The Washington Wizards fell to the the San Antonio Spurs tonight, 131-121. The Wizards stormed back from being down multiple times, but they just couldn’t quite come all the way back.

Entertaining the fans and keeping the game competitive but then ultimately losing to keep the draft lottery odds up? Now that’s prime Wizards basketball.

On French Heritage Night, Victor Wembanyama got on the board with a heels-on-the-logo three-pointer. Then, on the next possession, he drained another. Then another. Then he sank a one-legged fadeaway over Bilal Coulibaly. Wemby’s 11 straight points were immediately followed up by a Chris Paul three-pointer. All of that was part of a Spurs 22-0 cascade during which the score went from 10-6 Wizards to 28-10 Spurs in the blink of an eye.

The Wizards very well could have laid down and died, but they showed immense heart through the end of the first quarter and into the second, and eventually they retook the lead on a Jordan Poole three-pointer.

The two teams traded buckets for the remainder of the game, most notably Wemby for the Spurs and Tristan Vukcevic for the Wizards — It was actually a Vukcevic deep three that closed the door on the Spurs’ 22-0 run. Vukcevic had 14 points in the first half, just five shy of his full-game career-high of 19, and he finished with 18.

Here are some of my notes from tonight’s game:

• Wemby blocked a Corey Kispert three to seal the game. Just think about that for a second.

With the loss, the Wizards fall to 9-44. Next up, Washington hosts the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night.