“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” coach Gregg Popovich said.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs could not pick up a home win, losing to the Boston Celtics, 121-116.
Zach Collins had 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead the team while Romeo Langford added 14 points starting in place of the injured Devin Vassell. Malakai Branham finished with 10 points and two rebounds while Tre Jones recorded 18 points and five rebounds in the loss.
Spurs’ Keldon Johnson and Jakob Poeltl did not play due to injuries.
The Spurs are now 13-27 on the season and will next face the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night on the road.
Here’s a sample of what the teams said after the game courtesy of the Spurs and Celtics.
Gregg Popovich
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Popovich said. “Jayson [Tatum] did it at the end of the game. He got us. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys. A great game for them to be participating in and play the way they did. Lots of great contributions from everybody on the court.”
“Guys on this team have confidence in themselves,” Collins said. “It’s a physical team over there [Boston] and a team that was in the NBA Finals last year. They know what to do in those moments. For us to go out there and really give ourselves a chance to win up until 20, 30 seconds in that game, even when we were down early, that says a lot about our growth.”
“It’s tough that we lost but look at how we played,” Langford said. “We played really well. We were down a lot of guys. We didn’t give up. We played the full 48 minutes. They [Boston] brought it to us and we brought it right back and it came down to the last couple of plays.”
Joe Mazzulla
“We needed a game like that where it’s back and forth, things go our way, they don’t go our way. You don’t get a lot of those,” Mazulla said.
Jayson Tatum
“Teams like that are dangerous, right? When they’re [Spurs] kind of playing carefree, the pace that they play at, they don’t necessarily have an agenda. They just pass, cut, try to get the best shot, constant movement,” Tatum said. “And, a lot of times, regardless of the record, they might get up to play against us. Those can be kind of tougher teams to guard, especially if you come in underestimating them even a little bit. We knew from the jump, it was gonna be tough.”
Twitter: @KENS5, @JeffGSpursKENS5