelo Ball. The new Minnesota guard saw himself in foul trouble, racking up four personal fouls in the first half. He would eventually foul out of the game, finishing with 10 points and eight rebounds.

The final quarter saw the Spurs turn it on, leaving no doubt on which team would go home with the treat of a win on Halloween. San Antonio outscored Minnesota 28-23 in the period, led by Wembanyama, Dylan Harper, and De’Aaron Fox. The sophomore guard finished with 25 points, seven rebounds, and six assists as he got aggressive with Wemby on the bench to begin the period.

“I love games like this,” Harper said after the game. “I love games where the other team starts talking first because when you respond, it’s not your fault when you talk.. the competitive nature that the Timberwolves brought kind of brings the best out of us. And obviously, when a team’s that competitive, it brings the best out of me.”

De’Aaron Fox had a solid outing, including hitting key shots when Minnesota threatened to come back. He finished with 22 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists; crediting Wembanyama for making everyone better.

“His gravity is like Steph (Curry),” Fox said. “If he rolls to the basket, he’s going to have two or three defenders. To use that gravity, makes it easier for the rest of us.”

Game Notes

• Luke Kornet had a strong outing after a string of poor games. He finished with 2 points and 8 rebounds, including four offensive boards.
• Carter Bryant came off the bench and hit two threes. He played with confidence and that’s a welcome sign.
• San Antonio will need to cut back on the turnovers, but they made up for it with solid defense in the final two quarters.
• Julian Champaignie had 12 points off the bench, going 3-f0r-7 from beyond the arc.
• Coach Johnson said pregame that the team will not rush Tobias Harris back to the court amid all the gruesome injury news around the league over the past week. I’d expect it to be a few weeks until he makes his debut.

Austin Reaves is never one to duck the blame or shift the focus to something else. When he’s bad, he’ll admit he’s bad. And on Friday, he was bad.

Reaves turned the ball over eight times, shot 9-19 from the field and had a plus-minus of -13, worst among the starters. He was not the sole reason the team blew a 25-point first half lead to the Warriors and lost by double digits, but when you get the superstar contract, you also get the superstar treatment in losses.

Debating just how much blame he deserved is irrelevant as Reaves was as brutally honest about his game as anyone else would have been.

“I was terrible again. That’s it.”

Harsh, but fair.

When Luka Dončić was on the floor, the Lakers were great, though mostly because of him. When he sat, the Lakers were bad, with Reaves at the center of it.

If you were looking for an excuse, the fact that those non-Luka groups consist of many players who joined the team this offseason is a fair one. Those units are looking for chemistry, but when asked if that’s legitimate rationale for their struggles, Austin wasn’t interested in any excuses.

“It’s real, but that doesn’t give that second unit an excuse to be pretty terrible,” he said. “And that starts with me. I’ll watch the film and try to be better. But you have to learn on the fly and pick up things quickly. As I said, I have to be better to start that.”

Austin has modeled his career around constant improvement, so there’s little doubt this is just another hurdle he’ll have to climb. Even if he’s run second units without Luka before, they’ve often come flanked by LeBron James. This is a new challenge and teams have him one rung higher on the scouting report now.

The word is out that the way to disrupt Austin is to throw doubles at him on ball screens and try to overwhelm him physically into a turnover. That’s the punch defenses are throwing and now it’s time for Austin to throw a counterpunch.

Hopefully that one isn’t terrible.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.

The Lakers (4-2) have another back-to-back with the Toronto Raptors (3-2) on Sunday. The purple and gold will be at home for these next two games.

Start time and TV schedule

Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Toronto Raptors

When: 6 p.m. PT, Nov. 1

Where: Crypto.com Arena

Watch: Spectrum Sportsnet

The Lakers’ loss to the Golden State Warriors on Friday will certainly be in the running for one of their worst defeats this season. When it comes to games like this, the best thing to do is take note of what went wrong and delete the tape, especially after that first quarter.

Three things went wrong for the purple and gold in that game. For starters, they struggled mightily whenever Luka Dončić was on the bench. Second, they committed a season-high 20 turnovers, with Austin Reaves accounting for eight. Lastly, the Warriors simply played harder and smarter than the Lakers.

So now, how does Los Angeles respond to their worst loss of the young season thus far? We’ll know when they take on a very good Raptors team on Sunday.

