{"id":49780,"date":"2025-10-12T22:22:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T02:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/harpers-spurs-debut-spectacular-alley-oop-to-wembanyama-2\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T22:22:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T02:22:53","slug":"harpers-spurs-debut-spectacular-alley-oop-to-wembanyama-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nba\/harpers-spurs-debut-spectacular-alley-oop-to-wembanyama-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Harper&#8217;s Spurs Debut: Spectacular Alley-oop to Wembanyama"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Dylan Harper and Victor Wembanyama: A Promising Connection on the Court<\/h2>\n\nThe rookie Dylan Harper is quickly learning the lesson: it&#8217;s almost impossible to throw an alley-oop to Victor Wembanyama that he can&#8217;t reach.\n\nIn his preseason debut with the San Antonio Spurs, Harper attempted a lob pass to Wembanyama, culminating in a two-handed dunk. This moment occurred with 44.3 seconds remaining in the first half of the game that the Spurs won 134-130 against the Utah Jazz.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to throw it a little higher,&#8221; Harper commented to a smiling Wembanyama, as the teammates high-fived each other on their way back to their positions.<\/p><cite>Dylan Harper<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nHarper&#8217;s alley-oop to Wembanyama was just a small detail in what seemed to be an almost perfect performance by the rookie in the first half. Harper showed a plus-minus of 22 in 12\u00bd minutes, with 4 out of 5 shots made, totaling nine points and two assists. In the third quarter, he added another assist before definitively leaving the game with 6:23 remaining, due to a minute restriction.\n\nPlayed 18 minutes and finished with a plus-minus of 20.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just another step for him and his young career, as he will continue to grow,&#8221; said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. &#8220;Obviously, he made some plays, which, hopefully, he will feel good about. But just being able to do it in front of the fans and under the spotlight, whether it&#8217;s the plays people will talk about, when he scored, made a shot or made a good pass. Just being able to go through the team&#8217;s defense and run the court, it&#8217;s an invaluable experience&#8221;.<\/p><cite>Mitch Johnson<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nHarper admitted that he felt nervous in his preseason debut, but he overcame them quickly. His first two assists were alley-oops to Wembanyama and Luke Kornet. Harper was also active on defense, guarding players all over the court for most of his minutes.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s good to be on the court with him,&#8221; Wembanyama said. &#8220;He seems ready, he already feels very comfortable throwing these kinds of passes. So I&#8217;m very confident and I&#8217;m very happy to be able to spend time on the court with him.&#8221;<\/p><cite>Victor Wembanyama<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nHarper scored his first basket 10 seconds after entering the action, with 6:12 remaining in the first quarter, by running ahead of his defender towards the basket for a layup after an assist from Harrison Barnes. His next basket was against his former Rutgers teammate, Ace Bailey.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Just being back on the court with those guys, just getting the chemistry flowing before the season starts, it felt good to play again,&#8221; Harper said. &#8220;My teammates do a great job of empowering me, and they&#8217;ll let me know what I&#8217;m doing wrong. But ultimately, they&#8217;re here to help me and I&#8217;m here to help them. Just having that confidence behind me is very helpful.&#8221;<\/p><cite>Dylan Harper<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\nHarper missed the Spurs&#8217; first two preseason games as a precaution after undergoing surgery in September to repair a partially torn collateral ligament in his left thumb. Wearing a splint on his injured thumb, Harper participated in many of the club&#8217;s training camp workouts.\n\nSpurs officials wanted to limit the 19-year-old player&#8217;s exposure to contact.\n\nHarper emerged unscathed from his first preseason action, but admitted he must &#8220;change [his] brain&#8221; to accurately assess how to throw alley-oop passes to his new 7-foot-4-inch teammate.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;I should have thrown higher, much higher,&#8221; Harper said. &#8220;It&#8217;s weird. Nobody&#8217;s played with someone this tall. You go out there. You throw it and you think you threw it too high. But then he catches it and you think, &#8216;It&#8217;s a little low.&#8217; So just little things like that. Just throw it where nobody else can catch it, but him.&#8221;<\/p><cite>Dylan Harper<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dylan Harper and Victor Wembanyama: A Promising Connection on the Court The rookie Dylan Harper is quickly learning the lesson: it&#8217;s almost impossible to throw an alley-oop to Victor Wembanyama that he can&#8217;t reach. In his preseason debut with the San Antonio Spurs, Harper attempted a lob pass to Wembanyama, culminating in a two-handed dunk. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9714,1771,1973,4212],"class_list":{"0":"post-49780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nba","7":"tag-alley-oop","8":"tag-dylan-harper","9":"tag-spurs","10":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}