NBA – The Spurs in crisis, Gregg Popovich’s prayer on his players: “I just wish they…

Beaten again this Monday by the Rockets (82-93), the Spurs signed their 17th defeat in a row and thus set a sad record in this area. A privileged witness to this terrible series, Gregg Popovich obviously offered his reaction afterwards.

Since entering the league in the Spurs jersey, Victor Wembanyama has been setting records. However, fans of the franchise would have preferred that the latest one never happened. Indeed, the young French interior and his teammates suffered a historic defeat this Monday against the Rockets (82-93). This marked the 17th in a row for them, the worst series in the history of the franchise.

A very sad statistic for Gregg Popovich, record holder for career victories among NBA coaches. His prestige and experience, however, do not seem sufficient to allow his team to get out of this horrible situation. But instead of overwhelming his players at a press conference, he chose to salute them for their efforts, also relying on heaven to find the path to success.

Gregg Popovich implores the basketball gods to help the Spurs

We had a great match, even if we lost a lot of ball. But you have to know how to shoot in the NBA. We cannot finish a match at 5/41 at 3 points. It is not possible. What’s pretty impressive is that when you miss that much, you have to defend a lot in transition, but the Rockets only put up 10 points on the counterattack. So we did a great job on defense.

I’m really proud of my players, because it’s hard to know what to do when you miss so many shots. But they have improved in so many aspects… I just wish they had a little more success and made shots.

If he is therefore pleased with the progress shown by his troops – particularly in defense, Coach Pop’ can only regret their lack of shooting success. An observation that applies to Wembanyama, whose percentage by far still left something to be desired.

If he managed to compensate with his 2-point skill, the French international only scored one of his 6 attempts behind the arc against Houston. A low ratio which, however, did not prevent him from putting in a good overall performance with 15 points (7/15 shooting), 18 rebounds and 5 blocks. As such, his trainer was positive when looking into his specific case:

He blocked a lot of shots, he grabbed a lot of rebounds. He also played outside the racket, in transition. He had a good match.

It remains to be hoped for Wemby and his partners that the famous progression mentioned by their coach will lead to better results in the days to come.

In San Antonio, the drought has now lasted 17 games. However, it is not for lack of trying to cause rain according to Gregg Popovich. This is why the coach hopes that heaven will answer his requests and that his players will find skill.