The Raptors enter this game having the third-best defense in the league. They won’t have Kawhi Leonard, but they have capable scorers like Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. They may look like the same Raptors team the Lakers have faced over the years, but make no mistake, this group has developed and is better than ever.

As a defensive-first team, these Raptors ranked second in steals and are an above-average transition team, so the Lakers really have to take care of the ball in this one. Toronto will also attempt to expose the Lakers’ weakness in rebounding, knowing they now rank dead last in the league in rebounds per game. The Lakers can’t be outworked once again if they want to win this game.

LA has to force the Raptors to execute in the half court, where their offense is less reliable. It would be nice to see a better performance from Reaves and Walker Kessler who has been quite mediocre for his standards over the last couple of games. Reaves and Dončić will face a lot of ball pressure and physicality, so they’ll have to counter with their ability to manipulate the defense and control the game’s pace.

After suffering their first loss of the season against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Lakers wasted no time responding, coming out firing and cruising past the L.A. Clippers the following day. Now, the Lakers have another opportunity to bounce back from their worst loss of the young season. It’ll be interesting to see how they respond and what adjustments they make moving forward.

Let’s see if they can execute better and more importantly, get back on the winning column against the Raptors on Sunday.

Notes and Updates

• For the Lakers’ injury report, Cameron Carr (right oblique strain) is no longer listed
• However, Adou Thiero (left knee injury management) remains out and Ziaire Williams (left foot injury management) is questionable.
• As for the Raptors, Leonard (left knee injury management) won’t be ready to go while Nate Bittle (right avulsion fracture) is out.

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.

On the eighth anniversary of Derrick Rose’s 50 point game, your Minnesota Timberwolves fell victim to a Halloween monster performance by alien Victor Wembanyama, losing to the San Antonio Spurs by a score of 121-111. 

With this being a second night of a set of back-to-back games and playing without Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert (back spasms), many fans may have expected tonight’s result.

What they may not have expected, however, was the amount of fight the Wolves had in them even if it was not enough for the victory. 

Encouraging Signs from Joan Beringer

A performance I really want to highlight was that of Joan Beringer. Starting tonight in place of Rudy Gobert, Joan poured in 12 points, grabbed six rebounds, and committed five fouls in 34 minutes of play.

On paper, his French counterpart completely eviscerated him, with Wemby scoring an otherworldly 43 points on 17-34 shooting.

Looks like Wemby dominated him, right? It did feel like that at times, because Victor is such a freak. Every time Wemby came at Joan with something ridiculous, Joan just kept battling.

It was amazing growth to see, because at age 34 Rudy Gobert is going to miss games. Joan Beringer needs to be effective in those games, and although the stats didn’t show it tonight, he was able to hold his own. 

Ayo Continues His Steady Play

Ayo Dosunmu continues to fill in admirably in the absence of Anthony Edwards, scoring 27 points on 11-15 shooting, splashing two threes, and even grabbing nine boards.

These types of performances are exactly why he was paid all that money to come back.

His speed in the open floor is outrageous, his willingness to defend, and his overall tenacity is exactly what this team will need come playoff time, but they need it even more now that Ant remains sidelined. 

Tough Night for ‘Melo

Unfortunately, LaMelo Ball had a rough night. He had just 10 points, 2/10 shooting overall, and didn’t make a three. He spent much of the game on the bench due to foul trouble, and even fouled out at the end of the game when the Wolves were attempting to make a final push at victory.

It’s becoming a pattern now where LaMelo puts himself in these disadvantageous situations and it’s not something the Wolves can afford, especially on a back-to-back in San Antonio. He looks sped up, can’t find any rhythm with his shot, and is playing with his hands too much on the defensive end. 

You maybe can get away with a performance like this against the NBA’s cellar dwellers, but not against the reigning Western Conference champions.

Moving forward, I would like to see LaMelo get himself going by attacking the paint and maybe getting to the free throw line or making easy dump offs for his teammates. Finding a rhythm isn’t just about making shots, it’s about finding your place in an offense on game in,, game out basis. The shots will start falling, just not if you force the issue too much. 

Jonathan Kuminga Making Plays

Among the positives, Jonathan Kuminga I thought had a really nice game. He logged 40 minutes, which was good to see after only 22 last night, scoring 19 points, hitting two threes, and really helping defend the powerhouse San Antonio guards on the perimeter. Performances like these are why people keep falling in love with this man’s game. It wasn’t totally flashy, either, save for this dunk on Victor Wembanyama.

