SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs won in overtime at home against the New York Knicks, 130-126. This is the Spurs' third straight win.
Victor Wembanyama led the team with 40 points and 20 rebounds. Devin Vassell scored 23 points in the win, Jeremy Sochan contributed four points before exiting the game with an ankle injury and Keldon Johnson added 17.
The Spurs are 18-56 on the season and will next host the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night in San Antonio.
Here's a sample of what the teams said after the game.
SPURS
Coach Gregg Popovich:
“As I’ve said before, all teams lose leads in this league. The three point shot allows for that. But, how you come back from it is important. If it was earlier in the year we would not have sustained our own execution, our own pace and that sort of thing. You can see the maturity that they have developed through the season. Playing a very physical team, they gave what they got and stayed strong when New York made a heck of a run. To me that’s the best part of the game. It shows that progression in what it takes to win a game in the NBA."
Wembanyama:
“Proud of us for controlling the game. Of course, they came back in the third quarter but it's to be expected from a team like this, a contender. We knew how to control the game, so that’s good. Hard fought battle. I feel proud because they are a very good team, especially defensively, so it just shows our progression.”
Jones:
"That’s a tough team [Knicks], they’re having a really good year. They're super physical, aggressive. We got out to an early lead, we were shooting the ball really [well] and then shots weren't falling in the third quarter. They got back into the game, but you can feel how it was different than how we were earlier in the year when we let teams back in the game like that. We stayed together as a group. We continued to fight on the defensive end."
KNICKS
Tom Thibodeau:
"Came out to start the third quarter, got out of the hole, and then fought all the way to the end. We had two chances to win it, and we fell short. I thought our defense in the second half was better. You know, big free throw disparity. I don’t know.”
Jalen Brunson:
"We came out with low energy and gave them confidence and they [Spurs] were just rolling from the beginning. I think we played well the rest of the game. We fought. They went on runs, we went on runs, and we just kept fighting but at the beginning of the game, it just didn’t do us any good.”