Wembanyama has 28 points, 15 rebounds to lead Spurs to eighth straigh… — and more

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Victor Wembanyama had 28 points and 15 rebounds, and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings 139-122 on Saturday night for their eighth straight win and a sweep of their two games in Austin.

Sacramento lost a franchise record 16th straight game, the last two after center Domantas Sabonis and guard Zach LaVine had season-ending surgery.

De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Keldon Johnson each scored 18 for the Spurs, while Wembanyama added six assists and four blocks.

Keegan Murray and DeMar DeRozan led Sacramento with 20 points apiece. Malik Monk scored 19 while Maxime Raynaud — a rookie from Stanford and a friend of Wembanyama from France — had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

San Antonio, playing in a city the organization considers part of a megaregion that they’ve cultivated for several years, scored the first 11 points of the game, setting an aggressive tone that included three blocks by Wembanyama in the first 90 seconds.

Undermanned Sacramento hustled its way back into the game and trailed by just one with less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter.

The Kings' determination resulted in seven offensive rebounds by Raynaud. Several times he tapped the ball back to teammates for open shots.

But that was not enough against Wembanyama, who made a 3-point basket and assisted on one by Harrison Barnes, both in the final minute of the third quarter, to give the Spurs a 105-94 lead heading to the fourth.

Fox and Wembanyama scored inside to start the fourth quarter, completing a 12-0 run as San Antonio eventually pushed the lead to 28.

Up next

Sacramento: Visits Memphis on Monday night.

San Antonio: Visits Detroit on Monday night.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Ilia Malinin returned to Olympic ice a week after the disastrous free-skate performance that prompted him to share how immense pressure to succeed took a toll on his mental health.

Wearing a hoodie and jeans, the 21-year-old's performance to NF's "Fear" at the traditional Olympic figure skating exhibition gala was a bittersweet ending to Malinin's run at the 2026 Winter Olympics and reinforced his struggle to ignore media attention leading up to the competition.

"This message and this program and song is something that really spoke to me. It really represented how I’ve been feeling the last year leading up to these Olympics," Malinin said, as reported by USA TODAY's Josh Peter. "There’s been so much pressure, so much doubt and everything around me, the noise with the media….It’s been so overwhelming."

Malinin, favored to win the gold medal in men's figure skating, struggled through the free skate and ended up in eighth place. After speaking out about how media attention contributed to him buckling under pressure, Malinin hinted at the theme of his exhibition performance on Instagram earlier this week.