The San Antonio Spurs secured a 114-112 victory over the Orlando Magic, driven by Luke Kornet’s decisive block.
SAN ANTONIO — Without Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle due to injury, the San Antonio Spurs beat the Orlando Magic 114-112 on the road to start their long road trip. De’Aaron Fox led the team with 31 points and five rebounds, and Luke Kornet sealed the win with a game-saving block on the Magic.
Keldon Johnson had 13 points and four rebounds, and Dylan Harper finished with 16 points. Devin Vassell scored 15, and Julian Champagnie had 14 and five rebounds. Kornet added five points and three blocks.
The Spurs are 15-6 and will next visit the Cavaliers on Friday night.
Here’s a sample of what the Spurs and Magic said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“If you go right down the line with all the guys off the bench, Carter Bryant giving us 13 (minutes), Jeremy 20 (minutes), David (Jones-Garcia) and Lindy (Waters), even double digits combined and obviously Dylan (Harper) and KJ (Keldon Johnson), we needed every minute from everybody and it was a really good team win”
“I actually lost the ball. In a tie game like that, you’re trying to get the last shot and when I pulled back I ended up looking up and seeing it was still like four seconds left. I thought I went late enough but I didn’t want to shoot that shot because make or miss, they still have a lot of time or a good amount of time. I ended up losing it and as I’m getting the ball back, Jonathan (Issac) reached so I don’t know what they were arguing about so it was just clearly a foul.”
“A lot of it too is just the amount of time and experience and you just start seeing plays just trying to do the right thing and you never really know if it’s exactly right, but you just got to follow what your natural instincts are and just commit to something. Yeah, it’s a lot of fun.”
Coach Jamal Mosley: