Spurs by the numbers: Chris Paul's massive achievement and more stats

It has been just over three weeks since the Spurs played their first game of the season in Dallas against their long-time rivals. A rematch is just hours away, and San Antonio looks like a different team. The Mavericks won the first matchup by double-digits, looking just as strong as they did last season when they went to the NBA Finals, but they've hit the proverbial pothole, and SA must strike.

The Mavs are in the midst of a four-game losing streak. They clearly have a ton of problems to work out, and the Spurs have some of their own, but they look more together now than they ever have with this group of players. There have been some crazy ups and devastating downs—Coach Popovich comes to mind—but they're making strides. So, let's take inventory of San Antonio's current climate.

Chris Paul has a historic night

CP3 has been as good as advertised with San Antonio's young core. But when he joined the team, he was clear about his motivations for joining the Spurs. One thing he kept harping on was his desire to play minutes. He wants to hoop, and he's been doing that in spades.

Paul has always been a passing savant, and his elite skills have led to surpassing 12,000 assists—something only two other players have done. John Stockton (15,806) and Jason Kidd (12,091). He hit 12K with an alley-oop to Victor Wembanyama and then distributed eight more times to reach 12,008. At his current pace of 8.8 assists per game, he should surpass Kidd in about ten games.

Other Spurs stats that matter

The Spurs no longer need qualifiers to paint the picture of their shooting improvements. They are now raining 3s at a 35.8% clip—good for 14th in the NBA and a tick above the league average of 35.6%.

Alamo City's stars are improving their turnover rate, but the big Alien is still the biggest culprit. He has five turnovers, leading the Spurs' overall 13. He's only played two games with two turnovers or less. He only had one against Washington but reverted in a major way when the Lakers came down. It's a work in progress but an important one Wemby must address.

On a more positive note, Vic has gotten his rhythm back. Despite a lackluster 3-point shooting display versus LA, he's raised his percentage for beyond the arc to 33.9%. That's higher than the 32.5% clip he shot last season despite such a poor start from deep.

He's improved in almost every statistical category, averaging 22.7 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.3 steals, and 3.7 blocks per game. One area that needs to improve expeditiously is the number of times Wemby gets to the free-throw line.

The French Franchise upped his percentage there to 87.2%, but he's only shooting 3.6 attempts per night, though in the Spurs' Emirates NBA Cup opener, he shot none. Chris Paul spoke on it after the game. "We've got to figure out how to get Vic to the free throw line, at least once throughout a game, but that's part of the game too."

Vic is still figuring out when to use all of his abilities, but the whistle also has to go his way. Teams are being very physical with him, and it's almost as if the refs deem it okay because he's so tall, but that needs to change. The NBA doesn't want guys to flop or exaggerate contact, but they make it necessary when they refuse to call blatantly obvious fouls—but that's another topic.

San Antonio has made clear strides in several areas and will only improve as the season goes under the tutelage of Chris Paul. You can see his fingerprints all over the Spurs' style of play. They'll need to continue soaking up all the knowledge he has to offer quickly because Stephon Castle is hooping in a way that may force SA to turn the page on the CP3 chapter sooner than we thought.