AUSTIN - Mitch Johnson said the Spurs followed their disappointing 116-104 season-opening loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday night with a productive practice and film sessions before heading up Interstate 35.
"We all participated in just not playing up to our standard in a clean game," the coach said Thursday afternoon after the team arrived in Austin for Friday night's game against Houston at the Moody Center.
"And, again, when you play someone with the class of OKC, they'll expose that pretty readily and consistently. And so we had some good film (sessions) and a good cleanup on the court and we're looking forward to having a good shootaround (Friday morning) and getting back on the court tomorrow night."
The Spurs listed two players as questionable in their injury report announced late Thursday: Guard De'Aaron Fox (right wrist sprain) and forward Keldon Johnson (mouth laceration).
Johnson suffered a cut inside his mouth in the opener required stitches to close.
The Spurs are counting on Victor Wembanyama bouncing back strong from one of the toughest games of his career. The 22-year-old French superstar suffered through a 1-of-13 shooting night in scoring a meager 12 points in the rematch of last season's Western Conference finals, won by the Spurs in seven games.
"Victor was probably frustrated for a few different reasons that game," Johnson said. "We didn't play well as a group. He missed some shots maybe he usually makes or didn't play up to the standard that he holds himself to. And, again, I think just when you have a game like that, obviously it gets a little exacerbated when it's game one, but it's nice thing about this league: There's always another game right around the corner."
Johnson also reiterated his belief in the Spurs' new three-guard lineup featuring Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper.
Castle had 24 points and seven rebounds against Oklahoma City. Harper chipped 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Fox finished 14 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
"Those guys are good players," Johnson said. "Again, I'll be pretty redundant. I'm not trying to not give you a good answer, but that thing's going to take time in terms of for me to give you a real evaluation about it. But the thing you'll continue to hear me say is they're three of our better players. So whatever they still have to continue to get better on and improve upon, I'm going to bet on the come with that in terms of those guys figuring out they're good guys. They want to win and they like to play together. And so I think they'll figure it out and hopefully the coach can help them.
Harper said he and his fellow guards need to work on communicating better.
"Just making sure we're all on the same page," the second-year pro said. "That's the biggest thing, just being able to go out there and play for each other while also knowing that we have each other's back. And I feel like we did a good job at that, but we still have ways of going in all areas of the game. But it's not going to be perfect on day one and you don't expect it to be perfect on day one."
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There’s more to San Antonio with the Express-News. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Spurs put together 'good cleanup' before heading up Interstate 35.