The Phoenix Suns have now won 13 consecutive games as they defeated the San Antonio Spurs, 115-111. Devin Booker led all scorers with 23 points and 4 assists for the Suns, while Deandre Ayton added 21 points and 14 rebounds in the victory. Dejounte Murray tallied 18 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for the Spurs.
Postgame Quotes:
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
(Opening Statement…)
Good effort. I thought we did a good job. Making a lot of youthful mistakes, but as far as competing and executing, I was proud of them. They did a good job. Pretty similar story. 44 percent to 25 percent from three. Game time. Turnovers, assists, boards, we played with them. We scored in the paint very well, but we didn’t shoot the threes. That’s the name of the game in today’s NBA.”
(On tonight’s game…)
“It was a good game all night long. We’d go down 10, and we’d come back. We’d go down 10, we’d come back. I’m pleased with the way that we played. Obviously, we’d rather win, but we have to understand what we need to do to win. I think we do know that, but the threes are a little bit more dicey in that you can’t invent them. People have to find ways to get them, we have to try to help them, but I’d be very disappointed if we weren’t getting assists, or we were getting murdered on the boards, or we were turning it over. We had a few too many turnovers tonight. We need 8, 9,10. 15, 16,18 is too many for us, considering what we’ve been doing from the three-point line. I’m proud of the guys. They competed well and executed pretty well.”
Spurs Guard Dejounte Murray
(On closing the gap from the three-point line…)
“Make shots. We work on it. It’s just translating to the game. Shooting it with confidence. I feel like we second guess a lot, whether somebody drives it and kicks it, or it’s wide open. We just have to do what we work on every day. If you look around the gym, whether it’s practice, it’s shootaround, guys are getting them up, knocking them down with confidence. It just has to translate over.”
(On getting the looks the team wants…)
“Yeah. We just got to take them. We got to take them with confidence. Shoot them with confidence, like I said. It could always be better from the start. My job, and we have guys like Derrick and Lonnie who can create, Tre Jones, who can score and compete. Everybody got to be ready to shoot at all times.”
(On Turnovers tonight…)
“It’s careless mistakes. We have to limit them, execute, and limit those mistakes so we can get wins. Even with the free throws. We were 8-for-16 and lose the game by four. You can do the math. We make free throws, we win the game versus a really good team.”
Spurs Guard Derrick White
(On his play tonight…)
“I just try to be aggressive. That’s when I’m at my best and can help the team. So, try to be aggressive and try to help us win. We just got to keep building off of here and growing each game.”
(On three-point shooting…)
“Sometimes we turn them down, and sometimes we got to find the three-point guy. Just try to keep moving the ball, find the open man, get a good look and take it.”