The Spurs were off and running to start their preseason finale Friday against Sacramento. Julian Champagnie was too – right up until he met the bottom of the rim.
Late in the second quarter of a game the Spurs would go on to win 126-97, Champagnie took off for what looked to be an uncontested baseline slam.
Only to be rejected by a 16-millimeter band of iron. It was enough to make the 24-year-old forward consider an early retirement from the slam dunk business.
"I'm about to give my dunking days up at this point," Champagnie said.
It was about all that went wrong for the Spurs at the Frost Bank Center.
Dylan Harper shook off a slow start on his way to a team-high 19 points, one of seven Spurs in double figures.
De'Aaron Fox added 16 points, Keldon Johnson had 15 off the bench and Victor Wembanyama turned in a 14-point, eight-rebound, two-block night.
Despite Champagnie's blown dunk, which evoked laughter from the bench and from Champagnie himself, the Spurs went into halftime up 71-37.
Afterward, the Spurs pronounced themselves as ready as they will ever be for the start of the regular season, which opens Tuesday at home against Oklahoma City.
Dylan Harper says he's confident in his shot going into his 2nd season: "I've worked out here all summer, so there's no reason for me to be hesitant. There's no reason for me to pull back. The biggest thing is just taking the right shots at the right time." https://t.co/kg4YTfgtgf
- Spurs Nation (@Spurs_Nation) October 17, 2026
"I liked the carryover from practice and film and things that we've been emphasizing in terms of execution, style of play," coach Mitch Johnson said. "Some of the things that that we think of as our identity."
Zach LaVine scored 20 points to lead the Kings, a team projected to be one of the worst in the NBA this season.
If the Spurs were looking for a tough test in their final tune-up before facing the vaunted Thunder, the Kings were in no position to give it to them.
At times, especially in the first half, the Spurs seemed to toy with the Kings as if they were the Washington Generals.
Wembanyama got his first points off the night after stonewalling Sacramento center Domantas Sabonis at one end, dribbling the length of the court off the rebound, then tossing the ball off the backboard to himself for a dunk.
Cue "Sweet Georgia Brown."
"We ended off on a good note," Keldon Johnson said. "I feel like we played to our standard to night. I don't feel like we were doing that in the previous games."
All in all, Friday's easy-does-it victory allowed the Spurs to head into the regular season on a high, winning the final two exhibition contests after starting 0-3.
"I think we're ready," Champagnie said. "I think we know what's ahead of us. We know what's at stake."
Spurs forward Julian Champagnie (30) high fives Amelia Barlow, 3, with her mom Kayla Barlow during the preseason NBA game against the Sacramento Kings at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2026. (Andrew J. Whitaker/San Antonio Express-News)Here are three takeaways from Friday's victory, with Oklahoma City on tap:
1. The lineup is the lineup
For those still wondering who the Spurs will start against the Thunder, Johnson left little to the imagination Friday. He will start the same lineup he fielded against Sacramento, and the same lineup he used the game before against Phoenix:
De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell and Victor Wembanyama.
"We're planning on starting the same group," Johnson said, when pressed on his plans for Tuesday's opener.
The Fox-Castle-Harper trio logged all of 25 minutes together last season. It figures to blow past that number in the first week of the 2026-27 campaign.
After two preseason auditions, the Spurs are ready to give their three-guard experiment a full-time run.
Spurs guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie (17) dribbles the ball during the preseason NBA game against the Sacramento Kings at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2026. (Andrew J. Whitaker/San Antonio Express-News)2. Harper takes over second half
For the Spurs, everything clicked from the outset except for one component. Harper began the game 1-for-5 from the field.
Then the second half dawned, and Harper joined the party as well.
At one point in the third quarter, Harper scored 14 consecutive points for the Spurs, turning a strong night into a personal scoring showcase.
It wasn't as if Sacramento was threatening to mount a comeback. Even if the Kings had been, Harper seemed determined to make sure they didn't.
After his sluggish start, Harper made six of his final seven attempts to finish 7 of 12 from the field. He also went 3 of 6 from 3-point range, an encouraging development for a starting lineup that could use all the floor-spacing it can get.
"I've worked at it all summer, so there's no reason for me to be hesitant," Harper said. "There's no reason for me to pull back. The biggest thing is just taking the right shots at the right time."
3. Nobody got hurt
With the games that count just around the corner, the Spurs had another reason to feel good about Friday. They got through the preseason finale with a (mostly) clean bill of health.
Aside from newcomer Tobias Harris, who Johnson said is progressing nicely after missing the preseason with a calf strain, the Spurs should have a full complement of players available for Tuesday's opener.
That alone marks a welcome change from last season, when the Spurs opened the campaign without Fox, who was sidelined by a hamstring injury and missed the team's first eight games.
This time, the Spurs head into opening night with their projected starting lineup intact - and their most important experiment ready for its first meaningful test.
SubscribeThere’s more to San Antonio with the Express-News. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Three takeaways from Spurs' 126-97 preseason rout of Sacramento.