Spurs' Victor Wembanyama, Cedi Osman Disagree Over Team's Effort vs. Wizards

After losing in humiliating fashion to the Wizards, Cedi Osman and Victor Wembanyama disagreed over why the Spurs lost.

The San Antonio Spurs are reeling after blowing a six-point fourth-quarter lead to the lowly Washington Wizards. After beating the Minnesota Timberwolves and feeling on top of the world, it was all but a given that the Spurs would beat Washington. 

Somehow, it didn't happen, and the Spurs were left scratching their heads after a humiliating loss. 

San Antonio, TX; Washington guard Tyus Jones drives past Tre Jones of the San Antonio Spurs (1/29/24) / Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

It's easy to chalk up a loss to a bad team as a simple lack of effort. That was the route that Cedi Osman took, which is understandable. 

"I think we just didn't bring our effort," he said. "It's obviously a very tough loss because, obviously we would trust in our team and we could have won this game, but I don't think that we deserved it tonight."

Osman was perhaps the only Spur who did bring some effort, notching a season-high 20 points in only 28 minutes of play off the bench. Victor Wembanyama added 22 points and 11 rebounds, but he didn't chalk up the loss to a lack of effort. 

"I don't think it was related to effort at all. We played hard," he said. 

Wembanyama instead opted to blame the young Spurs' inexperience and lack of on-court awareness.

"We didn't play smart. I think what we took from the game was that we were pretty immature at times. We're always going to have some good and bad games during the season but this was one of the bad ones. We got to got to get stronger mentally."

'Foolish' Spurs Fall Short vs. Wizards

They say that losing breeds strength, and fans better hope that's the case with the Spurs. San Antonio has only won ten games this year and has had plenty of embarrassing losses, but improving the mental game will be key as the franchise tries to return to their winning ways.