Rookie Jeremy Sochan scored a career-high 23 points, but it wasn’t enough as CJ McCollum scored 40 for the other side.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs (10-21) had a tough game in New Orleans Thursday night, falling to the Pelicans 126-117.
The Spurs dug themselves a hole early. The Pelicans outscored them 12-2 in the first five minutes and got out to a 37-17 lead by the end of the first quarter. New Orleans was playing without both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, so CJ McCollum shouldered most of their scoring load. That wasn’t a problem for him or for the Pelicans.
Speaking of scoring, Jeremy Sochan’s career high coming in was 13, but he blew right past that in this one. In addition to 6 assists and 9 boards, he scored 23 points for the Spurs. He stayed with the funky one-handed free throw, hitting 7-10 from the stripe while doing it. He also knocked down 2-4 from three.
Keldon Johnson was out, and Devin Vassell had a rough outing as he shot just 4-13 from the floor. He did add 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Stanley Johnson came in off the bench and made a huge impact with strong drives to the rim and a couple of and-1s, in addition to stout defense.
San Antonio was down big for most of the game, but opened the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run to shave it to single digits. Unfortunately for the Spurs, that’s when McCollum woke up and started raining shots. He hit three triples in a row, and one was a four-point play.
Sochan, Johnson and Tre Jones fueled a run that cut it to 8 with about 5 minutes to play. Vassell side stepped into a mid-range jumper, but McCollum did the same. Then McCollum took it in transition and stepped into a three, making it 19 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter.
San Antonio falls to 10-21 on the season. They’ll head to Orlando for a Friday-night matchup against the Magic.
PREVIOUS GAME
The Spurs are coming off a 125-105 win versus the Houston Rockets.
Devin Vassell had 26 points and four rebounds to lead the team while Tre Jones added 13 points. Doug McDermott finished with 16 points and two assists while Zach Collins recorded 10 points off the bench.
In total, the Spurs had seven players score in double-figures against Houston. The last time the Spurs had at least five bench players score 10-plus points was versus Denver on Dec. 2021.
“We held them to 43 points instead of 60 [points],” Gregg Popovich said. “It was all about the defense and the boards. They did a great job in the second half and that’s what got us the win. We had about six or seven guys play well at both ends of the court.”
INJURY REPORT
LOCKED ON SPURS PREVIEWS SPURS-PELICANS
THE UNIFORMS
The Spurs will be in their Classic Edition jerseys today.
FIVE THINGS TO WATCH
1. The Spurs are on a two-game winning streak on the road.
2. The Spurs have turned the ball over more times than their opponent in the last two games.
3. The Spurs are averaging 111.2 points per game in 13 road games this season.
4. The Pelicans are on a four-game losing streak.
5. The Pelicans are 10-0 at home when leading after the third period.
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