Jones finding his stroke from deep
AUSTIN — A day hasn’t gone by this season that Tre Jones hasn’t worked on sharpening his shooting skills.
“I put up a lot of shots every single day and I make a lot,” he said.
The hard work has paid off. With 16 games left in the season, the Spurs point guard is poised to produce his first season shooting better than 30% from 3-point territory.
“I’m ready when the shots are there, not hesitating at all,” he said. “I look for it and take it confidently.”
The fourth-year player entered this season as a career 27.1% shooter from beyond the arc on just 1.2 attempts per game. But he will come into Friday’s game against Denver at the Moody Center shooting 31.9% from distance on 2.3 attempts after hitting on a 28.5% clip last season on the same number of attempts per game.
Jones is coming off two strong months from distance. He shot 40% on 2.3 attempts over 15 games in January and 38.2% on 2.8 attempts over 12 games in February.
He dipped to 30.8% on 2.1 attempts through six games in March but is coming off an impressive 4-of-7 outing in Tuesday’s 103-101 loss to Houston. In matching a career high for most 3s in a game, Jones finished with 24 points, his second-most productive game of the season behind the career-best 30 he scored in a loss to Chicago on Jan. 13.
“Knowing the guys I play off of get so much attention, I am going to have open looks,” he said after Tuesday’s game. “So I’m just trusting my work and taking the shot with confidence.”
Jones’ big night against the Rockets included a 3-for-3 showing from distance in the second quarter and came in a game in which the Spurs’ two-leading scorers, Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell, both had sub-par scoring nights as Houston executed coach Ime Udoka’s game plan of swarming the duo to perfection.
“Tre is a consummate competitor and he’s going to do everything he can to win a game. It’s as simple as that,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s what he does. He’s at his best night after night after night. And he will do anything that needs to be done.”
Wemby gets a taste of playoff intensity
Wembanyama is still a ways away from making his playoff debut, but the 20-year-old rookie believes he got a taste of what postseason action is like in the Spurs’ series this season with the Rockets.
After the Spurs posted a 126122 overtime win over Houston in the second game of the season, the Rockets recorded three straight victories over their Interstate 10 rivals to capture the season series. By double- and sometimes triple-teaming Wembanyama, Houston limited the No. 1 overall pick to just 10 and 13 points in the last two meetings.
Over the last three games against the Rockets, Wembanyama averaged just 12.6 points on 44% shooting. The only time he scored 20-plus against Houston was in the first meeting when he had 21.
“I imagine these kinds of matches are reminiscent of the intensity of the playoffs,” the No. 1 overall pick told French reporters in his native language after Tuesday’s game.
Despite his difficulty scoring, Wembanyama expressed gratitude for going through the experience against the muck-it-up, tough-minded Rockets defense.
“It’s interesting. It’s never happened to me to face a team that doesn’t play me seriously,” he said. “I thank my opponents for playing like this.”
Streaking Nuggets take aim at top seed
The Nuggets arrived in Austin fresh off Wednesday’s 100-88 win at Miami in a Finals rematch that vaulted them into sole possession of first place in the West.
The defending champs are a league-best 10-1 since the All-star break and own a four-game winning streak. At the start of play Thursday, Denver (46-20) was a half-game ahead of Oklahoma City (45-20) and a game up on Minnesota (45-21).
Denver last held the top spot in the conference in mid-november.
“If we can get (the No. 1 seed), sure, we’re going to take it,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “And we’re not going to shy away from that. You know, it was very effective for us last year, having home-court throughout the entirety of the playoffs.”
Friday’s game marks the first of three for the Spurs against Denver in the next 15 games. They face each other in Denver on April 2 before concluding their four-game season series April 12 at the Frost Bank Center.
The Nuggets topped the Spurs 132-120 on Nov. 26 in Denver.