Spurs could not pick up the win in Devin Vassell’s return to the court.
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs could not pick up the home win versus Utah, losing 111-110.
Victor Wembanyama had 24 points and 16 rebounds. Julian Champagnie had five points and six rebounds, Harrison Barnes finished with 10, Zach Collins had five, and Chris Paul had three points and nine assists.
In his return to the court, Devin Vassell added 21 points, and Stephon Castle had 23 points and three assists.
Due to injury, San Antonio was without Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham, and Tre Jones. Head coach Gregg Popovich was also out due to illness. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson assumed head coaching duties for the game.
The Spurs are 4-6 to start the season and will next host Sacramento on Monday night.
Here’s a sample of what the teams said after the game.
Mitch Johnson:
“Happy for him (Vassell’s return). In the first couple of minutes, I don’t know if he may have shot his first step, but so many feelings for him. So, just happy he’s back and now hopefully it just turns into basketball.”
“First off, just want to give credit to my coaches, the (Spurs) training staff that helped me get back. It’s been a long time. I haven’t played in a long time. You know, during the off season, I was kind of frustrated, because at the end of the day, I just want to be out there on my teammates and play with them. I was able to get through it. Last week, I was with G League and shout out to them. They helped me get back in shape and everything.”
Wembanyama:
“I’m not going to be shooting 66% in my career, but I’m also not going to be shooting 25%. That’s how progression goes. We don’t want to overreact in one way or the other. What else do you expect? It’s just how a career goes that’s very young.”
“I’ve been in the gym working on it (perimeter shooting) a lot. My guys been in the gym with me. We’re all confident in each other to shoot the ball no matter who it is. If we get open when we’re told, we got to shoot it. Just stepping up and shooting with confidence. Like I said earlier, my teammates and my coaches believe in me. They have a lot of confidence in me to take those shots.”
Will Hardy
“Happy for the guys, they got the win. I think defensively there were a lot of good things tonight. I thought we were pretty disruptive, forcing 20 turnovers. I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job protecting the rim. They ended up with 34 points in the paint. We had some moments of turnovers ourselves that hurt us, but I think in general the team is playing as a group. We’ve got a lot of different lineups happening every night and the guys are just rolling with it. I’m happy for them that they’re dealing with a lot of variety in terms of who they’re playing with and they’re continuing to grow in their communication as a group.