Popovich Issues Warning to Starters After Loss vs. Hawks

Disaster was looming. Another nationally-televised game that would have TNT cut to something else before the game could even finish.

Disgusted after halftime, coach Gregg Popovich trotted out a motley group of Julian Champagnie, Blake Wesley, Cedi Osman, Sochan, and Dominick Barlow to start the second half. And it worked. By the time the first substitutions of the half were made, the Spurs 14-9 second-half lead, going on to easily win the third quarter.

"The starters needed some sort of message or infusion of something whatever,” said Popovich. “I thought the starting team in the third quarter made their point. They played. They competed."

Moving forward, it sounds like Coach Pop will expect more from his second unit, or continue to tweak the starting five. The only Spur who seems to be unmovable as a starter is Wembanyama. "He's receptive to any type of coaching. A really high IQ. He understands the game intuitively. You explain something to him and he understands it,” praised Coach Pop.

Both Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell were non-factors all afternoon, totaling only nine points on horrid shooting. In limited action, Wesley looked poised for one of the first times in his young career and could snag the seventh-man role from Malaki Branham, and start leading the bench unit with Johnson.

Moving forward, the Spurs are a young team that can’t be expected to come out of the gate hot every game. That being said, the starters need to understand that their role on the team is not bound by steel, and if they don’t do their job, the bench unit can and will step up down the stretch.