The San Antonio Spurs had a superb December, which led to head coach Mitch Johnson winning the Coach of the Month award for the Western Conference. Unfortunately, the past few games have not been kind to his team.
After beating the Oklahoma City Thunder three times in December, the Spurs have since lost three games to the Utah Jazz, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Portland Trail Blazers. Johnson has seen a prominent problem in the losses, which is their slow starts to games.
Johnson is unhappy about how the Spurs start games
During the first quarter of the game between the Spurs and Blazers, the former scored 24 points, while giving up 35 points. While some people may excuse the Spurs' performance because they were on a back-to-back, the Blazers were also playing the second game in two nights.
The Spurs fought back the rest of the game, eventually getting a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for the Spurs, the Blazers were too good in the clutch, leading to the win.
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Coach Johnson has been unhappy about how the Spurs start the games. He wants them to maintain a consistent energy level throughout the game, but if they start at a lethargic pace, they will get trounced pretty early.
The Spurs did not have Victor Wembanyama for the Blazers game, but they were still in it. Luke Kornet did a fantastic job filling in for the Frenchman, and Julian Champagnie continued his superb performances. However, that did not matter because of how they started the game.
"For us, we have to start the game with the right approach, put the energy in the right places, an 11-point hole in the first quarter, with a lot of things you could control went into that minus 11. It's tough in this league to play out of a hole," Johnson said after the loss to Portland.
Johnson makes a great point because the Spurs are much better than their recent performances. They are the only team to beat the defending champions multiple times this season. While they did not have Wembanyama in the squad against Portland, that should not be an excuse.
The Spurs are a much better team than simply relying on one player. They can beat any team, as long as they remain mindful of their weaknesses, including the slow starts to games.
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