Mitch Johnson after the Spurs’ loss to the Thunder: ‘A pretty well-rounded poor effort by all of us’

Mitch Johnson did not single anyone out after the San Antonio Spurs opened their season with a 116-104 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday. Not Victor Wembanyama, who shot 1-of-13, and not the three-guard starting lineup that had been the biggest question of the Spurs’ preseason. “However many guards we played, they all struggled tonight,” the Spurs coach said. “It was a pretty well-rounded poor effort by all of us.”

It was the first meeting between the two teams since San Antonio beat Oklahoma City in seven games in last spring’s Western Conference finals. The Thunder led for 92 percent of the night, went up by 21 at halftime and led by as many as 26.

‘A little amped up’

Johnson’s read of the first half was that his team had too much energy and did not know where to put it. “I thought we came out probably a little amped up, which would be understandable,” he said. “I don’t think we put our energy or tried to channel that energy in the right places. It didn’t feel very connected. Execution wasn’t very good, and I thought we competed and played hard. Just didn’t feel like we put our energy in the right places, and I thought Oklahoma City played a much cleaner game.”

Mitch Johnson on the Spurs loss and the overall bad night from the entire team versus the Thunder pic.twitter.com/XsQWZ9rhHB

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The Spurs shot under 29 percent in the first half, and the Thunder made 10 of their 13 threes before the break. Johnson said the problems on defense were away from the ball. “I thought we had pretty good ball pressure, but I thought the off-ball stuff was a mess,” he said. “We had some times where we were supposed to switch, we didn’t switch. We did switch, we weren’t supposed to switch. In this league, especially a team of that caliber, when you start chasing your tail like that, and they get you, they make you pay.”

Stephon Castle described the same thing from the other end. “I think that we got excited with shots,” he said. “We were taking the first good one instead of making them work on defense and finding a better shot for ourselves.”

The third quarter push

San Antonio came out of halftime with more pace. Dylan Harper and De’Aaron Fox kept attacking the basket and Castle hit three threes in a 23-10 run that cut the lead to seven. Johnson said it was hard to keep that going against this opponent. “I thought in the third quarter we tried to kind of get going,” he said. “But again, a team of that caliber, and just in this league in general, it’s hard to try to flip a switch and play out of a hole and then put it all together like that mid-game.” Jared McCain answered for the Thunder with 20 points off the bench on 6-of-8 from three, and Oklahoma City pulled away again in the fourth quarter.

The three guards

Johnson committed before the opener to starting Fox, Castle and Harper together with Devin Vassell and Wembanyama, saying he wanted his best players on the floor to start games. The trio had played only 69 minutes together last season, and opponents outscored them by 47 points in those minutes.

On Tuesday the individual numbers held up. Castle led the Spurs with 24 points and seven rebounds on 9-of-21 shooting, Harper had 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and Fox had 14 points on 6-of-9 with seven rebounds and seven assists. The three of them started the game together for a little more than four minutes, were split up until the start of the second half, and by Tom Petrini’s count played 12 minutes together and outscored Oklahoma City by 10 in that time. Johnson was not interested in grading the lineup off one loss, which is why his answer about the guards turned into an answer about everyone.

‘Everybody struggled equally’

That included Wembanyama, who missed all eight of his shots in the first half, finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks, and sat for long stretches of the fourth quarter. “I think everybody struggled equally,” Johnson said. “I know obviously his field goal percentage will stand out, but everyone that participated in that.”

As a team, San Antonio shot 39 percent from the field and 10-of-37 from three. Fox was called for a flagrant foul in the second quarter for throwing Chet Holmgren to the floor, a scrum that also brought technical fouls for Wembanyama and three Thunder players.

Johnson kept his postgame availability short, and ended it the same way he started. “It’s one game,” he said. “Glad to get it over with and then move on to the next one.” The Spurs face the Houston Rockets at Moody Center in Austin on Friday, October 23, at 8:30 p.m. CT, which is 4:30 a.m. Saturday in Cairo.