“We got to respect all our opponents and play better,” Devin Vassell on the loss to the Bulls.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Chicago Bulls at home, 139-124. This was the most points the Spurs have allowed this season.
Julian Champagnie had 12 points and three rebounds and Keldon Johnson finished with 28 and five rebounds to lead the team. Harrison Barnes had eight points and three rebounds, and Chris Paul had 12 points and nine assists.
Devin Vassell added 17 points, Jeremy Sochan added 16 points and 14 rebounds as the team’s starting center, and Stephon Castle scored 12 points and six assists.
San Antonio was without guard Tre Jones, who had a shoulder injury, and Victor Wembanyama, who was out with a sore back. Head coach Gregg Popovich was also out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson assumed head coaching duties for the game.
The Spurs are 11-11 in the season and will host the Kings on Friday night.
Here’s a sample of what the teams said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“Transition [defense] was bad. Had some situations even off makes where we didn’t get back. They got buckets right after makes weren’t connected, didn’t show shifts where we were supposed to. The amount of right-handed layups, kind of straight-line drives was pretty alarming. Lack of communication. On some screens it was, pick your poison, it was pretty poor tonight.”
“It’s unfortunate not having a big guy (Wembanyama) there, but I’m going to be ready for anything. Control what I can control. I’m getting there still. There’s moments where I get a little gassed, but I’m getting there. Luckily I played 35 minutes. So yeah, it’s been good. I’m feeling good.”
“We’re not a team that can just come into a game and be messing around and think that we’re just going to win a game. So we got to respect all our opponents and play better. I think we always feel like we have a chance to come back and compete and win a game, but we don’t need to keep putting ourselves in that position. It’s tough. We keep trying to climb back in the first half, third quarter, trying back in the fourth quarter, like it’s tough, it’s tiring.”
Billy Donovan
“With Wembanyama being out, they [the Spurs] don’t have the same kind of length at the rim, but they obviously tried to do some things to try to switch some of his [Nikola Vucevic] pick-and-rolls. We’re going to play how we play, how we play that San Antonio’s going to play how they play. And then inside of that, you always have to make adjustments for the players, right?”