Stephon Citadel led the San Antonio Spurs by scoring Thursday night time in opposition to the Houston Rockets.
The previous UConn star scored 16 factors in 24 minutes because the Spurs misplaced their ultimate preseason recreation to the Rockets, 129-107 on the Toyota Middle. And with the preseason behind him, Citadel is able to hit the common season. He accomplished his first pre-season, now able to play the matches that depend within the standings.
“I really feel like I’m able to go,” he mentioned. “I am simply making an attempt to gauge the pace of the sport, the physicality of it. It is beginning to decelerate now. … I discovered these performs to be actually vital and useful.”
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Citadel mentioned the most important factor he took away from Thursday’s recreation and the whole preseason was the completely different participant combos Spurs coach Gregg Popovich used. Thursday night time was an evening for the reserves as many common starters, akin to Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama, didn’t see motion.
“We’re simply constructing chemistry,” Citadel mentioned. “Understanding your self.”
Citadel mentioned over the following week the Spurs will work on their workforce protection. He added that once they play their workforce’s finest protection, it makes transitions simpler.
“We’ll concentrate on our protection. I really feel like after we play our greatest recreation on protection, we’re at our greatest, managing our transition and scoring factors,” Citadel mentioned. “We do not have to play half courtroom on a regular basis. We simply attempt to keep on with that.”
Regardless of the defeat, Popovich was optimistic. He too is prepared for the beginning of the season.
“I noticed a whole lot of issues that I appreciated,” Popovich mentioned. “We held sturdy within the first and third quarters, however the second and fourth acquired away from us. We’ll concentrate on what we noticed from each ends and the way nicely we did. I Been impressed by fairly just a few gamers and seeing their data of the corporate enhance a bit.
“We’ll proceed to enhance.”
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