“We made just enough plays to stay enough ahead to have a little bit of breathing room,” said Mitch Johnson on Spurs’ win over the Thunder.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs picked up the home win versus the Thunder, 110-104.
Keldon Johnson finished with 22 points and five rebounds. Julian Champagnie had 12 points and seven rebounds, Harrison Barnes finished with 20, Charles Bassey had 12, and Chris Paul had 14 points and 11 assists.
Zach Collins added 12 points, and Stephon Castle had 10 points and eight assists.
San Antonio was without Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, and Victor Wembanyama. Head coach Gregg Popovich was also out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson assumed head coaching duties for the game.
The Spurs are 7-8 to start the season and will next host the Jazz on Thursday night.
Here’s a sample of what the teams said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“We knew they (Thunder) were going to pick up their aggressiveness and turn the court, slant it, and play downhill. I thought we did a good job of weathering their storm and we made just enough plays to stay enough ahead to have a little bit of breathing room.”
“To start the year, we’ve been playing a lot of close games already. We had some tough losses and some big leads, and we didn’t let go. But the only way you learn how to win these games is to actually do it.”
“I feel like, if I turn the ball over and make a bad play offensively, I have the ability to get it back on defense. So, just not, not hanging my head on bad plays. There’s a lot of plays that make up a game. So just not trying to get too overworked about one possession.”
“The biggest thing that Mitch (Johnson) told us before the game was just going to be aggressive. We’re going to make mistakes. I think the first time that we played them, we did not approach it with the same energy and just force that we needed to play with. I think guys are maybe overthinking being timid, things like that. So I think the basic thing tonight for us was just go out there and just playing with energy normally make mistakes, having the full confidence of coaching staff behind us and just seeing how it plays out.”
“It’s hard to win a game in the NBA, so you just got to stay ready, man. Never know when your name is going to get called. It’s a long season but obviously, just staying ready and making sure your name gets called, and when your name get called, you are ready because you don’t want to get caught.”
Mark Daigneault
“I thought the fourth quarter was good. Great intensity and pressure. We were early to our sports, and we just amped it up a little bit. You never want to be down by whatever. We were down by 18 points or whatever. But when you are, you want to fight back. I thought we did that tonight, but certainly didn’t string together enough minutes to control a game on the road.”