Spurs lose in Wemby's return to starting lineup

SAN ANTONIO -- Victor Wembanyama made his first start since Nov. 14, but the San Antonio Spurs lost to the Utah Jazz 127-114 to end the Spurs' eight-game winning streak. Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points, and Keyonte George added 28 for the Jazz, who beat the East-leading Detroit Pistons on Friday.

The Spurs suffered their largest home defeat this season and lost to a sub-.500 team for the first time in 2025-26 after entering the game 13-0 against teams with losing records.

"They obviously get credit for their production and performance, but when you say evaluate ourselves, [I'm] pretty disappointed in quite a few things," San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said. "The game-plan execution in terms of just not being connected on very simple things we do every game that weren't necessarily pertinent to the Utah Jazz, but the Utah Jazz took advantage and crushed us when we made mistakes."

Wembanyama poured in a game-high 32 points on 12-of-21 shooting and tallied his 38th game with five-plus blocks, the most in the NBA since the start of his rookie season in 2023-24, according to ESPN Research. Still on a minutes restriction after coming off the bench the past six games since returning from a calf injury, Wembanyama played 28 minutes and scored 11 points in the third quarter.

Wembanyama scored the Spurs' first four points of the second half after the team entered halftime trailing by 10 points to Utah, which shot 68.4% from the floor and 60% from beyond the arc in the first half.

"It's a balancing act of continuing to grow his fitness, but also trying to keep him fresh," Johnson said of Wembanyama, who played shorter stints than usual in the first half Saturday. "[It's] also being mindful of the totality of the minutes. Tonight was the first night he started.

"So, [I was] probably a little conservative that we didn't want to overrun him early. There's a few things at play, but we want him to be fresh because all our guys are better when they're playing fast. Then, [it's] just continuing to push that obviously because we want his minutes to continue to go up."

Wembanyama converted a Dylan Harper steal into a driving dunk with 8:49 left to play that trimmed San Antonio's deficit to three points after the Spurs started the fourth trailing by 11. San Antonio tied the score twice more down the stretch before Utah pulled away in the final two minutes.

Four days after Wembanyama led a postgame chant in front of a sellout crowd at Frost Bank Center on the heels of a 20-point win over Oklahoma City, the 21-year-old did not speak with the media after Saturday's surprising loss.

"Personally, I feel like we tip-toed into the game," said forward Keldon Johnson, who scored a season-high 27 points -- the most points by a Spurs player this season off the bench -- and grabbed 10 rebounds. "It's a humbling loss. I feel like we've had similar games this year where we've found ways to pull it out. Tonight wasn't the case. I feel like we can learn from it. We win together, we lose together and get back to the drawing board tomorrow and prepare for Cleveland."

George produced his eighth straight game with at least 20 points, tying Markkanen for the longest such streak this season for the Jazz.

Walter Clayton Jr. contributed 17 points, while Jusuf Nurkic added 16.

"That's a really impressive back-to-back win against a really good team on the road," Utah coach Will Hardy said. "San Antonio made their run. The building went crazy. Our team is showing a lot of poise for how many young players we have on the court. I'm so proud of our group."