SAN ANTONIO — It's not the best start to the San Antonio Spurs season.
The team recorded a franchise-record 18-game losing streak and the 3-18 start (before the win over the Lakers Friday night) was the worst start in team history. Their current record also puts them at the bottom of the Western Conference.
It has been trying times for the team but fortunately, the team snapped their long losing streak with a 129-115 win over the Lakers in front of a frenzied Frost Bank Center crowd eager to see a win.
San Antonio did many things right to get the win versus Los Angeles.
The team was focused for four periods, their defense was dialed in, and Devin Vassell broke out of a mini-offensive slump recording 36 points in 35 minutes to lead the team.
Following the game, the locker room was filled with cheering, jubilation, and music blaring to celebrate the rare win this season.
But the team isn't resting on its laurels nor forgetting the recent losing streak.
There are valuable lessons learned the players will take with them as the season moves forward.
From perseverance to playing 48 minutes, here's what a few players said about not forgetting the lessons learned during the losing skid:
Zach Collins:
"48 minute games. Tonight, we had a 20-point lead and we were all telling each other that we've been here before. We can't be doing what we've been doing. We have to play another 24 minutes in the second half. That's probably the biggest lesson. We just have to keep playing like that."
Jeremy Sochan:
"How to persevere. How to keep going. Highlighting mistakes that we need to work on and just improve in."
Vassell:
"Stay together. Don't point fingers. At the end of the day, just look in the mirror. You got to be better. It was a tough little stretch that I went through just shooting the ball-wise. I think it was just me being engaged whether it's getting steals, rebounding, whatever it is. I just wasn't locked in and I take that on myself to be a leader.
"We got a really young team and I felt a lot of people look up to me as being that leader on the team. I accept that and it was just good we got a dub (win) tonight."
After the game, coach Gregg Popovich praised the team for its improved defense but still admitted work needs to be done.
But recent stats show the team is trending in the right direction through six games played in December.
Turnovers are down to 17.8 per game in December as opposed to 20.4 in November. Defensive rebounding is up at 35.8 per game, and opponent points per game is at 112.3 this month as compared to the Spurs allowing 121.3 points per game to the opposition in November.