The San Antonio Spurs suffered their 17th straight loss after getting beaten 93-82 by the Houston Rockets on Monday night. This marked the worst stretch in franchise history, setting a record for most consecutive losses.
The Spurs delivered an encouraging performance on the defensive side of the ball, but that was negated by their shortcomings on the offense. The Spurs were particularly let down by their three-point shooting, making only five threes out of 41 attempts.
“They played a great game,” said Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich after the game. “Just, you got to make a shot in the NBA. You can’t shoot 5 for 41 from three. … They did a hell of a job defensively, in that regard. Really proud of them. But just feel badly that it’s hard to know what to do when you’re missing that many shots. It just makes it very, very difficult.”
The Spurs had a lot of reasons for optimism entering the 2023-24 NBA season. They had a young talented squad headlined by star rookie Victor Wembanyama and their fans expected improvement after several disappointing seasons. However, it appears that San Antonio still needs a lot of growth to return to establish itself as a contender in the Western Conference.
“We know that we put in the work for it. We believe in each other, and I wouldn’t want to do it any other group than the group we got,” said forward Keldon Johnson. “I’m excited to get back out there Wednesday and put another great performance team-wise and hopefully get [a] win.”
After starting the season 3-2, the San Antonio Spurs have now dropped to a 3-19 record and find themselves at the bottom of the Western Conference. The only team with the worst record in the league is the Detroit Pistons at 2-21.
