In his post-game press conference, Dwane Casey was prompted about James Johnson, and he shed some light on why Johnson started.
Asked why James Johnson started:
It wasn’t for the three. It was for defensive purposes, to matchup with Kawhi Leonard, to give us a physical presence with him. I was worried about his minutes, but he was OK and his hammy was OK. We were watching that, but he came through with flying colours.
I thought he did an admirable job rebounding defensively. He got that big rebound in the end. Those are the things that we have to have him do at that position, to make those gritty plays.
Asked how he was able to get his points, despite teams slacking off of him:
He was attacking the rim, he was going to the basket and taking what the defense gave him. It was a good job on his part of reading. If [Spurs] backed up, he did a good job of taking up the slack and going to the rim. It was a good job on his part.
No word on whether this is a permanent move, which it obviously should be. Actually, Johnson should’ve been starting right after DeRozan went down with injury (readers agree), but we’re just glad it’s better late than never.
