“It’s a big win for us. We’ve been fighting all season,” said Keldon Johnson.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets on the road 113-110.
Victor Wembanyama led the team with 33 points and 18 rebounds. Harrison Barnes had eight, and Chris Paul had seven and 11 assists.
Devin Vassell recorded 18 and six rebounds, Keldon Johnson had 16 and four rebounds, and Zach Collins finished with four. Stephon Castle had eight. Julian Champagnie added 15.
Jeremy Sochan was out with a back injury, and head coach Gregg Popovich was out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson assumed head coaching duties for the game.
The Spurs are 18-16 this season and will host the Nuggets on Saturday night.
Here’s a sample of what the teams said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“I thought every time they had us on the ropes, I thought we kind of composed ourselves and fought our way back, fought ourselves back into the game, which was nice to see.”
“It (the win) should serve as a reference point moving forward to give us the confidence that we’re capable of doing what we did.”
Keldon Johnson:
“It’s a big win for us. We’ve been fighting all season. We gave some up. We didn’t play some great basketball. We had our ups and downs. Every road win is a big win and the beauty about the NBA, we got to go do it again against the same team tomorrow. We know they are going bring it. We got to come out and do it again.”
“Just trying to get it out of [Nikola] Jokic’s hands, we don’t want him shooting it. KJ [Keldon Johnson] had a big play–I just watched it–coming over. I just needed to make a play in the passing lane and that’s what happened.”
Wembanyama:
“I can speak of Devin’s (Vassell) defense and offense. Big time shots. Led the team in the third and fourth when we were struggling. Keldon (Johnson), and Julian (Champagnie) just precious. Big time buckets. Julian allowed us to stay in the game multiple times, and Keldon allowed us to take that last leap.”
Coach Mike Malone
“We just didn’t close. We were up five with two minutes to go and just had a couple breakdowns. We lost [Julian] Champagnie on the baseline for a three. We gave up a three-point play to Keldon Johnson. Obviously that last play we weren’t able to get a shot off. That hasn’t been us, usually we’re really good in terms of closing games and finishing games. We just weren’t able to do that tonight. We’ve got a chance to fly down there tomorrow and try to get it back.”