For some reason, I feel like we’re on borrowed time with Kuminga. It’s his reputation, based on his last two stops. Chris Finch is really good at defining roles for his players, and if this is the Jonathan Kuminga we’re going to see more often than not then I’m all for it. 

Lackluster Bench Night

Bench wise, there wasn’t really a ton of note that happened tonight. The presumed sixth and seventh men were starting tonight, so Finch only went nine deep.

Outside of some Jaylen Clark made threes, there wasn’t a ton of production. TJ Shannon had a game he’d like to forget, making only one field goal and failing to draw iron on a couple threes. Trey Lyles made some nice plays, but also looked lost at times. 

I was a little shocked that we didn’t see Cody Williams tonight. Without a true center coming off the bench, he’s someone with some size that I thought he could go throw his body around and battle among the tree that is Wemby. 

Another head scratcher was the lack of Bones Hyland out there. With LaMelo down in foul trouble early, he came into the game and got six pretty quick points, but wasn’t really effective in his second stint and we didn’t really see him again. That could be a product of Ayo having a nice night, but it seemed as if he could’ve helped settle the offense down and there were times tonight where that was sorely needed.  

Uneven Officiating

One last quick thing before we flush this one and move on to the next game: The way this team gets officiated is mind-boggling at times. I’m not saying that the majority of the fouls that were called on Minnesota tonight were bad calls, but a lot of the touchy calls that they get called on them don’t seem to go the other way when they happen to the Timberwolves. 

Case in point, there was a sequence when Joan Beringer made an effort play on Victor Wembanyama to get a putback and keep the game tight and got a foul for going over the back of Wembanyama.

It’s totally fine if that’s the level of contact the officials want to whistle for. The ensuing possession down the floor, Wemby gets quite physical with Beringer in order to make himself available down low (a level of physicality you wouldn’t know Wemby had if you watched him drive to the hoop, just saying) and there was nothing called as Wemby almost put Joan in the rim. Add that on to the lack of calls Anthony Edwards gets going to the hole, and it creates a discrepancy that the Wolves should take issue with. 

Final Thoughts

All in all, there were plenty of positives to take away from tonight’s game in San Antonio. The Timberwolves fought valiantly to keep themselves in the game, but just couldn’t quite get over the hump. 

Game Highlights

Up Next

Your Minnesota Timberwolves are back in action on Monday, November 2nd, when they play host to the Milwaukee Bucks at 7:00pm CT. That game will be streaming on DAZN-MIN for in-market fans, and on NBA League Pass for out-of-market fans.

Friday night the Warriors dressed up as a lottery team for exactly one quarter, then took the costume off and beat the Lakers by 17. They were down 38-15 after twelve minutes, watched the deficit swell to 25, tied it at 53 by halftime, and outscored LA 59-42 the rest of the way. According to the league, no team in the shot-clock era had ever trailed by 23-plus after one and tied it by the break. So the Halloween party at Chase started a day early.

Now the Clippers come to town at 1-4, losers of four straight, fresh off a 127-101 beating in Minnesota where the Wolves closed on a 23-2 run, without Anthony Edwards. This is a different Clippers team than the one you’ve been booing for a decade. Kawhi is gone, and the keys now belong to Darius Garland, Brandon Ingram and No. 5 pick Keaton Wagler.

Los Angeles Clippers at Golden State Warriors
When: November 1st, 2026 | 5:30 PM PT
Where: Chase Center
TV: NBC Sports Bay Area
Radio: 95.7 The Game

There’s also some history here that Clipper fans would rather not discuss. Last April, Steph came back from a knee issue and dragged the Warriors past the Clippers 126-121 in the play-in. That loss ended the season and, as it turned out, the whole Kawhi era. So technically the Clippers’ rebuild was built in Golden State’s backyard. Sunday is Día de los Muertos, which feels right for a franchise that’s still figuring out what came back to life and what stayed buried.

Wagler is the guy to watch on their side. He’s scored in double figures every night, and he gets to the line like he has a coupon, going 7-for-8 in Minnesota even while shooting 2-for-11 from the field. Brook Lopez gave them 13 off the bench, and Rui Hachimura is back from a quad issue. They’re also missing big man Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who’s out after Lisfranc surgery. That leaves a frontcourt that Golden State’s small-ball lineups should be able to run off the floor if the effort is there.

