Victor Wembanyama scored 32 points and blocked five shots as the San Antonio Spurs overturned a 22-point deficit to beat the Chicago Bulls 124–119 at United Center on Wednesday, November 11. Dylan Harper recorded 18 points, 10 assists and four steals without committing a turnover. The Spurs won their tenth consecutive game and improved to 10–2 after closing a four-game road trip with four wins. Chicago dropped to 1–9 after its eighth consecutive defeat.

The result turned on the number of chances each team created. Chicago still finished at 57.9 percent from the field and 51.7 percent from three, both higher than San Antonio’s percentages. The Spurs, however, took 98 field-goal attempts to the Bulls’ 76. San Antonio committed six turnovers, Chicago 19. The teams’ total attempts and turnover counts explain how a lead built on unusually accurate shooting could disappear while the Bulls were still making a high proportion of their shots.

Chicago’s first-half shooting opened a 22-point gap

The Bulls went 17 for 20 from the field in the first quarter and scored 41 points, the most San Antonio had conceded in a quarter this season. Jalen Smith supplied 10 of those points. Matas Buzelis and Tre Jones added seven apiece. Chicago started 10 for 12 from beyond the arc and pushed the margin to 64–42 in the second quarter, its largest lead of the season. The early burst was collective. Smith’s shooting helped stretch the defense and the Bulls also got baskets from several players in the opening period.

The margin was already smaller before the break. San Antonio cut the deficit to 70–56, with De’Aaron Fox scoring 17 first-half points and Wembanyama adding 15. The Spurs closed the half down 14 even though Chicago had shot about 66 percent. The play-by-play records Fox scoring on a drive with 1:18 left and then assisting Wembanyama for another basket with 40 seconds remaining. Wembanyama also blocked a Tre Jones attempt in the last half minute. Those points and stops reduced the amount of ground the Spurs had to recover after halftime.

Smith had 17 at the break and finished with 23, matching his career high. Nic Claxton finished with 17 off the bench and Buzelis had 13. Caleb Wilson, a first-round pick, scored 15 in 15 minutes before leaving in the third quarter with a right hand injury. Chicago had also been without Norman Powell for a second consecutive game because of back spasms, and San Antonio was missing Devin Vassell for a second straight game with adductor tightness. Wilson’s departure occurred while the home team was trying to protect its lead. The available scoring and turnover figures establish where the game changed without assigning every change to his exit.

San Antonio’s first four minutes after halftime

The Spurs scored the first seven points after the break. Harper set up a Julian Champagnie three and then, after a Wembanyama jumper, stole a pass and found Stephon Castle for an alley-oop dunk. Chicago answered with a three-point play from Wilson, taking the score to 73–63. San Antonio then scored the next 11 points. Harper tied it at 73 with a three at 8:05 and Wembanyama put the Spurs ahead with a technical free throw. In barely more than four minutes, a 14-point halftime gap had become a one-point lead.

Harper helped create those points in more than one way. The three by Champagnie came from a half-court opportunity after a defensive rebound. The Castle dunk followed a live-ball steal and arrived before Chicago could reset. Harper then scored himself, cutting to the rim for two and making the tying three off a Fox assist. The possessions matter because they show what a guard can do during a comeback besides taking more shots. A steal can produce a scoring opportunity before the defense sets up, while a timely pass can keep a half-court possession moving.

Chicago briefly regained the lead through a Josh Giddey three and still led 82–79 later in the quarter. The Spurs went ahead on a Keldon Johnson putback, then Luke Kornet added a tip-in from another offensive rebound. A Harrison Barnes three made it 88–84. Those baskets came after the first burst had run its course. Once the lead was gone, San Antonio still had to contend with a Chicago offense that could answer. Rebounding and extra attempts gave it another route to scoring when the initial shot missed.

San Antonio won the third quarter 34–19 and led 90–89 entering the fourth. Chicago made seven of 14 shots in the third, a 50 percent rate, but gave the ball away eight times. The 19 points thus reflect how often Chicago got to shoot as much as how often it made a shot. In the first half the Bulls had committed seven turnovers across 24 minutes. In the third alone they exceeded that total. A strong shooting percentage has a limited effect if too many possessions end before a shot is taken.

