Spurs Slip Past Suns 104-102

Jeremy Sochan racked up 26 points and a career-high 18 rebounds to lead the Spurs past the Suns 104-102 in San Antonio. Sochan hit a huge three-pointer in the final minute to help the Spurs snap their three-game skid. Victor Wembanyama sat out the game with a sprained left ankle. The Suns saw their three-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 42-and-30. They're now eighth in the West, a half-game behind Dallas and Sacramento. The Spurs take on the Jazz in Utah on Wednesday night.

Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich:  

(On Jeremy Sochan tonight..)

"[Kevin Durant] is such a difficult matchup for everybody. He's one of the greatest ever, and Jeremy never stopped working his butt off. He's very physical and did everything he could to guard a great player. He deserves a lot of credit. He also hit the boards for us. He got about I think 16, 17 boards tonight. He was he was very special.”

(On Devin Vassell bouncing back tonight…)

"He’s been putting them up all year. You don't go by one game. He's been unbelievably aggressive and confident the entire year just going like this. So, it doesn't matter what he did last game or this game. He's been doing it pretty steadily. Nobody's perfect every night, but it's not like what he did tonight was weird or different. He's been doing it all year."

(On the difference between today's game and Saturday, namely turnovers…)

"We said those are the two things that are most important to us in evaluating each game with this group of players. It's how did we shoot from three and how did we handle turnovers? So, we got one of them really right tonight with just 7 turnovers. That at least keeps you in a game where you have a chance. You're out of the game when you give up too many turnovers and shoot poorly. We only shot 25% from three, so it's not like we burned it up, but we really handled the ball well.”

Spurs Forward Jeremy Sochan

(On this being his best game…)

"It might be. It's just good to have a win. Good to have a win [with] the season we have had. So, against a team like that, we ended with three wins and one loss against them. So, I think that shows a lot and just feels good to get a good team win and have good energy around the locker room."

(On if rebounding was a main point of focus tonight…)

"Definitely. I think the main thing was just being physical. I feel like last game, we didn't start off physical. They brought the game to us. I feel like today we changed that a little bit. We started off playing fast, because of getting rebounds and just playing. That's really important. Starting the game physical and letting it come to them, too.

(On his confidence the last three quarters…)

"Yeah, I was confident. Even at the start, I was asking for the ball. I had my hands up. I feel like the last couple of games the ball hasn't really been going in from the three-point line. But no matter what, I believe in myself. There are days where it's tough, but I've been working so hard on my shot. Even in season, I've been working on it. So, I'm going to shoot every shot like I can and believe in myself."

 

Spurs Guard/Forward Keldon Johnson

(On what this win means…)

"It was definitely satisfying. It was a big win. Every win is satisfying. We just continue to stay together as a team and have each other's backs. That’s the main thing. I feel like at any given night, we're a dangerous team as long as we continue to play together and continue to have each other's backs and play basketball the right way. We can beat any team.”

(On his threes in the third quarter producing a momentum shift…)

"Yeah, for sure. My teammates put me in the right position and trusted me to make those shots. I feel like the momentum was definitely swinging after that. We just kind of rolled with the punches. We kept going, extend the lead a little bit and made a run. As all great teams do, they made a run and we withstood it and stuck together.”

 

Spurs Center Zach Collins

(On Jeremy Sochan’s defense on Kevin Durant…)

“Jeremy, tonight on both ends of the ball, was great. From the jump, you could tell he was locked in, forced a couple turnovers. A lot of mid-range jumpers that [Kevin Durant] had last game, were taken away because of Jeremy’s defense. You got to tip your hat to him. He took on the challenge against arguably the greatest, most dynamic scorer ever and he did really well.”

(On how their defense changes without Victor Wembanyama…) 

“I was going to say, we’re down probably seven blocks when he’s not playing. Even if he doesn't block it, you might as well count it as a block because guys don’t want to shoot over him. They’re dribbling out looking for another option. He’s so dynamic for us, and we see the numbers defensively and how much better we’ve gotten, and he’s a huge part of that. I think for us, again, it’s physicality, it’s everyone taking on the challenge and then we have to rebound when he’s not there. That’s another thing, too, that he can just grab rebounds that nobody else can grab so that’s big for us.”