Luka Doncic recorded 32 points, 12 rebounds and a season-high 15 assists for the Dallas Mavericks as they defeated the San Antonio Spurs, 123-109, his 1st triple-double of the season and the 37th of his career. Kristaps Porzingis added a season-high 32 points in the victory, while Keldon Johnson tallied 15 points and 9 rebounds for the Spurs.
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
(On tonight’s game…)
“To me, it’s a mental toughness exercise where you just have to realize that everybody has to bring it every single night. You can’t get satisfied because you won a game, and the next game is going to be the same way. You have to bring it. I think that our physicality was lacking tonight. I thought Dallas was much more physical. They didn’t feel us at all, but we felt them the whole game. They had a good night. They made a lot of shots, but they deserved it. They were the more competitive, physical, aggressive group tonight. Our last group out on the court played pretty well there in the end of the fourth quarter, in the last four, five, six minutes. That’s what we’re expecting, but we didn’t get that out of the starting group tonight. It’s really the first or second time they’ve been disappointing in that regard where we didn’t play the usual move-the-basketball type play. I think we created one turnover in the first half, so the mental toughness is something that has to be understood and acted upon. We need that.”
(On Mavs Kristaps Porzingis…)
“He’s a great player, of course. Porzingis is tough. The loss of Jakob shows a little bit more, obviously, with that kind of size out on the court. But all in all, they outplayed us. They deserved the game for sure.”
Spurs Guard Devin Vassell
(On the third quarter…)
“I think it was all night. I think we came out flat. I think we get complacent over a win. That’s the biggest thing. Every game we got come out and compete. Offensively and defensively, we got to play with the same effort that we played with Sacramento, today. We’re a young group, but we still got [veterans], so it’s not really an excuse no more. It’s not the first or second game. We done played games, now. We got to clean it up. We’ll put this one behind us, because we got both LAs, but we got to clean it up.”
(On Kristaps Porzingis… )
“I mean, it’s tough. He’s a hell of a player. I’m not going to sit here and act like he’s not. Porzingis is tough. He’s a tough matchup coming and playing a four at 7’2. I think at the end of the day, we weren’t fronting him, we were letting him get in good position and after that, it’s over. We got to compete harder. I think that’s the biggest thing right now, just compete. Offense doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, we got to compete on the defensive end, and I feel like that’s not what we did. I feel like at the end we did, but at the end of the day, we were down 20 points with eight minutes to go. We have to have the same energy the whole 48.”