Here’s what Mitch Johnson and Devin Vassel had to say after the road loss to the Pistons.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Detroit Pistons 122-96 on the road and were led by Devin Vassell’s 26 points.
Keldon Johnson scored 10 points, and Chris Paul had three points and three assists. Julian Champagnie added four points and six rebounds. Stephon Castle finished with 19 and four assists, and Harrison Barnes recorded nine. Blake Wesley finished with five.
The Spurs are 31-40 this season and will take on the Cavaliers on Thursday night on the road.
Here’s a sample of what the Spurs and Pistons said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“Give them (Detroit) a lot of credit. They’re physical, they guard, they make you work for everything. They are really committed to the paint and the rim on both sides of the floor. We missed a lot of shots. They had something to do with that. They were pushing us off spots or getting us off our timing. We had six points in the paint in the first half. That’s not sustainable.”
“To give up 60 points in a half when your offense is that bad, actually put so much pressure on your defense. I thought we were actually playing okay defensively. I thought the second half we got a better response. We came out and moved the ball and played with more intention to get the ball to paint and gain some advantages for our teammates.”
“We couldn’t make any shots. We held him to 60 points in the first half. So I don’t think it was necessarily our defense, but for us to have to keep getting back in transition and not having a set defense and then playing like that. We were we down, like 24 (points) or something like that at a half, like it’s tough to climb back, especially with a team like that. So we got stuff we got to clean up. The good thing is that we’re not saying it was our defense. Some nights it’s just like that on the offensive end, where the ball just doesn’t go in, and now it’s just kind of how it was.”
JB Bickerstaff:
“Their effort was great. It got off to a little bit of a shaky start to where they were getting a bunch of catch and shoot threes, but I think after that, we did a great job of limiting their catch and shoot threes, making them put the ball on the floor more. The guys did a great job of rotating and protecting one another again.”