San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson conceded the Utah Jazz "crushed" their mistakes to end their eight-game winning streak.

Despite Victor Wembanyama returning to the side in his first start since mid-November, the Spurs were beaten 127-114 by the Jazz.

Wembanyama led San Antonio with 32 points, seven rebounds, five blocks, and three assists in nearly 28 minutes on the court, but it was not enough.

Utah were led by Lauri Markkanen's 29 points, with Keyonte George adding 28. The Jazz have now beaten two of the top three teams in the NBA in successive games, having also beaten the Detroit Pistons on Friday.

They dealt the Spurs their largest home defeat this season, while it was the first time Johnson's team have lost to a side with a losing record in 2025-26.

"They obviously get credit for their production and performance, but when you say evaluate ourselves, [I'm] pretty disappointed in quite a few things," Johnson said.

"The game-plan execution in terms of just not being connected on very simple things we do every game that weren't necessarily pertinent to the Utah Jazz, but the Utah Jazz took advantage and crushed us when we made mistakes."

Final from tonight@FrostBank | #sponsored pic.twitter.com/Y1fU0SlYcu

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 28, 2025

"That's a really impressive back-to-back win against a really good team on the road," Utah coach Will Hardy said of the win.

"San Antonio made their run. The building went crazy. Our team is showing a lot of poise for how many young players we have on the court. I'm so proud of our group."

Wembanyama had missed 12 games, having suffered a calf strain against the Golden State Warriors last month.

He also tallied his 38th game with at least five blocks, the most in the NBA since the start of his rookie season in 2023-24.

The Frenchman remains on a minutes restriction, though, with Johnson keen not to lose him for a long period once more.

"It's a balancing act of continuing to grow his fitness, but also trying to keep him fresh," Johnson said of Wembanyama.

"[It's] also being mindful of the totality of the minutes. It was the first night he started.

"So, [I was] probably a little conservative that we didn't want to overrun him early. There's a few things at play, but we want him to be fresh because all our guys are better when they're playing fast.

"Then, [it's] just continuing to push that obviously, because we want his minutes to continue to go up."