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In his first full season at the helm, San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson finds himself in a quandary. He’s missing his franchise cornerstone, Victor Wembanyama, and his lightning rod guard, Stephon Castle. Yet his offense is finally taking off.

After Wednesday’s 114-112 win over the Orlando Magic, the Spurs have the NBA’s eighth-best offensive rating at 119.4. They have the league’s ninth-best assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.0 since Wembanyama went out with a strained calf , after ranking 23rd in the 12 games with Wembanyama before that.

It’s a notable enough improvement that Johnson received a Western Conference coach of the mon

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