San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
No short-handed surprise this time
Suns (50-21) at Spurs (33-38)
Back in April, a shorthanded Spurs team without starters DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl stunned the powerful Phoenix Suns by 26 points on the road.
The Spurs were again missing plenty of key components, including coach Gregg Popovich, when they faced the Suns on Saturday. This time around, the outcome surprised no one as the Spurs suffered their worst loss of the season.
Powered by Devin Booker’s 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting and still vying for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, the Suns hammered a makeshift Spurs lineup with a wire-to-wire 140-103 win at the AT&T Center in the second-to-last regular-season game.
Having scouted the Suns, assistant coach Mitch Johnson served as acting head coach while Popovich was in Uncasville, Conn., for Tim Duncan’s induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketall Hall of Fame as part of the starstudded class of 2020.
Popovich decided to attend the ceremony Thursday night after Sacramento’s loss to Memphis gave the Spurs a spot in the Western Conference play-in tournament as the 10th-place team. He’s expected to be back on the bench Sunday, when the Spurs pull the curtain on the pandemicplagued regular season with another 1 p.m. outing against the Suns.
With nothing to play for Saturday, the Spurs faced Phoenix without DeRozan (rest), Poeltl (rest) and two more starters, point guard Dejounte Murray (sore lower back) and Derrick White (sprained ankle). Key reserve Rudy Gay (sore right heel) also missed the game, joining Luka Samanic (broken finger) and Trey Lyles (sprained ankle) on the injury report.
With so many veterans out, the Spurs gave plenty of meaningful minutes to their young players, including rookie first-rounder Devin Vassell, who had 14 points and matched season highs with seven rebounds and four assists in a season-best 34 minutes.
Keldon Johnson had 18 points for the Spurs, who fell to 33-38 with their fourth loss in the past five games, including three in a row. They also got solid efforts from Drew Eubanks, who finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds for his third-career double-double, and Quinndary Weatherspoon, who had a career-best 13 points off the bench.
Veteran Gorgui Dieng added 18 points, his highest-scoring game as a Spur, on 7-of-9 shooting off the bench.
“This young group that we have, no matter what we were down, 10, 20, 30, at the end of the day, we were still trying to chip away,” Vassell said. “Never giving up on defense, making sure we were trying to get stops, playing with energy. That’s what we try to pride ourselves on.”
Mitch Johnson like what he saw from Weatherspoon and rookie second-round pick Tre Jones, who had nine points and five assists.
“They competed, and that’s the first step,” he said. “It’s the consistent and constant competitiveness and effort and then obviously some of the substance behind it in terms of execution stuff. Those guys did a good job, especially because they haven’t played that many minutes probably all year.”
The Spurs had
one
of
their worst 3-point shooting performances of the season, sinking just 15.4 percent (3 of 24). Lonnie Walker IV went scoreless on 0of-9 shooting from the field, including 0 of 5 from beyond the arc.
While the Spurs struggled from deep, the Suns (50-21) shot 45.4 percent (15 of 33) from downtown in pulling within a game of Utah for the top seed in the West and the best record in the league. Phoenix also scored 26 points off 16 turnovers and outscored the Spurs 32-16 in transition en route to finishing with seven players in double figures.
“We have had some games this year where we didn’t make shots, but we didn’t turn it over and we did drive it with a purpose and we got back in defensive transition and we rebounded the ball,” Mitch Johnson said. “When you don’t make shots, you have to do everything else. And unfortunately tonight, we didn’t make shots and didn’t do a lot of the other things. Phoenix is a good team and professional in their approach, and that was the avalanche.”
On a positive note, plenty of Spurs got rest, and more will come next week before the playin tournament gets underway with a single-elimination game on the road against Memphis or Golden State.
“We’ve got no pressure going into it,” Eubanks said. “I feel like anybody we play has more to lose than we do, and we got guys that are resting right now, so they will be fully charged and ready to go on Wednesday. I’m looking forward it.”
When/where: 1 p.m.; AT&T Center
TV/radio: Bally Sports Southwest; WOAI-AM 1200, KXTN-AM 1350 and FM 107.5 (Spanish) PROBABLE STARTERS Suns: PG Chris Paul (6-1, 16th year), SG Devin Booker (6-5,
6th), SF Mikal Bridges (6-6, 3rd), PF Jae Crowder (6-6, 9th), C Dario Saric (6-10, 5th)
Spurs: PG Patty Mills (6-1, 12th year), SG Lonnie Walker IV (6-4, 3rd), SF Devin Vassell (6-5, 1st), PF Keldon Johnson (6-5, 2nd), C Drew Eubanks (6-9, 3rd) RESERVES
Suns: G Ty-Shon Alexander (6-3, 1st), G Jevon Carter (6-1, 3rd), F Torrey Craig (6-7, 4th), G Langston Galloway (6-1, 7th), F/C Frank Kaminsky III (7-0, 6th), G E’Twaun Moore (6-3, 10th), G Cameron Payne (6-1, 6th), F/C Jalen Smith (6-10, 1st). Inactive: Deandre Ayton (left knee soreness), Tyler Johnson (right knee sprain), Abdel Nader (right knee arthroscopy), Cameron Johnson (wrist)
Spurs: C Gorgui Dieng (6-10,
8th), G Tre Jones (6-1, 1st), F Keita Bates-Diop (6-8, 3rd), G Quinndary Weatherspoon (6-3, 2nd). Inactive: DeMar DeRozan (rest), Jakob Poeltl (rest), Dejounte Murray (sore lower back), Rudy Gay (sore right heel), Derrick White (right ankle sprain), Trey Lyles (right ankle sprain), Luka Samanic (broken left finger) COACHES
Suns: Monty Williams
Spurs: Gregg Popovich
STAT LEADERS
Suns: Points, Booker, 25.5 per game; rebounds, Ayton, 10.5; assists, Paul, 8.9; steals, Paul, 1.4; blocks, Ayton, 1.2
Suns: Points, DeRozan, 21.6 per game; rebounds, Poeltl, 7.9; assists, DeRozan, 7.0; steals, Murray, 1.5; blocks, Poeltl, 1.8 NOTABLE
The Spurs have suffered through back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since they had four consecutive sub.500 campaigns from 1985-86 through 1988-89.
DeRozan is the second player in franchise history to average 20 or more points and seven or more assists in a season since Tony Parker in 2012-13 (20.3 points and 7.6 assists).