Box Grades: Triumphant Spurs advance in another blowout win over Wolves

In this magical postseason run, the Spurs capped off a gritty second round with a victory that was extremely impressive. Of course, the only reward San Antonio has earned through this achievement is the opportunity to face one of the most statistically dominant teams in NBA history (albeit one they’ve enjoyed much success against), but there will be plenty of time to discuss that matchup in the days ahead. In the meantime, let’s dive in to this game’s WILD box score:

Note: Now that we’ve moved into the postseason, the reference period used for grading changes from the set of regular season games since 2012-2013 to the set of postseason games since 2012-2013. Unless otherwise noted below, this set DOES include play-in games. As of the end of May 15, 2026, this group include 1,189 games.

Factors that decided the game

Unbelievably, Minnesota enjoyed a MASSIVE advantage in the turnover battle, with San Antonio having 11 more that the Timberwolves.

However, the Spurs’ domination of the glass was nearly unprecedented, as the Silver and Black recorded 31 more rebounds than Minnesota.

In fairness, that huge TRB differential was almost entirely generated by defensive rebounds, and those were available to the Spurs in abundance because the Timberwolves had a dreadful shooting night.

Despite taking 18 fewer shots, the Spurs made nine more due to a FG% margin of +17.95 percentage points.

San Antonio also made six more threes, largely due to a +12.07 percentage-point edge in 3P%.

On top of everything else, the Spurs enjoyed advantages in volume (+6 FTA) and efficiency (+4.23 percentage points) from the charity stripe. Consequently, San Antonio widened their lead by +6 through free throws.

Advertisement

Rare Box Score Stats

This box score is BONKERS. One way to tells is that the winner’s (i.e., the Spurs’) grades were average to exceptional in 14 of 17 box score stats, with 12 of those 14 being well above average and four being truly excellent. At the same time, San Antonio was dreadful in the remaining three areas.

Let’s start with the things that are UNIQUE to this contest in the 1,189 postseason games played since…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/box-grades-triumphant-spurs-advance-123000320.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-05-16 12:30:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.