SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs could not pick a home win, losing to the Orlando Magic, 109-98. San Antonio falls to 0-1 versus Orlando in the regular season.
Victor Wembanyama recorded 21 points and eight rebounds. Jeremy Sochan had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Cedi Osman added eight points off the bench. Devin Vassell recorded 26 points in the win. Tre Jones added eight points and eight assists.
The Spurs erased a 25-point lead with a 15-0 run in the final frame but after several costly turnovers, it was not enough to overcome the deficit.
The Spurs are 10-38 on the season and will next host the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night for their first game of a back-to-back set.
Here's a sample of what the teams said after the game.
SPURS
Coach Gregg Popovich:
"They're (Magic) huge. They're strong, they're big. We're talking about 6-9,6-10, 6-11 guys that are athletic. Just really impressive. Their bodies and how they move and Coach Mosley has done a great job with them. They're playing the right way, they're sharing the basketball, playing with pace, their defense put us in a hole. They really picked up their defense there in the third quarter. That's always when it gets real physical like that it's a bit of a problem for us."
Wembanyama:
"We're at a point in the season where we learned a little bit on ourselves, but some of the 40-plus games maybe are catching up on us and we need to stay focused on every one of them. We can't just not pay attention to this because this has been one of if not our biggest problems all year."
Vassell:
"It makes it so much tougher when shots aren't going down. We're planning to transition a lot more. It's tough like that third quarter. Despite us not shooting the ball that well we were down with six, eight (points) at halftime, and then that third quarter, you're ready to start turning it over and just weren't executing the game plan. That's why I felt like everything changed."
MAGIC
Paolo Banchero:
Franz Wagner: