Keldon Johnson #0 of the San Antonio Spurs drives on Chet Holmgren #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first half of a preseason game at Frost Bank Center on October 7, 2024 in San Antonio, Texas. Photo: Ronald Cortes / Getty Images Sport / Getty Images
The San Antonio Spurs are opening the pre-season on a losing note. The Spurs fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-to-107 at the Frost Bank Center Monday. Julian Champagnie led the Spurs with 22 points. Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama were among those who did not suit up for San Antonio in the game.
SPURS POSTGAME QUOTES
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
(On the team's performance tonight…)
“[Julian Champagnie] played a good, solid all-around game I thought. He missed about three in a row there, but he kept shooting, he didn’t hesitate. He played good [defense], hit the board a little bit. So, I thought he was one of the guys that played well all the way around. Actually, [Sandro Mamukelashvili] was the same way. Thought he had a good game both ways. It was a big difference between the first and the second. I thought we weren’t very physical. We kind of followed them around. I thought they were more aggressive. Their physicality was better in the first half, and we changed that in the second half, and they did a much better job in that regard. Whether you’re missing shots or not, it’s a bad combination if you’re not getting in to somebody defensively while you’re missing shots. The second half was much better. I really enjoyed [Blake Wesley] and Steph Castle playing d out there, getting after people. They have a great mentality that way, and hopefully that’ll infuse with some other players.”
(On Stephon Castle’s game tonight…)
“Yeah, it’s great. He figured out tonight those are NBA guys on the other side. So, sometimes those shots at the rim were probably going down for him at UCONN, and here there’s somebody there that’s just as strong as him. It’s great for him to see that. He doesn’t shy away. He sticks his nose in all the time.”
Spurs Forward Julian Champagnie
(On where his confidence is at right now…)
“I’m confident. I have to be confident if I’m going to be one of the team’s shooters. You gotta shoot through makes, misses, anything. But confidence wise, it’s kind of just going through the game and going with the mindset of getting shots and getting the threes that you can get up.”
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(On physicality…)
“I think you got to just “defense” yourself into the game. That’s what coach always says. Go in there with a mindset of playing defense. You can’t just go into the game and “offense” yourself into it, shoot threes and shoot shots and get layups. That’s just not how it works. OKC is a good team. Just like almost every other team in the NBA, they're going to play physical because they want to win a game just like us. If we want to win, which we do, we gotta go in there and play hard. That’s kind of the model that [Gregg Popovich] is pointing forward.”
Spurs Forward Sandro Mamukelashvili
(On Gregg Popovich’s thoughts of the first half…)
“I think if he didn’t care, its Pop, he always cares. He always wants us to give it 110% on the court. I feel like when you come in and see how driven he is, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we are really messing up and we need to step it up.’ It kind of feels like a challenge, and we love challenges. We love adversity, so we came out of half time and competed.”
(On his role on the team…)
“I think my role is very simple. It is crash the board every time, shoot when open, and play the right way, as well as play defense. I love to try and simplify my role, because when you come in and have this expectation … but it’s year four and the game is starting to slow down. I can realize when the guy sags off versus when he’s there. I feel like I’m starting to understand what Pop means when he says, ‘catch and shoot it, or you pass the ball, and play off the pass. I feel like it is all starting to sink in and click.”