SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs snapped their losing skid with a home win versus the Blazers,118-105.
Victor Wembanyama had 12 points and eight rebounds. Julian Champagnie had 14 points and six rebounds, Harrison Barnes finished with 11, Zach Collins had 14, and Chris Paul had six points and six assists. Malaki Branham added 17, and Stephon Castle added 14 points and six assists.
Due to injury, San Antonio was without Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, and Tre Jones. Head coach Gregg Popovich was also out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson assumed head coaching duties for the game.
The Spurs are 4-5 to start the season and will next host Utah on Saturday afternoon.
Here's a sample of what the teams said after the game.
SPURS
Mitch Johnson:
“Second night of it back-to-back, like you said. And got punched in the mouth last night, so the reaction and response were awesome. I'm proud of those guys. [We] got a couple of guys out, as we've discussed before, and it was a complete effort. The bench was huge tonight. Guys stepped up and did a lot of different things. The assists was one of them, the rebounds – we knew Portland was huge. They do a good job on the glass. So, it was a very nice response after last night.”
Castle:
"Being able to play with space, pick on mismatches. It can be anybody's night at any point of the game. I felt like early in the game Blake [Wesley] had it going. Late in the CP [Chris Paul] and myself had it going. It can be really anybody at any point of the game."
Wembanyama:
“My favorite type of win, if I have to describe it, is when we can really answer to the tactics of the opponent while involving everybody. It is my favorite kind of win, yeah”
BLAZERS
Jeremi Grant:
“I think we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds. That was a little deflating. Playing good defense then gave up a lot more chances to score. So I think that, a few back cuts and things like that. We got to communicate a little bit better on the defensive end.”