SAN ANTONIO — Despite leading as much as 26 points, the San Antonio Spurs could not pick up the win on the road versus the Clippers, losing 113-104.
Victor Wembanyama had 24 points, nine blocks, and 13 rebounds to lead the team. Jeremy Sochan finished with four points and three rebounds before exiting the game due to a left thumb injury. Julian Champagnie had 21 points and five rebounds, Harrison Barnes finished with four, Keldon Johnson had 10, and Chris Paul had 14 points and 10 assists.
San Antonio was without Devin Vassell and Tre Jones due to injury. Head coach Gregg Popovich was also out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson assumed head coaching duties for the game.
The Spurs are 3-4 to start the season and will next visit the Rockets on Wednesday night.
Here's a sample of what the teams said after the game.
SPURS
Mitch Johnson:
“We did a good job with our spacing. They missed some shots. I thought our game plan execution was a little tighter. A couple times later in the game, had a couple of missed cues and lapses and they made us pay. They made some shots later too, obviously it’s a long game. We didn’t think we were gonna keep that up, and they were gonna keep that up. But I thought our attention to detail was really good to start the game.”
Paul:
"So I think the first thing, going into a locker room like ours, is just making sure the guys believe that we can be really good. I tell them all the time, cause they’re such great guys, but I can’t fathom 22 wins. And so, when you go through things like that, where these guys work hard and practice and try every day and don’t see the wins, that stuff can get pretty routine where you’re just like, “It’s never enough.” So we’re gonna keep building, and make sure they know that going into every game we can win, and they can see that because of how we started out.”
Wembanyama:
“I think it started in the first half, they stepped up their physicality. They made shots too. They played good basketball. We didn’t play our best.”
CLIPPERS
Tyronn Lue
Our guys were, you know, pretty disappointed. But I just told them just stick with it, stick with it, you know, keep playing hard, keep competing like we’ve been doing. Got down 20, 26 at the end of the first quarter and our bench came in and gave us a huge lift. You know, coming off the bench, playing hard, competing, scrapping to get us back in that game."
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