Fox powers the Spurs to a road win over the Trail Blazers.
SAN ANTONIO — Without Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle due to injury, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 115-102, on the road. De’Aaron Fox led the team with 37 points (career-high as a Spur) and eight assists.
Keldon Johnson had 11 and 10 rebounds, and Dylan Harper finished with seven in his return to the court after an injury. Devin Vassell scored 23, and Julian Champagnie had 12 and 11 rebounds. Harrison Barnes recorded 13 points, and Luke Kornet added six.
The Spurs are 12-5, got an NBA Cup win (2-1), and will next visit the Nuggets on Friday night.
Here’s a sample of what the Spurs and Hawks said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“I thought we did a much better job with our discipline pressure. We had a few times, more than a few times in the first three quarters, specifically the first half where just game plan execution stuff. You’re trying to do this and then typically if you take something away in this league, they still have a counter to it and just weren’t participating in our own survival enough in that sense. And we really, really picked it up. Luke (Kornet) picked it up defensively tremendously.”
“Locking onto their (Portland) tendencies. They (Spurs) always have great scouts and certain people have certain tendencies. Some people like to go right, but they like to go left and once we were able to hone in on that and just locking on that end and stop them from getting to their initial moves, I think that really slowed everything down. And then (De’Aaron) Fox closing it out. Big stops. Big possessions, solid win.”
Coach Tiago Splitter