The Spurs lost to the 76ers 137-125 on Friday night, extending their losing streak to 8 games. Malaki Branham led the Spurs with 26 points. Joel Embid led the 76ers with 33 points.
It was the eighth loss in a row for the Spurs, who haven't won a game since January 17th, when they beat the Nets, when they beat the Nets 106-98. The Spurs are now 14 and 39 on the season. They are back in action on Monday against the Bulls.
POSTGAME REACTION:
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
(Opening statement…)
“Well, another carbon copy. They never give in. I thought Malaki [Branham] had a great game tonight. Blake Wesley, after a while, got his confidence [and] did some good things, but everybody on the court did everything they should do. They made more threes, which is not unusual. We were in that situation a lot but giving up 26 points off turnovers makes it impossible. So, that was the most disappointing part of the game. Their grunt and ability to just play the game is super, but taking care of the basketball is pretty important and we didn’t do that tonight. So, that was the bad part of the game.”
(On Isaiah Roby’s growth…)
“Well, he didn’t get many minutes. It’s hard to evaluate that. He’s a great teammate because he comes out the next day, if he didn’t play that night, and he works his butt off to stay in shape and hopes that he gets a chance. He didn’t play that many minutes tonight, but while he is out there, I think he’s just happy to be there to get into shape [and] play in shape because you don't really have to do that at the practice facility as much as you might work. He’s just happy to be out there getting a chance. I thought he was aggressive. He shot the ball, he didn’t hesitate [and] he drove the basketball. So, I thought he took advantage of the minutes he had.”
Spurs Center Jakob Poeltl
(On Malaki Branham's progress…)
“He’s looking good out there. He’s playing with a lot of confidence. He’s really good in that pick-and-roll situation where he’s kind of finding that mid-range spot and going getting to his floater and maybe a little pull-up or something like that. Like I said, he’s just playing with a lot of confidence. It’s good to see. He’s going out there and scoring it.”
(On setting up teammates well…)
“I like it a lot. I just try to go out there and I take on a little bit of a playmaker role. We play through the elbows a lot. I try to get teammates involved. It's tough [because] we don't have a lot of space against a lot of teams. They pack the paint against us. We get into these one-on-one situations a lot, so I try to make plays for all the guys, trying to get us moving a little bit.”
Spurs Guard Malaki Branham
(On where he’s seeing growth in his game…)
“I feel like me just slowing down. Me just slowing down, picking my spots on the court and just doing what I know how to do. I feel like that's just as simple as it gets.”
(On what younger guys are gaining from veterans…)
“Like you said, next man up. I feel like once you made a couple shots and they didn't make none, everybody just looked at each other like ‘we can cut it down,’ which we did and it was kind of cool seeing that. They put their starters back in; but just playing, just playing until the last buzzer, until it says zero on the clock. I feel like we did that good job today.”