The San Antonio Spurs are 0-2 in the preseason after dropping Saturday's game to the Phoenix Suns, 102-98. After they opened the preseason with a loss to the Atlanta Hawks, spirits were high.

After all, the starting lineup jumped out to a 23-point lead, giving the reserves and young guys plenty of time to rack up experience. They ended up blowing the lead, but everything else went the Spurs' way. That wasn't the case on Saturday.

Against the Suns, the Spurs shot only 42.5 percent from the field. Their defense was poor, too, allowing Luke Kennard to score 20 and Jalen Green to post 18 points, both in well under 30 minutes of action.

After the game, Mitch Johnson did not hold back.

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Wins and losses in preseason do not matter. Effort does, though, and the Spurs' head coach isn't sure he saw any.

"Tonight would not be up to the standard that we want, and we just have to make sure we take advantage of the opportunities in front of us," Johnson said. "We play opening night in 10 days, and tonight would not feel like we would be ready to go."

The Spurs are a good team. Johnson knows that, the roster knows that, and fans know that. Despite 32 of the Spurs' 37 made shots coming off an assist, they did not look like a cohesive unit on either end of the floor.

"We need to play to the identity and style of play into the fundamentals that we are fully aware of that we're supposed to," Johnson added.

Coming off a Finals loss, the Spurs spoke at length about "fuel" and "motivation" before the preseason started. After Saturday's effort (or lack of one), they know they have to relight their fire.

"The motivation is, I think, just not skipping steps," explained Stephon Castle. "I think just having that understanding of what it takes to get back to where we were. And last year, I don't think we skipped any steps from preseason, the start of the season, whatever it was."

The Spurs will continue the preseason on Monday in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz, who boast the number two overall pick, Darryn Peterson.