While San Antonio Spurs fans can rest easy knowing their team won't go 0-82, head coach Mitch Johnson didn't take the defending Western Conference champion's first victory of 2026-27 lightly.

“If you were in there, you would've thought we lost the game,” De'Aaron Fox said following the 122-106 victory at the Dallas Mavericks.

The reason? Johnson appeared to have answered that question separately.

“Our floor right now is way too low.”

Johnson and the Spurs went into the game 0-2 following home losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets (in Austin, Texas).

Considering both squads are expected to finish near the top of the Western Conference, neither qualifies as an unacceptable loss. Though, for the young Spurs who return every key player from an NBA Finals appearance, expectations have shifted.

“That's the standard,” Fox continued, “So, last game (vs. Houston) we lost by four. We wouldn't say that we played a good game.

Mitch Johnson outlines San Antonio Spurs subpar play

Facing a Dallas team without Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving, San Antonio found themselves down by a point late in the third quarter. And according to Johnson, that was his group's better half.

“I felt like it was a tale of two teams. Still, 44 points in the paint in the first half is ridiculous. They went on some runs in the first half that we've got to keep getting back to the standard that we know we are capable of, continuing to push ourselves individually and collectively to just be more consistent and raise our floor,” the Spurs head coach said.

“Effort goes a long way,” Johnson added when asked about a specific play his team ran out of a second-quarter timeout.

But, given how much more he elaborated, it's clear the second-year head coach was alluding to more than just one play.

“As simple as it sounds and as talented as these guys are: consistent effort with just a little bit of togetherness and execution can really be something to grow upon and build upon and we just have not been consistent enough in a lot of ways. There's a lot of different perspectives and opinions and logic behind it, and there can be a lot of things that are all true at once, but we need to start raising some of the floor on some of those habits and aspects of our game and program that have been very consistent here for a long time,” Johnson added.

Article Continues Below

De'Aaron Fox weighs on Spurs standard

Don't expect the Spurs to trade in their first win of the season. Do expect them, though, to filter through specifics.

“It's less about the win or the loss column and more about the way that we go out there and play,” Fox revealed.

General translation: two early-season losses to the Thunder and Rockets don't mean trouble is ahead for the Silver and Black. Similarly, a victory vs. a shorthanded Mavs team doesn't indicate they're where they want to be.

The next several weeks of their schedule do prove friendlier. Only twice more until Thanksgiving (vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 31 and Nov. 17 vs. the Detroit Pistons) will the Spurs face teams expected to finish near the top of the standings.