Wembanyama and the guards put the game out of reach

The Spurs opened the fourth with an 11–2 run. Castle scored five of those points and Wembanyama four, helping the visitors build separation after starting the quarter only one ahead. Harper’s running dunk with 2:04 left made it 120–105, the largest lead San Antonio had held. Chicago scored 14 of the last 18 points, with Noa Essengue making a three at the buzzer to set the final margin. The score ended at five points, but the earlier fourth-quarter run gave the Spurs enough room to absorb Chicago’s late response.

Wembanyama made 13 of 18 shots, with two threes and four free throws. His 32 points therefore included 22 from two-point field goals. He added nine rebounds and two steals to the five blocks. The play-by-play includes a block on a Giddey drive with 2:46 left. Claxton secured the rebound and drew a foul, illustrating that a block can change the first attempt without ending the possession. For the Spurs, the wider defensive result came from combining contested shots with steals and securing enough of the loose balls to turn stops into attacks.

Harper added six rebounds to his points, assists and steals. Fox had nine assists and three steals as well as his 17 points. The two guards combined for 19 of San Antonio’s 32 assists and seven of its 16 steals. A game in which Wembanyama led the scoring still required the guards to find teammates and disrupt Chicago’s entries. San Antonio had seven players reach double figures, which gave the offense several destinations for a pass after a turnover or rebound. Castle and Champagnie reached 11 and 12 respectively, while Carter Bryant supplied 10 off the bench.

There is a small but useful detail in the way the scoring and passing split between the guards. Fox’s 17 points all came before halftime, while his assist for Harper’s tying three came after it. Harper had already assisted Fox on two first-quarter threes. This was a partnership in which the scorer on one possession could become the passer on the next. In the opening period it helped San Antonio stay close before Chicago’s first surge. In the third quarter, with the score nearing level, the same players reversed their roles on one of the most important perimeter shots.

Why five more made shots outweighed Chicago’s efficiency

The score can be reconstructed by separating twos, threes and free throws. San Antonio made 36 two-point baskets, seven more than Chicago, for an advantage of 14 points inside the arc. Chicago made two more threes and three more free throws, making up nine of those points. The Spurs’ five-point margin is the remainder. Chicago’s efficiency was real, and its three-point shooting did keep the game within reach. San Antonio’s higher number of made twos, supported by its extra attempts, was larger than the gains Chicago made elsewhere.

San Antonio also recorded 11 offensive rebounds to Chicago’s seven. Those four additional offensive boards do not account for all 22 extra field-goal attempts. Some extended possessions that otherwise would have ended, while the turnover gap gave the Spurs more chances to begin or preserve attacks. Free throws, the order of events and the way possessions ended also affect the totals. The cleanest reading of the box score is that Chicago made a greater share of its attempts and San Antonio found ways to put up more of them. Both can be true in a game with a clear winner.

Where the streak stands

The Spurs have won every game since losing their first two. The final four wins in the run came away against Sacramento, Portland, Phoenix and Chicago. The Phoenix game two nights earlier was a 122–96 win in which Wembanyama scored 40 points with 11 rebounds and nine blocks, according to the NBA’s game report. At United Center the recovery took a different course. San Antonio went to halftime behind and needed both Harper’s creation and a sharp change in the turnover count before Wembanyama and the rest of the team could put daylight between the sides.

San Antonio’s previous visit to United Center offers another comparison. In November 2025 the Spurs won there 121–117, with Wembanyama scoring 38 and grabbing 12 rebounds. In the teams’ March 2026 game in San Antonio, he had 41 points and 16 rebounds in a 129–114 win. Wednesday’s 32 points were fewer than in either of those games, but the comeback put other contributions into sharper focus. San Antonio needed a third-quarter shift in possession, with Harper helping initiate the run, and Wembanyama’s blocks were part of the defensive work accompanying his scoring.

The franchise won 11 consecutive games last season before the Knicks ended that run in March, so the victory in Chicago moved this group one short of that stretch. The Spurs return home to face Golden State on Friday, November 13, in Emirates NBA Cup West Group C. The NBA lists tipoff at 9:30 p.m. Eastern, or 6:30 a.m. Saturday in Dubai. Chicago hosts Atlanta on Friday. After a first half that showed how much pressure the Bulls can apply when shots fall, the third-quarter turnovers give them a distinct problem to address before their next home game.

Sources

Archive photo: Petsbikes, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Harper and Wembanyama in the Western Conference finals on May 24, 2026. The display may crop the frame.

Talal Osman