SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs had just suffered a tough loss to the top team in the East, but bounced back on short rest with a dominant win over the Detroit Pistons that wasn't as close as the 109-99 final score indicated.
Eight Spurs scored nine points or more in DeMar DeRozan's absence, as Dejounte Murray led the way with 19 points, 10 boards and 6 assists. San Antonio shot 57% from the floor and 48% from deep.
"It was a good bounce-back game after last night," coach Gregg Popovich said after the win.
Popovich had high praise for rookie Devin Vassell, who had three triples and a pair of transition dunks, nearly setting a career high for scoring with 13 points.
"He's really a bright young man, he's got a great personality, good teammate, he absorbs things," Popovich said. "Being a rookie with no real training camp or summer, and then the COVID, he's been exceptional."
Vassell said after the game that his fight with coronavirus gave him body aches for a few days, but he's feeling better now. On the court he just tries to stay ready to shoot it when his teammates attack and find him on the perimeter. With no more practices for the rest of the season, he's staying in his coach's ears so that he can stay prepared.
Lonnie Walker IV started the game, as DeMar DeRozan is still away from the team after the funeral of his father. Walker put up 11 points and 4 assists, including a genuine candidate for dime of the year.
The bobbling, acrobatic, look-away, wrap around the defender dish looked like a wild display of athleticism and guts, and maybe it was, but Walker says his confidence and success comes from watching film, not forcing things, taking open shots and looking for teammates. This play was a perfect example of the eye-popping explosiveness that we've always seen from him coupled with the understanding of the game that the 22-year-old is working to grow.
He saw the play with the eyes in the back of his head, and knew he'd try that insane move as soon as he knew Drew would be open, which really couldn't have been more than a second of processing time.
"I know Jerami Grant was behind me, he was still by the elbow I'm pretty sure, which makes the big, he has to come and help, which allows Drew to be wide open somewhere," Walker said. "I had to just trust my instincts, and do what I do best."
San Antonio moved to 20-16 on the year, with their next contest coming on Wednesday in Chicago.
Recap
Fourth quarter
After rolling his ankle a bit in the third quarter, Jakob Poeltl made a reassuring return to the court in the fourth.
San Antonio did all they needed to to maintain a 20-point lead, and with five minutes left in the game, that lead was pretty much bulletproof. Coach Popovich kept most of the starters in for most of the fourth, perhaps to let them continue working on developing their chemistry.
When the mop unit came in they let go of the rope a bit, letting Detroit score the final 12 points of the game to make the final score a more respectable 109-99 San Antonio win.
Third quarter
Jakob Poeltl continued his solid night, securing a double double early in the second half with a rare 2-2 trip at the free throw line. He, Keldon Johnson, Derrick White, and Rudy Gay helped build San Antonio's lead out to 15 halfway through the third.
Fighting for positioning down low, Poeltl appeared to roll his left ankle before hobbling to the locker room.
Rudy Gay walled up and blocked Jerami Grant so hard that he went from perpendicular to parallel with the floor, taking a tough spill. Devin Vassell dunked on the ensuing transition break.
The sequence repeated a few plays later as another Rudy block led to another transition dunk for Vassell. Poeltl returned from the locker room to sit on the bench.
At the end of the period, Dejounte Murray beat the buzzer with a deep, contested three to put the Spurs up 95-75.
Second quarter
Drew Eubanks started the second quarter on a tear. He crammed a poster dunk, swatted a shot, and found Derrick White for a three. Devin Vassell hit another three, this one contested, putting the Spurs up six.
Lonnie Walker IV drove, bobbled it, jumped, faked, and threw a sick look-away pass behind a defender's back to give Eubanks another dunk.
Walker then drove in and scored it himself over tough defense, and in transition on the next trip pulled up for three and hit twine.
Dejounte Murray scored a few more mid-range buckets, and the Spurs went up 11. Detroit answered, but Lonnie responded with a backdoor dunk off a feed from Poeltl, then finished an elbow jumper coming off a screen by Jak.
First quarter
Jakob Poeltl has been criticized for soft finishes in the past, but opened the game with a driving dunk after catching at the top of the key with nobody in front of him. He got another bucket in close, and anchored the defense.
Dejounte Murray and Derrick White got a few mid-range buckets, but the sizable Pistons made interior scoring difficult as they built a 13-10 lead.
Lonnie Walker IV, filling in for DeMar DeRozan as a starter, ran pick and roll with Poeltl and finger rolled it in.
After a long possession full of ball movement, Keldon Johnson finished a baseline drive with a strong two-handed jam.
Then he drove and dumped it off to Poeltl, who finished in close before blocking Mason Plumlee at the rim.
He followed that up by jumping with Josh Jackson for a towering rejection on a tomahawk dunk attempt. Rudy Gay and Patty Mills came off the bench, and the latter hit a three on a feed from the former, putting the Spurs up 19-15.
Detroit answered with a 9-2 run, but Gay found Devin Vassell at the horn for a three-ball to tie it at 24.
Pregame
When, where: Monday, 7:30 p.m., Detroit
All-time series record: Spurs lead 59-35
Last season: Series tied 1-1
Season series: First meeting of the season
Last meeting: Spurs won 136-109, December 28, 2019
Pistons' last game: Lost vs. Nets, 100-95
Spurs' last game: Lost vs. 76ers, 134-99
Pistons' last 10 games/streak: 2-8, lost 3
Spurs' last 10 games/streak: 5-5, lost 1
Pistons' injury/inactive report: Dennis Smith, Jr.: OUT (COVID-19 protocols); Hamidou Diallo: OUT (groin); Wayne Ellington: OUT (groin); Killian Hayes: OUT (hip); Jahlil Okafor: OUT (knee).
Spurs' injury/inactive report: DeMar DeRozan: OUT (personal); Keita Bates-Diop, OUT (hamstring)
Lonnie Walker IV will start in place of DeMar DeRozan after putting up an efficient 15 points in the loss to Philadelphia last night.
Before the game, coach Gregg Popovich said there will be no practices for the rest of the year due to a packed schedule, and he's taking the long view when it comes to assessing his players and their growth as they do what he called "on the job training."
"It doesn't really make any sense to try to characterize it as good bad or indifferent, it is what it is and you just do it and you either come through it or you don't," Popovich said. "I don't assess it every day and say, 'hey, that was great, that was bad,' you just go play."
Spurs missed DeMar DeRozan in 134-99 loss to Philadelphia 76ers
The Spurs didn't have DeMar DeRozan with them in Philadelphia, and they clearly didn't have enough to win without him against a Sixers team that won wire to wire by a score of 134-99.
Philly moves to 17-3 in their home building, and as a team, they shot 57% from the floor and 52% from deep, outrebounding San Antonio by 20 in a dominant performance as the Spurs couldn't get anything going.
Gregg Popovich was a man of few words after the loss, 15 to be exact, answering four questions with those efficiently-selected sets of syllables. His response to a question about what he saw in a third quarter that the Sixers won 46-21 is a salient analysis of the entire game.
"We played badly," he said. When asked if there were any positives to take from a game like this, he simply said, "No."