On the Warriors’ side, everybody’s watching the rookie. Yaxel Lendeborg spent the week in the national headlines for calling Luka a whiner after opening night, then had the kind of rematch you only have in a nightmare: six points, six fouls, five turnovers.

The bench is the other storyline worth your attention. Golden State’s reserves went for 50 against the Lakers bench’s seven, with De’Anthony Melton scoring 16, Georges Niang finishing plus-21, and Will Richard going plus-20 mostly on defense and pure nuisance. If that second unit is real, this team has a ceiling nobody gave them credit for in October.

Unfortunately the Dubs will be without Draymond and Steph; Steph is balling out of control this season.

The Warriors started 0-3, and Dub Nation was already measuring the Steph era for a coffin. Three wins later they’re back at .500, and a rookie has given everybody something to argue about besides the end of the dynasty. The Clippers are coming to Chase looking for a fresh start, and Golden State has a chance to remind them who ended the last one.

The Cleveland Cavaliers dominated the Milwaukee Bucks inside, leading to a runaway 136-111 victory.

Three stars of the game

First star: Jarrett Allen

25 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal

Allen was an absolute force to be reckoned with. He relentlessly attacked the basket by rolling hard to the rim and looking for any opening he could find to make himself available for a pass inside. Defensively, he controlled the paint and cleaned up the glass.

This was the ideal game from Allen.

Second star: Evan Mobley

27 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal

Basically everything I said about Allen could also be said of Mobley. He was aggressive offensively, attacking inside. And when the defense sagged off, he took the outside shot, going 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.

This game was the template from a process and results standpoint for Mobley.

Third star: James Harden

13 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds

Harden spread the ball around and looked to get the bigs involved. It was exactly what the Cavs needed from their starting point guard.

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Dud of the game

Bum: Tyler Herro

15 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists

Milwaukee’s point-of-attack defense was a mess. Herro wasn’t the only reason to blame for that, but he was the most noteworthy example of someone who wasn’t upholding their end of the bargain. On top of that, Herro struggled to make anything happen as a scorer as he went just 5-for-18 from the field.

Cavaliers who deserve shoutouts

Donovan Mitchell

15 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds, +31

Mitchell let the game come to him in a way that he doesn’t always do. He attacked when the moment called for it, and he deferred to his teammates when they had cleaner looks. This led to Mitchell controlling the game without controlling the ball, making room for the dominant performances from the bigs.

Mario Hezonja

8 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists

Hezonja thinks the game at a high level. He does a great job of reading how the opponent is playing, and then exploiting it to the best of his ability. In this game, that weakness was rebounding.

Milwaukee had to send extra bodies to contain Mobley and Allen on both ends. Hezonja ducked inside around the help to grab 11 rebounds, including four on the offensive end.

Play of the game

Plays like this show how dynamic the bigs can be when you give them an opportunity to do so. Forcing a forward to chase Mobley around a screen from a guard, then around a dribble-hand-off with Allen is incredibly difficult to do. I would love to see them incorporate more actions like this that force bigger defenders to guard in space and navigate screens like a guard.

Quote of the day

“It was part of our film session this morning, so it’s nice to see it transfer. Reward these guys, they’re both playing great. Sixteen shot attempts, we were very intentional about getting them the ball. Good job by our perimeters, finding those guys in the right spots.”

– Head coach Kenny Atkinson

Stat of the game

Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley led the team with 16 shot attempts each.

Allen and Mobley were aggressive in looking for opportunities to score, and their teammates were consistent in getting them the ball. That is a formula worth repeating.

This game will be remembered for how the Cavs got the bigs involved

Mobly and Allen were forces all night. Not just for a few minutes, not just for a quarter, but until the game was completely out of reach early in the fourth quarter. The bigs stayed aggressive inside, and their teammates kept feeding them the ball.

Getting the bigs involved to this degree can destroy a defense. It’s similar to establishing the run in football. Once you control the line of scrimmage, the pass game opens up because the defense has to sell out to overload the box.

Milwaukee’s defense tried to shrink the floor to stop Mobley and Allen. Defenders crashed down from the corners in an effort to cut off the initial drive, but this opened up the floor for everyone, including whatever big wasn’t the main focus of the defense. This allowed for some of the big-to-big passes and put-back offensive rebounds.

