Here’s what Wembanyama, Paul, Castle and others had to say after the Spurs’ loss to the Pacers in France.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Indiana Pacers 136-98 in Paris, France, to conclude the Paris NBA Games 2025. San Antonio went 1-1 versus Indiana in France.
Victor Wembanyama finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Harrison Barnes had 25, and Chris Paul had 11 and eight assists.
Devin Vassell recorded six and four rebounds, Jeremy Sochan added two and four rebounds and Keldon Johnson had four and four rebounds. Stephon Castle had 17. Julian Champagnie recorded three points.
Head coach Gregg Popovich was also out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson continues to assume head coaching duties for the game.
The Spurs are 20-23 this season and will face the Clippers on Wednesday night in San Antonio.
Here’s a sample of what the teams said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“That third quarter stretch I alluded to earlier, the starters went on a heck of a run and kind of dug our way out of that hole and we were playing really good basketball. I think it was one of those where we just played the hot hand and it was probably an error on my part of taking three of them out at the same time or actually taking one out maybe, and try to keep that momentum. And so when I did and then they went on and run again, I made the decision to kind of go back with the starters.”
“It’s a team game, and they’re going to be games like this, and that’s why you have different unit. The last game, the first unit played pretty well, but our bench is the one who carries. Game are different from game to game. Every team in this league is always trying to put 48 minutes together. I think tonight we might have played 36 good minutes, maybe 40 good minutes, but until we consistently put it all together, it’s gonna be tough, but we believe we can figure it out.”
Wembanyama:
“I did my best to make this week special for my team, for my family, and my friends. People still found ways to surprise me. Made things feel like it mattered for them, that I matter for them. So it’s precious.”
“I feel like we got kind of complacent late in the third quarter, got away from our strategy a little bit. We let (Tyrese) Halliburton get off late in that third, and I feel like that kind of sparked the run for him. In the first game. I feel like we kind of set the tone in the second half, and that’s what started our run, and that’s what we got away from tonight.”
Rick Carlisle:
“We obviously needed to do a better job on Victor. I thought Miles Turner played a great game today and just did a lot of things that you don’t see six-foot-11 centers in this league doing. Picking up full court, sprinting from end to end, busting over screens, busting over pick and roll screens when he’s guarding a guy who’s seven foot four handling just very unique situations. So Miles played a tremendous game.”