The San Antonio Spurs faced a tough road loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, falling 119-98 as third-quarter struggles doomed the team.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 119-98 on the road. Stephon Castle led the team with 20 points in 36 minutes. The Thunder outscored the Spurs 40-24 in the third period.
Keldon Johnson finished with nine points and three rebounds off the bench. Harrison Barnes added two points. Victor Wembanyama had 17 points and seven rebounds. De’Aaron Fox added 14 points off 5/9 shooting, and Julian Champagnie finished with 13 points and six rebounds. Dyam Harper had 12.
Devin Vassell did not play due to injury.
The Spurs are 27-13 and will next host the Bucks on Thursday night.
Here’s a sample of what the Spurs and Thunder said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“The plan execution, and in the third quarter, obviously, is when they (Thunder) hopped on it and got some separation. But I don’t think we were very sharp from the beginning.”
“These games will help us, and these games will be learning experiences that we need to go through clearly, and they will serve us well, and it’s our job to make sure we maximize the learning moments from these games.”
“At Boston, at Minnesota, in here (OKC), is a heck of a road trip. And now we go home, and we’ve got some good teams coming in there, and this thing doesn’t stop.”
Wembanyama:
“I think they (Thunder) trusted what they do, which they’ve been doing for a minute now, so they got all the reasons to do so, and I think they know that’s a team that’s been deep in the playoffs, as deep as it gets..So they just keep rolling.”
Coach Mark Daigneault:
“We had our moments where we weren’t as sharp, but we got it on track for the most part. Executed really well, got back and set against their team (Spurs), which was a problem for us the last two times we played them. We were able to kind of settle into the game because I thought the defense was really good and the overall effort was really good.”