Wembanyama shines but Spurs slide to seventh straight NBA defeat

LOS ANGELES, United States -- Star rookie Victor Wembanyama put on a show, but his San Antonio Spurs slumped to a seventh straight defeat on Friday (Saturday, Manila time) with the Sacramento Kings knocking them out of the NBA's new in-season tournament with a 129-120 triumph.

De'Aaron Fox matched his career high with 43 points, adding eight rebounds and seven assists for the Kings, who weathered a series of San Antonio scoring spurts to seal the win.

After scoring just eight points in a 36-point loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Wembanyama scored 27 points and pulled down nine rebounds.

Wembanyama impressed with an array of shots that included an alley-oop dunk on which his head threatened to hit the backboard.

Zach Collins scored 28 for the Spurs, who roared to an 18-point lead in the first quarter but couldn't keep pace in a fourth quarter that saw Fox deliver 14 points as Wembanyama was held to six.

A game of multiple momentum shifts saw the Spurs close within 112-111 midway through the fourth, but the Kings responded with a 7-0 scoring run and held on.

Now 3-9, the Spurs fell to 0-3 in group play in the league's new Cup-style tournament -- out of the running for a quarter-final berth.

In other tournament games on Friday -- which also count in the regular-season standings -- Zion Williamson scored 26 points and the New Orleans Pelicans withstood a Nikola Jokic triple-double in a 115-110 victory over the NBA champion Denver Nuggets.

Brandon Ingram added 21 points for New Orleans. He and Williamson each made a pair of buckets in an 8-0 scoring run that saw the Pelicans pull away after Denver closed within one point with 4:01 to play.

Jokic scored 26 points, pulled down 16 rebounds and matched his career high with 18 assists.

The Nuggets, still without injured Jamal Murray, never led. But they battled back from a 20-point third-quarter deficit to give themselves a chance in the final period.

Down by three with less than a minute remaining, the Nuggets came up empty on three straight three-point attempts on the same possession and the Pelicans escaped with the win.

In Toronto, Boston guard Derrick White drained a go-ahead three-pointer with 27.5 seconds left as