The San Antonio Spurs came up short in their game against the Denver Nuggets on the road in the Mile High City. The Spurs lost on Saturday night 126-101. Keldon Johnson led the Spurs with 25 points. Devin Vassell added 20. The only other Spur to score in double-digits was Jakob Poeltl who dropped in 14 points.
POSTGAME REAX:
San Antonio Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich:
On what went wrong on defense:
"Yeah, it's a hell of a team. They're talented, experienced, and Mike [Coach Michael Malone] does a great job with them. The effort that they gave, and it's tough coming here on a back-to-back for a young team. They've done a good job for several years now."
On Malaki Branham:
"Yeah, he showed confidence. He's starting to understand the physicality of the game, so it's good."
San Antonio Spurs Guard Jakob Poeltl:
On the game:
"They made a lot of shots tonight. We kind of let ourselves down. In the sense that if we stop fighting, if we let them get in our heads, and let them make shots and stop running, we should be getting up into them. That’s going to come back and matter.”
On if the loss was out of character for the team:
"It’s definitely out of character for us. Something we have to clean up. We can’t let that happen where, we’re a young team, there are a lot of teams out there that are more talented than us and more experienced than us, so we really can’t take – I mean I thought that we let our heads down and just gave up the game. Hopefully, we’ll be better."
San Antonio Spurs Forward Keldon Johnson:
On if the Spurs can limit the Nuggets’ high field goal percentage:
"I feel like we were not prepared to start out the game. I feel like the last two nights, they were able to jump out on us. I think we'll bounce back after tonight's game. We just have to come ready on Monday. I think playing the same team back-to-back, that's not normal for how we start out the game. We just have to weather the storm and bounce back."
On if young teams can bounce back:
"We do. That's what we do. That's our character. That's what we preach every day. We'll weather the storm and be back on Monday ready to go coming out the gates strong. We're not worried, and we'll be ready to go Monday."