“I think our physicality, or lack thereof, to start the game and resistance was apparent,” said Mitch Johnson after the Spurs road loss to Boston.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Boston Celtics 116-103 on the Rodeo Road Trip. The Spurs are now 2-4 on the extended road trip.
Stephon Castle finished with 20 points and four rebounds. Fox added 23 points and five assists. Victor Wembanyama finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Keldon Johnson finished with five points. Harrison Barnes had 14, and Chris Paul had five and eight assists.
Devin Vassell recorded eight and two rebounds, and Jeremy Sochan added four and three rebounds.
Head coach Gregg Popovich was also out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson continues to assume head coaching duties. Charles Bassey did not suit up due to injury.
The Spurs are 23-29 this season and will be on their All-Star break until resuming play in Austin versus the Suns on Feb. 20.
Here’s a sample of what the teams said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“I think our physicality or lack thereof to start the game and resistance was apparent, and they (Boston) make shots regardless. So when you don’t have that resistance and physicality, you can have a (first) quarter like that against them. Then on the other end, same thing, we just didn’t get any pressure on the rim, no paint touches, didn’t set good screen angles, didn’t roll, didn’t try to get to the paint for teammates. A lot of things that we preached and a lot of things, and when we’ve had rough patches, they’ve been common themes. We need to, we need to improve in some of those areas, so we try to mitigate some of that.”
Wembanyama:
“I feel like we’re hungry, because tonight, I mean, we were hungrier in the second half than we were in the first. So we’re going to hang on to that feeling and I think I’m going to sleep on that for this next week and come back with the same energy.”
Joe Mazzulla
“I think that sometimes we got through some phases of the game where we’re not sharp because we’re figuring out what that puzzle is at that particular time, because teams are doing a good job of working to put us in those situations. So we’ve just got to continue to get better at that.”