AUSTIN, Texas - Dylan Harper didn’t want to let the focus drift too far from the task in front of the Spurs.
Sure, Kevin Durant is coming back through Austin. Sure, that carries some buzz. But for Harper, the bigger point is simpler than all of that.
"This is a home game for us, right?" he asked.
"This is our home game. I mean, (we're) just focused on getting a win ... the biggest thing for this team is bouncing back."
San Antonio gets that chance Friday night when it hosts Durant’s Houston Rockets at Moody Center, the first of three Spurs games scheduled in Austin this season. The other two are set for February.
It’s a familiar stop for San Antonio, which has made annual visits to Austin since 2023. This time, though, the city is rolling out a much bigger spotlight. Austin has labeled the weekend "the biggest weekend ever," with the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday and Texas football hosting Ole Miss on Saturday.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said he’s glad to be part of it after the team arrived Thursday.
"It's a heckuva weekend for Austin," Johnson said, adding that the city has changed significantly since his time as an assistant coach with the then-Austin Toros of the then-NBA D-League. "It's a weekend that, hopefully, people locally, regionally, and ... globally are going to take a lot of attention and enthusiasm to. I think the city's ready for it."
For the Spurs, the Austin trip has become more than a one-off showcase. The franchise has spent years building a connection there, and the results have been clear: San Antonio has sold out every game it has played at Moody Center since the series started. Several players talk about Austin like it belongs in the same circle as home.
"Austin is super cool," Wembanyama said on his third trip. "For me, San Antonio, they’re my people, but Austin, they’re my people, as well. They welcome us and show much love."
Harper, who helped unveil a refurbished basketball court in East Austin during the team’s last visit, felt the same way.
"It's like home away from home," Harper said. "Even though we love San Antonio, just to hit another fan base that might not be able to travel ... to come see us is great. It just shows the love and support we have from Austin, San Antonio and everywhere else in Texas."
The Spurs also know Austin has brought them good fortune before. In February, they rolled into town riding a six-game winning streak and left with two more wins, beating the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings.
Now they’re trying to keep the first game from turning into something less welcome: an early skid after a rough start.
San Antonio opened the season with a 116-104 loss to Oklahoma City, a night that never really found rhythm on offense. Wembanyama went 1-for-13 from the field, and the Spurs’ new three-guard starting group showed only scattered promise, mostly after halftime.
Johnson didn’t point the finger at any one player. He spread the responsibility across the roster.
"We all participated in just not playing up to our standard," the coach said. "When you play someone with the class of OKC, they'll expose that pretty readily and consistently."
Houston comes in with a win already under its belt. Durant and Jabari Smith Jr. each scored 30 points in the Rockets’ 128-110 season-opening victory over the Dallas Mavericks, setting up another early test for San Antonio against a Western Conference opponent.
For Harper, the fix starts with execution, not mystery. The Spurs have already gone over what went wrong. Now they have to show it on the floor.
"I feel like that's what we're best at," Harper said. "We understood what happened (on Tuesday vs.
Oklahoma City). We understood why things went the other way.
Now, we talked about it, game (planned) obviously, but now we have to execute it."
He believes the response can be bigger than one night, too.
"The biggest thing is just being a resilient group," Harper said. "We all play for each other. We all play for the right reasons When you mix those two together, it's easy to bounce back."
That assignment starts Friday against Durant’s Rockets at home, before the Spurs head north to face the Dallas Mavericks on the road one night later.
And if San Antonio handles business, Harper says there’s a little more on the line than just the next result.
"You're playing just to say, 'Look, we're the best team in Texas,'" Harper explained. "So, I mean, we're going to go out there, and I feel like we're going to prove that."
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It is the sort of clip that still lands with Spurs fans because it captures exactly what Popovich meant to the organization across 29 seasons and five NBA titles. Even as San Antonio moves into a new era after opening the 2026-27 campaign with a loss to Oklahoma City, the old Popovich interviews remain part of the franchises identity, and this one fits right into the collection. [Read more 🡒]