How Mitch Johnson Adjusted Spurs' Lineup, Attitude, and Playbook in Win Over Mavericks

DALLAS — After coach Mitch Johnson adjusted his rotation, his playbook, and his team's attitude, the Spurs took care of business against the Mavericks to get their first win of the season.

Victor Wembanyama, Dylan Harper, De'Aaron Fox and Steph Castle combined for 83 points, 21 assists, 19 rebounds and nine steals in the 122-106 win. They moved the ball well and turned Dallas over 21 times as they felt the absence of Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving, but it wasn't a cakewalk for the visitors.

The shorthanded Mavericks put up a good fight, and at times the Spurs looked sluggish on the second night of a back-to-back. Midway through the second quarter Dallas pushed up the floor after a miss, and San Antonio failed to pick up the shooter in transition. They missed the wide-open triple, but Wembanyama failed to box out and gave up a putback to Daniel Gafford. Mitch Johnson called timeout, his Spurs trailing by six.

"Effort goes a long way," Johnson said. "As simple as it sounds, and as talented as these guys are, consistent effort with just a little bit of togetherness and execution, can really be something to grow upon and build upon, and we just have not been consistent enough in a lot of ways... There can be a lot of things that are all true at once, but we we need to start raising some of the floor on some of those habits."

Out of the timeout, Johnson drew up a play that took advantage of the soft spots in Dallas' defense near the elbows. Steph Castle caught the ball there and lobbed it up to Wembanyama for a reverse jam, jump starting a 25-11 run to close the half. San Antonio took advantage of the relaxed defense around the free throw line, hitting 12-20 of their attempts in the paint outside the restricted area.

As the game went on the Spurs tightened their grasp on the details, the little things they've struggled with in the first week of the young season. They limited turnovers to 12 and racked up 34 assists, and they cleaned the glass with 15 offensive boards for 25 second-chance points.

The Spurs' three-guard lineup got out to a hot start, and everybody ate. De'Aaron Fox put his fingerprints all over this one as San Antonio built their lead, putting up 19 points, 9 assists and 3 steals. Castle went for 19 points, 8 assists and 3 steals in a balanced performance, while Harper put up 22 and matched Castle at 3-8 from deep. Some question the shooting in this group, but the trio hit a crisp 40% from deep in this one. Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie joined the big four in double-figure scoring.

Wembanyama led the way with 23 points in another aggressive offensive performance, making seven of his nine baskets right at the rim. He blocked four shots, and the Spurs won his minutes by 32 points. The biggest issue for this team, though, has been the minutes with Wembanyama off the floor.

For the third game in a row the Spurs struggled with veteran big man Luke Kornet out there, outscored by 15 in the 12 minutes he played. With Wembanyama needing a breather to start the fourth, Mitch Johnson turned to rookie Tarris Reed Jr.

The Spurs ripped off an 11-2 run to start the final period, grabbing a rebound and then finishing off a lob from Devin Vassell for his first NBA basket. Described by his teammates as a walking 10 boards, he grabbed two more on the offensive end before handing the reins and a bigger lead back to Wembanyama.

"A lot of that effort, energy, and it's amazing, right?" Johnson said. "Obviously he's a great kid, and guys probably are a little bit more engaging when it's a young player getting minutes for the first time.. but I kept seeing the whole bench stand up, the guys on the court getting fired up. Tarris wasn't out there shooting step-back between-the-leg threes, he was just playing his ass off and playing hard and being physical and trying to do the right stuff. It's contagious when you play the right way."

From there, the Spurs dismantled all of Dallas' remaining hope. A flurry of dunks and deep 3s pushed San Antonio's lead all the way up to 23, winning the fourth 30-17 as they tightened the vice.

The Spurs will be happy to get the first win of the year, but they know there's a long way to go.

"Our floor right now is way too low," Johnson said. "We just all got to be better, we got to make sure we put our energy into the right stuff. And as we're learning things and growing that and evolving that and getting used to this, we got to play like our hair is on fire and compete. And when we don't, and then we have some growing pains in other areas, this league's too good. We've played three games now, and we've got stretches of the game where we're getting our butts kicked, and there's a lot of things that we can control, and we just need to be better at that."