“Their (Detroit) rebounding hurt us, and that’s something they do well,” said Mitch Johnson following the Spurs’ loss to Detroit.
SAN ANTONIO — On their Rodeo Trip, the San Antonio Spurs lost to the Detroit Pistons 125-110 in Austin, TX. The Spurs are now 3-5 on the extended road trip.
De’Aaron Fox finished with 27 points and five rebounds. Keldon Johnson finished with 28 points. Chris Paul had three and two assists.
Devin Vassell recorded six and one rebound, and Jeremy Sochan added eight and three rebounds. Stephon Castle finished with 12.
Head coach Gregg Popovich was also out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson continues to assume head coaching duties. Victor Wembanyama is out for the remainder of the season due to deep vein thrombosis.
The Spurs are 24-30 this season and will take on the Pelicans on Sunday night.
Here’s a sample of what the teams said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“Their (Detroit) rebounding hurt us, and that’s something they do well. Give them credit, and that’s going to be something that we have to be overly committed to for the rest of the season. I think there will be times even when we are putting forth the effort and it’s still going to be difficult. So that’s how we’re built right now. That’s not a bad thing or a negative thing. That’s just a bad and so just an aspect for our team that we have to be very committed to. And you give Detroit credit they got to us tonight on the boards.”
Keldon Johnson:
“I feel like we know that they’re a big, physical team. They crash the glass and we just got to continue to keep on the rock. It’s definitely going to take time, but I feel like we got to know that we’re a little bit smaller right now, we’re a little bit lackluster in size right now. We got to do it collectively and stay locked in.”
“It was getting second-chance points, and that’s a good team. If you’ve been watching them (Detroit) all season long. They play hard, they compete. Yeah, that was a tough one.”
“I think the turnovers kind of got away from us. Obviously, 15 (turnovers) isn’t terrible, but when they start stringing together, when you have two or three in a row, and then they (Detroit) got layups, layups open, threes, and that’s kind of where it got away from us.”
Jalen Duren