This offense is at its best when they’re forcing the ball to the bigs, and the bigs are rolling hard and aggressively looking for openings to attack inside. Despite that, both groups have struggled to establish the bigs as consistent scoring threats for a full 48 minutes.

Far too often, the Cavs abandon this formula when things get tough. Either the guards take it upon themselves to handle the majority of the scoring load or the bigs become passive and stop looking for opportunities inside — and usually it’s both.

It’s not always this easy to establish the bigs as scorers. Milwaukee’s defense is bad and easy to exploit, but this formula should be more repeatable than it’s proven to be. Maybe this game can set them on the right path.

Well, the Milwaukee Bucks lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 136-11 in their second straight blowout. With Tyler Herro having his first bad game of the year, the Bucks’ shining lights were rookies Brayden Burries and Nate Ament, who each notched a career-high 14 points on efficient shooting. Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen led the way for Cleveland, combining for 52 points.

NBA.com Box Score

Game Recap

Let’s just say the first quarter wasn’t exactly pretty, with both teams shooting 20/49 from the field. Jaime Jaquez Jr. got the Bucks started with two of their first three field goals, but the Cavs’ big-man duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen punished Milwaukee inside to tie it at 10 after five minutes. Many bricks followed for both teams, but Kasparas Jakucionis came in and gave the home side some pace and pizzazz, nailing a driving layup and a three after his defender shot under the screen to give the Bucks a six-point edge. At that point, Kel’el Ware checked in, and the game shifted, with Ware struggling mightily to deal with the tall trees down low on both ends, missing two point-blank shots and getting put in the mixer on the block. Luckily, the Cavs gave the Bucks an easy target when they subbed in rookie Maleek Thomas; Tyler Herro scored six quick points on him, including a three at the buzzer to put the Bucks up 25-24 after one.

Although Milwaukee had some encouraging moments to start the second—including a great hustle play from Nate Ament to recover the long rebound and find Brayden Burries for three—the Cavs began to flex their muscle. Thomas may have defensive issues, but the kid can score, and he proved it with two quick threes in the opening few minutes. Donovan Mitchell also got going, dropping a transition bomb to force the Bucks to call a timeout, down 39-31 three minutes in. Milwaukee responded out of the timeout with buckets from Turner and Ament but couldn’t find a way to stop Cleveland as Mobley asserted his dominance with 10 straight points to extend the lead. Ware broke the seal from three after going 0/7 in the last two games, but other than that, the Bucks just could not get anything to go down (depsite generating decent looks), as the Cavs went on a 21-3 (!) blitz to close the quarter, leading 72-46 at the half.

Tyler Herro became the first Buck to reach double figures with a three of the chase action with Myles Turner, but the Cavs’ stout defence was yielding them easy shots on the other end as they took an 81-54 lead three minutes in. At least Kyle Kuzma gave the home fans something to cheer for, scoring a quick 10 points to keep pace with the rampaging Cavs, and a Myles Turner three to cap a 7-0 run forced the Cleveland timeout as their lead shrank to 21, 89-68. Unfortunately, two quick Cavs triples out of the timeout spoiled any momentum the Bucks had built as they reached a century with over two minutes to play. Cavs led 109-76 entering the final frame.

You wouldn’t have known the Bucks were down big from the way Jakucionis was flying around on defence; the second-year guard pursued loose balls and long rebounds with vigour, which helped Milwaukee open the fourth on a 9-3 run to force a Kenny Atkinson timeout. Another major positive was Nate Ament, who scored 11 points in the opening six minutes of the fourth, including a spine-tingling cram in transition that had Fiserv jumping. Of course, it wouldn’t be a blowout without the $64m man proving his worth, as Gary Trent Jr. nailed his second three of the year to cut the deficit to 24. Then came the highlight of the night: Brayden Burries caught it in transition with one man ahead and detonated all over Tristan Enaruna for the facial—a nice finish on an otherwise rough night for Milwaukee.

Stat That Stood Out

The Bucks actually played OK for three of the four quarters, but their second quarter—which they lost by a staggering 27 points (48-21)—was decisive.

Obscene Overreaction

Brayden Burries and Nate Ament should make the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team solely for those dunks!