SAN ANTONIO —
Postgame
It's safe to say Gregg Popovich wasn't too pleased with how his team played Wednesday night in a 131-115 loss that wasn't nearly that close.
"We didn't respond defensively, I thought that we were pathetic in that regard," he said after the letdown loss.
"They competed harder than we did for more of the 48 minutes, they were the aggressive team, so that's a tough loss," Popovich said in a brief postgame. "I don't think our execution or our competitiveness was up to snuff, so that's disappointing."
Bryn Forbes had a similarly blunt analysis, saying there was no excuse for the performance on that end.
"It all was on the defensive end for us," he said. "The offense will come, but you can't let teams just... they dragged us up and down the court all night, so, that wasn't good."
Derrick White went into a bit more detail about how the Hornets were able to cause so many problems for San Antonio's defense.
"They do a lot of things out there that put you in that grey area: are we switching are we not?" he said. "If you don't communicate well they'll make you pay. We're gonna watch the film, and we've just got to learn from it and grow from it."
Game Story
First Quarter
The Charlotte Hornets are shorthanded, but that didn't stop them from hoisting shots early. They were rewarded for their aggression, hitting 10-15 from three and hanging 46 points on the Spurs in the first, the worst defensive quarter San Antonio has played all year.
The Hornets built an early 21-point lead by draining shots and taking advantage of some miscommunications and mistakes by San Antonio. The Spurs scored 31 in the quarter, and still trailed by 15 points at the end of it.
Second Quarter
San Antonio's defense found some traction in the second quarter, and behind that the Spurs were able to trim the deficit to single digits. Doug McDermott hit a few big shots, and in a rare occurrence led the team in shot attempts at the half.
The second period was more evenly fought, but the Hornets managed to push their lead to 73-57 at halftime and finish the first half at 13-21 from deep.
Third Quarter
San Antonio came out with better focus to start the second half, with Keldon Johnson draining a corner three, Doug McDermott hitting one from the wing on a feed from Derrick White, and then White grabbed a board and took it coast to coast for a dunk to make it a 10-point game.
After that, Gordon Hayward hit another level adding to his 20 first-half points. It seemed everything Charlotte got was from three or right at the rim, and they built their largest lead of the game at 24 points. San Antonio's bench unit didn't solve anything.
By the end of the third, Hayward had 41 points on 19 total shots and Charlotte led 110-82. He didn't need to play after that.
Fourth Quarter
San Antonio made a late push to make the final a little more respectable, but it was far too little far too late.
Charlotte shot 59% from the floor for the game and hit 18-34 from deep while holding San Antonio to 12-37, and at the same time they outscored the Spurs in the paint 58-48.
Pregame
The San Antonio Spurs (10-16) will host the Charlotte Hornets (15-14) Wednesday night as the teams will face off for the first time this season.
In the Spurs' previous game, the team got back on the winning track with a 112-97 win over the Pelicans at home Sunday night.
Jakob Poeltl led the team with 24 points and 12 rebounds, Derrick White added 24 points and Keldon Johnson finished with 17 points.
Before the contest, both Gregg Popovich and Devin Vassell spoke about the need to take precautions about coronavirus as the NBA and other sports leagues face outbreaks.
Here are five things to watch for in the game:
1. The Hornets will be without guard LaMelo Ball due to health and safety protocols.
2. The third-period woes. The Spurs are 0-13 this season when trailing after the third.
3. The Spurs are 3-3 at home versus East teams.
4. The Hornets are first in the league in points per game at 115.8 and the Spurs average 108.5 points per game good for 11th in the NBA.
5. The Spurs have outrebounded their opponents in three-straight games.
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