SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Suns on the road 104-93. San Antonio's loss eliminated them from the NBA Cup tournament.
Victor Wembanyama finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Julian Champagnie had nine points and six rebounds, Keldon Johnson finished with 10, Harrison Barnes had two points and two rebounds, and Chris Paul had two points and eight assists.
Devin Vassell added 25 points, Jeremy Sochan added 14 points and 12 rebounds in his return, and Stephon Castle scored 16 points and three assists.
San Antonio was without guard Tre Jones, who had a shoulder 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 11-10 on the season and will next host the Bulls on Thursday night.
Here's a sample of what the teams said after the game.
SPURS
Mitch Johnson:
“I thought our defense effort was really good. We turned the ball over. We missed a lot of shots. Both those things will put pressure on your defense, and I thought it held up well. If you would have told me, we would have held the Suns to 104 points, I would feel pretty good about that.”
Paul:
“Yeah, this is, this is tough. We knew how big this game was for us and for me to come out and shoot the ball the way that I did, I got to be better and lead by example, you know what I mean. But I think our defense was pretty good tonight, but our offense was not.”
Wembanyama:
"I guess the real difficulty is adjusting to the defense in real-time. The type of coverage. The answers are always there but it is about how you react. When we watch the film afterwards, it is easy to spot them. In real time though it is difficult.”
SUNS
Mike Budenholzer:
“It's a good win. It's kind of a blow in a couple different ways when you don't have Kevin (Durant) and the third quarter was kind of going in the wrong direction. For us to gather, kind of get it back, find a way and have different guys step up."