SAN ANTONIO – Watching game film will do the San Antonio Spurs good.
On Monday night, they lost Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves, 104-102.
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The day after, the Spurs focused on film study and fixing mistakes as they look to avoid an 0-2 hole.
“We had some good takeaways,” Keldon Johnson said. “Some things we obviously feel like we can be better at. Some things we will be better at. I feel like it was a solid film session.”
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The Spurs were in the contest to the very end. It was a tight, well-contested game that had 19 lead changes and 17 ties. The Spurs feel like they beat themselves.
“We saw a lot of self-inflicted mistakes,” Stephon Castle said. “They were small at the time, but for the big goal, hurt us a lot more than it did in the moment. We are trying to fix little things.”
Castle fouled out with 3:20 left in the fourth quarter with the Spurs down eight points. San Antonio is learning that playoff basketball is very physical, leading to tight, inconsistent officiating.
Still, the Spurs plan to bring the fight to Minnesota.
“They were physical with us at the rim,” Castle told the media. “I feel like we didn’t get as many calls as they did, but I feel like the ones they did call against us was inconsistent. We can’t really do much but be ourselves defensively. We’re not going to change that because of how they are calling the game.”
The Spurs will try to even the series with the Timberwolves at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Frost Bank Center.
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