Heading into their Saturday night contest against the Boston Celtics, no one reasonably thought that the San Antonio Spurs would be able to sneak out of the Frost Bank Center with a win. They lost, expectedly, 121-111, but were able to keep Boston from going on a massive run and blowing them out.
Jayson Tatum scored 29 points for the Celtics, leading the way, and Keldon Johnson led the Spurs with 23 points off the bench. Rookie Stephon Castle continued to build his Rookie of the Year case, finishing with 22 points and eight assits.
After the loss, the young Spurs didn't sound that dejected.
As a young team lacking the championship experience that gives Boston an inherent edge, the Spurs were able to play mostly mistake-free basketball, which is a win in and of itself.
"I thought we did a lot of the hard things tonight," said acting head coach Mitch Johnson. "There were a few times when some of the things that we can control, we let our guard down on. Again, you're not going to be perfect, but when you're playing that good and doing the hard stuff, that can be frustrating, just not talking through a situation."
The Spurs finished with only four turnovers and shot a decent 35 percent from 3-point range, but the Celtics' size was just too much, especially when it came to offensive rebounds.
"That hurt us, for sure," said Johnson of losing the second-chance points battle 23-6. "Them shooting so many 3s obviously, and so those rebounds are going to be a little more random at times."
The usually-stoic Castle didn't drop his facade after the game, but with an expected loss and a solid individual performance, he admitted that he and the team put forward their best effort.
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"I thought we didn't play bad in the half-court, other than giving up offensive rebounds," he said.
The Spurs did lose the rebounding battle 54-38, which is one of the reasons why Boston was able to build an early lead, but the veteran squad wasn't able to run away with it, and without Victor Wembanyama and De'Aaron Fox, that's really all the Spurs can ask for.
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This story was originally published March 30, 2025 at 8:14 AM.